Katherine talks about her time at Oxford and LAMDA...

You read Classics at Oxford. Shouldn't you be off translating Homer from Greek into Latin or something useful like that?
Yeah, you'd think so. But I was a complete fraud. I did the necessary work to get the degree in the end, but I'm not intellectual at all. I was doing the work because I wanted to get a degree, not because of a thirst for knowledge. I'm a bit ashamed about that, but you can't fake it.

A degree in Classics from Oxford is deeply conventional. Why did you turn your back on the conventional career path in favour of acting?
The only ambition I had from the age of 13 was to go to Oxford, and it was because I wanted to do acting, and I didn't really know where else I could have the opportunities that I ended up having at Oxford. And I thought, when my Finals were approaching, that I'd apply to one drama school, the one that everyone says is one of the best, (I chose LAMDA because it was two years as opposed to three at RADA) and if I get in that's my litmus test, and then I can think about really doing acting for a living. But my parents, poor things, are teachers who were just silently mourning my life. Even as proud as they were, coming to see me in good parts at The Gate theatre, it was always on some minuscule amount per week. It's only in the last year, when I've done two series back to back, that they've started to imagine that there might be some kind of future for me.

Did your time at LAMDA teach you aspects of the craft you never would otherwise have known?
The fact that I did so many plays in such a short period of time at Oxford was a big learning experience. LAMDA I really enjoyed - it was the first time in my life I'd had dance lessons and singing lessons. That was so exciting. I've got brothers, so I'd not been one of those girls who'd done ballet.

They just made you go in goal instead?
Yeah, generally. I just had the ball thrown at my head. So I loved all that at LAMDA. But I was maybe a little bit cavalier in my attitude. I'd done my Finals after four years at Oxford, and was so pleased to get them out of the way that going to LAMDA and singing and dancing and having lessons was a fantastic relief, but I think probably I could've taken it a little more seriously.

Were you at LAMDA with anyone who's gone on to great stardom?
There's somebody called Chris O'Dowd who I was at LAMDA with who's phenomenal!