I can remember standing in a bus shelter in the pouring rain, and that we were allowed candy floss at the end of the holiday if we had behaved.Best holiday?The one that really stands out was when Maurice [Kaufmann] and I went to Tobago (top right). We rented a little cottage surrounded by gorgeous trees and flowers The most beautiful birds used to sit on the veranda. Tobago is the only place I’ve managed to overcome my fear of putting my head underwater because the fish were so fantastic.Favourite place in the British Isles?I’m very fond of Norfolk My husband came from there and the kids love it. Devon is beautiful, too.What have you learnt from your travels?That I hate everything about airports from getting there to taking off. I’ve travelled around the UK a lot recently and have discovered that I really like trains. If you’re in the quiet carriage, nobody can get hold of you and you can relax.Who is your ideal travelling companion?Bill Clinton.

He’s attractive, funny and the conversation would be fascinating. We would also get fabulous attention wherever we went.Are you a beach bum, culture vulture or adrenalin junkie?I love beaches and a certain amount of culture. However, I’m getting to the point where two rooms in a museum is enough for me. I was at the Louvre recently and I thought my legs were about to drop off. You can’t appreciate places like that, because there’s too much to take in.Greatest travel luxury?I have a Calvin Klein travel handbag with four compartments that fold up. You can keep your tickets, passport and documents all together.Holiday reading?I’m the slowest reader in the world, because I perform it all in my head. I’m in the middle of the thickest book, which is called No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

It’s about the Roosevelts, and is fascinating.Where has seduced you?South Africa is the most beautiful country I have been to. Canada is also hugely underrated.Is it better to travel or to arrive?To arrive – no question.Worst travel experience?I was in New Zealand doing a play once. We ended up travelling back in the belly of a Bristol freighter, which had previously been full of sheep. When we were due to leave, the plane attempted – and failed – to take off four times because of the crosswinds Several people were violently ill.

A friend from the cast and I had decided to visit the South Island on our day off, but we had to be back the next day for a performance. What is your first holiday memory?

What is your first holiday memory?
Going to Littlehampton, where we used to holiday. “There is a strong case for at least minimum standards, particularly when changes to the house-buying system are likely to give estate agents a more important role,” a spokesman said.. “Only one in 10 of the people we asked thought they could usually be trusted – and the current situation means they’re right to be suspicious.”The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors backed calls for better regulation, ahead of plans to introduce home information packs. But it gave the sector until 2006 to clean up its act, before facing formal regulation.Some firms are members of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents, which runs a code of best practice and a complaints service, but the majority of agents have not signed up to the scheme.A spokesman for consumer group Which? said Mills’s warning was further support for its long-running campaign for regulation of estate agents.”People have little confidence in estate agents,” he said. But the products on offer are often poor value compared to independent lenders’ deals.”We’re seeing an increasing number of first-time buyers coming to us asking, ‘do I really have to buy this product because this is what the agent has told me?’,” Mills said.”First-time buyers are being unfairly manipulated, but it is almost impossible to prosecute rogue estate agents.”Mills, who has complained to Hampshire Trading Standards officials, called for agents to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the chief City watchdog.Last year, the Office of Fair Trading concluded a small minority of estate agents were still using dirty tricks to exploit both house buyers and sellers.