My dad has always been my coach. And I've spent so much time with him. So he's one of my best friends. And I can talk to him about everything.

There's been times when I've had heartbreaking moments and I'm like 'I can't believe you said that ' or 'I can't believe you did that'. And it hurts it still hurts and it'll always hurt but I've never had somebody that I truly cared about just walk out on me whether it was a boyfriend or an aunt mom or dad.

In the 'Garnethill' trilogy people always forget that Maureen O'Donnell's dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law but no-one ever thinks they're middle-class - they're just working class because they speak with accents.

I have always had the feeling I could do anything and my dad told me I could. I was in college before I found out he might be wrong.

My Dad hated his job. He sold overcoats but he wanted to make movies. He had a failed career working with the Ritz Brothers - they were like the Marx Brothers only a tier below. I always had a picture in my mind of him in a straw hat.

My dad has been a big influence on me because he's always had his own business. He really taught me business sense and how to be a focused individual but also how to have fun and make everyone around you have fun.

I come from an ordinary family - my dad is a carpenter a roof-maker - and we've always loved racing together.

You always give credit where credit is due - to high school coaches college coaches - but my dad the foundation that he built with me is where all of this came from. The speed the determination the mindset just the natural belief that you can do anything you put your mind to it all comes from my dad.

One thing my dad always told me was he would make sure I always had what he didn't have. He couldn't play basketball because he didn't have tennis shoes - so I had five pairs of tennis shoes.

I feel connected to the Second World War because my father lost his father in that war. So through my dad and the effect it had on him of losing his father young I always felt connected to the war. It goes back years but it still feels to me as if we're completely living in it.