'The best age to be is 105, as long as you've got young friends'

Josie Lawrence, 47, stars in the comedy drama series "A Quick Guide to Parenting", starting on ITV1 next month.

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be...

It's my clean-the-house day so I'd be putting Egyptian cotton sheets on my bed.

I wish people would take more notice of...

Litter on the streets and litter thrown into lakes and parks.

The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was...

A surprise birthday party thrown at quite a remote farm in Cuba. They even managed to find balloons, hooters and ice cream and a huge pink icing birthday cake after an eight-hour trek. I was trekking in Cuba with a group of women. It went down very well with the kiddies because sugar is rationed there. It was lovely.

A common misperception of me is...

That I've done stand-up comedy.

I'm not a politician but...

I'd organise a programme called "Big Benny" where I'd keep all the MPs in the House of Commons for the last two months running up to the election. We'd all watch them on television and choose our favourites.

I'm good at...

Cheering people up.

But I'm very bad at...

Adding figures up.

The ideal night out is...

Meet all my mates at Bridge Place, which is a club in London I go to, go to see a play with one of my friends in it and end up going for champagne cocktails at Neil Morris-sey's club, Hurst House.

In moments of weakness I...

Think too negatively about myself.

You know me as a comedian and actor, but in a truer life I'd have been a...

What I did like doing when I was younger was working with children with learning difficulties. I used to go with my cousin to an adventure playground so that parents could send their children to that place and we would play with them. My cousin is now the headteacher of a school, Sunfield, for children with learning difficulties and I'm patron.

The best age to be is...

Probably 105. Always make sure you have young friends as well so they're still around.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:

Always tell the people you love that you love them and remember that a little of what you fancy does you good.

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