BRENDA FRICKER, actress of Casualty and My Left Foot fame, interview

I've got three mad dogs around here, and I mean mad.

I was going to ask you, first of all, how you feel about winning the award now.

Has it sunk in yet?

It hasn't, actually.

It hasn't, I think, because the reactions, other people's reactions are so strong

that

I find myself kind of looking after them at the moment.

There's a lot of crying and people dancing in the streets and all of that.

It has.

I mean, I'm sitting here and there's an Oscar on the table.

I'm looking at it.

That's extraordinary.

But I think I need a quiet week back in Bristol before it'll

hit me.

Once you'd been nominated, to what extent did you think you might actually be the winner?

To no extent at all.

I was as cool as cucumber at the awards because I was looking after Daniel, looking after Jim, I was looking after Noel because I knew I wasn't going to win.

Now, when you say that, people think you're being falsely modest.

It was just beyond a wild...

I mean, it was never even a dream, so it was never in my mind.

So you hadn't even prepared a speech, right?

Nothing at all.

But when you were making My Left Foot, presumably you thought it was rather a special film, though.

Oh, yeah, I did.

I mean, once I'd read the script, I knew it was one of the best scripts I'd ever read.