BLYTHE DUFF was born in East Kilbride in 1962. She began her acting career in the theatre before landing the role of Jackie Reid in Taggart in 1989.

She has stayed with the Glasgow detective drama and is the longest-serving cast member.

She still acts on stage and will be touring with the play Be Near Me in the new year.

Blythe is married with two teenage daughters.

If you had to be stuck in a lift with someone who would it be? Billy Connolly. I've met him a few times and he makes me laugh a lot, even off screen.

What is your biggest fear? I don't really fear an awful lot, apart from something happening to my family. I don't particularly like water either, as I can't swim very well. We have a boat that my husband's really into, and I enjoy it too, but the weather's got to be perfect for me.

Do you have any superstitions? I just have stupid things that I try and do, just the old wives' tales like not passing a knife to someone. But if it's difficult or someone said: “Don't be so daft’’ I'd let it go. .

If you could have only one song on your iPod what would it be? The Al Green song Let's Stay Together. Tina Turner has covered it and I don't mind which version it is.

What's the most expensive thing you've bought, not including property? A hot tub. It's brilliant to have that in Scotland, because you can pretend you're not really having a rubbish summer and during the winter it's wonderful.

What's the best piece of advice you've been given? My dad was a very, very honest soul and honesty is the best advice. I think if you try to be honest all your life you won't do too many bad turns to folk.

When was the last time you cried and why? I cry all the time, and it's not like there's just a little tear in the corner of my eye; there are big thundering, cartoon drops.

I cried recently because we were at the 100th Taggart episode read through. It caught me unawares because they had put together some old clips, there was a bottle of champagne and the producer had gone out of his way to make it really special.

What's your indulgence? Clothes. You know how mothers are supposed to say things like 'You don't need that, you've got plenty of those'? My mother would say 'Oh, that's fantastic; buy two and get them in different colours.'

How environmentally friendly are you? It's a bit incongruous, because I do the whole recycling and sorting thing, and I crack up at the kids to do it, but my husband is shocking for just stuffing everything in the bin.

How many texts do you send in a day? Not very many, about five.

What item could you not live without? My car, and I'm not going to apologise for it. I love driving, it's my haven. It's a big car with heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated everything.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I'm quite intolerant of people that fidget and I'd like to be more tolerant about folk that annoy me.

Where are you going on holiday? I've got a really busy time coming up, so I'm going to have to curtail holidays.