Joanna Lumley's My London

The actress takes tea with policemen and has a penchant for pens

Home is
Stockwell, in the same house for 20 years. It's starting to look like a dowager duchess who's dropped her tiara in the gutter.

What advice would you give a tourist?
Focus on one area and get to know it. You get a better feel for the city.

What's the first thing you do when you come back to London?
I drive past Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Westminster. I'm not a Londoner by birth and I still think it's a miracle that I live here.

Which London shops do you rely on?
The Rippon Cheese Shop in Pimlico does an amazing Emmental and a strong British cheddar. I go to Hot Off The Press in Fulham for my headed paper, and to Sally, the hair supplies shop on Shaftesbury Avenue, for dye and rollers - I do my own hair. I cannot get enough of Ryman the stationers. Anybody who's sensible wants to spend their money on stationery.

What's the best meal you've had in London?
The vegetarian curry from The Greedy Buddha on Wandsworth Bridge Road. You get some of the best curries in the world in London.

What's your earliest London memory?
Arriving at Charing Cross aged nine to do a ballet exam and feeling the thrill of a city.

Who's your hero?
Rossini. He wrote the overture to The Thieving Magpie on the day of the first performance.

What animal would you like to be?
A giraffe, because they're not aggressive yet they're so powerful - they can kill a lion with one kick.

What would you do as Mayor for a day?
Get rid of most road markings such as bus lanes. People would then behave in a much more civilised manner.

What are your biggest extravagances?
Gel pens and coloured pencils.

How would you like your obituary to read?
'Although she was 102 when she left this life, she was still cheerful.'

Do you have a recurring dream?
I'm always going up to a dark attic room at the top of some huge house.

If you could live in any building in London, which would it be?
One of the vast warehouses on the river in a huge loft conversion.