Angela Griffin is fronting the Baked Stars campaign
Tell us a bit about what you're doing with Walkers Baked Stars.
Walkers Baked Stars are working with NetMums at the moment to come together to get a 5-star guide for mums, to help them over the summer months to find some brilliant places to take their kids.
On the Walkers Facebook page and the NetMums website they've asked mums to suggest and recommend places near to them that are perfect for a family fun day out.
Myself and a couple of mums who put suggestions forward decided the places that should be put into this guide. It's regional as well, so each region will have ten places that have been suggested.
Quite frankly, after the Easter holidays and having all of that time with the children any help that a mum can get in finding somewhere to take the kids and keep the entertained, that's not necessarily going to blow the bank. You've got all of your obvious ones, you know all of the big places and all of the big events, it's nice to find those little local places, the ones you don't necessarily know about unless you live on their doorstep.
How come you wanted to get involved with this campaign?
Because as a mum, I need help. (Laughs) I'm not scared of saying it, I'm not scared of saying it at all. It's such a long time to have off school over the summer and ovbiously you can't do something with the kids every single day, that would be spoiling them, but just a little help with a few ideas, is very helpful basically.
Where is your favourite place to take your two girls?
We've got a farm near us called Willow Farm and it's got a petting station, it's also got an indoor play area as well. And then in the summer months they do traktor rides and they make the sheep run around with the dog - you can tell I'm really countryside can't you? I love doing that.
If you're sticking to a budget, where is your favourite place to take your little girls?
On a budget, it's got to be the SouthBank in London, 100 per cent. It costs nothing to get there and usually all of the events that go on down there are free. Also, taking them down into Covent Garden, because you've got all of the street entertainment down there, if you get down there at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning all of the street entertainment comes out and each one of them takes about 25 minutes, you've got all of the statues and if you put 10pence into their hat then they'll do there small performance. You get a lot of out-of-work actors down there. It is very entertaining.
Like you said, you don't like taking your girls out everyday because that's spoiling them. So what sort of things do you like doing at home?
To keep them busy and happy at home we tend to try and make things and do creative things, even though I'm a bit rubbish at it. I think that the more rubbish the better they feel and the more they enjoy it. When you're making something and it looks nothing like what it is supposed to, it really makes them laugh for some reason. I obviously, because I'm so competitive, get a little bit upset. We collect things during the week, whether it be toilet rolls, yoghurt pots, a box that we have at home that we can get out bits of cloth and material and we'll try and make something.
The girls like to make up plays as well. I'll give them a couple of ideas; like I'll say you've got to be a fairy, and there has got to be a mermaid but it's got to be in a land where everything is blue. And then they'll come down with something that's usually at least 35 minutes long. I'm going to get them into editing, for the moment their small plays tend to run a little long. Also, we've got a trampoline in the back garden, so they'll bounce until their tummies hurt.
You won the British Bake Off, do you get to bake much now, or do you not really bother?
I bake quite a bit, I love it. I made these brilliant banana cakes, little banana cupcakes last weekend. We'd been away because it was Easter and when we came back I had these black bananas in the fruit bowl and I usually would throw them away, but instead I decided to make banana cupcakes with a honey-ed icing with pecans on top. We really, really like food in our house.
We keep active, we make sure that we work everything off and then it just means that we can eat and treat ourselves as much as we like.
You've just finished filming the second series of Emergency with Angela Griffin. For anyone who didn't see the first one, what's it about?
Emergency is basically me in the back of an ambulance going round to the 999 calls and asking permission very kindly if we're allowed to film and if they say yes we follow the story of the person that we call in to. It's to give the insight into the life of a paramedic and in insight into the ambulance service. All of their trials and tribulations. It isn't all car crashes and heart attacks, there is a lot time spent just making people feel better.
I didn't realise how hard the job was, I also didn't realise how much social care goes into being in the Ambulance service, you do think it's a bit like Holby or Casualty, where every job that you go to is going to be massive, but a lot of the time you go to old-age pensioners who are maybe a bit lonely or they've fallen over and it may not be necessarily life threatening but they're 75 years-old and they're on their floor and they can't get back up.
Is there anything that stood out from filming?
We met this amazing woman who was in her late 80s who was living on her own, running a horse farm and one of the horses had given her a belt and had broken her phema which is the longest bone in your leg, and she was literally in the middle of nowhere in Devon and going to see her, the language from this lady, she was hilarious, she was really posh as well. She was like: "Give me some f****** drugs". It was like, 'Woah'. It just wasn't what I was expecting from her, she was very very impressive.
You've just started filming the second series of Mount Pleasant as well, how's that going?
It's going brilliantly, it's such a lovely job. I'm getting to play a character that I don't normally play, I'm usually the teacher or the nurse or the beautician or something like that. Now, I'm the manager of this recruitment office and I'm very business-y, very cold, a little bit selfish, a little bit up my own, and I quite like playing that really. And I get to work with Bobby Ball, which is probably one of the highlights of my career to be quite honest.
Finally, what's coming up next for you?
Well, I'm working with Walkers at the moment, them I'm filming Mount Pleasant and come June 22 I am completey 100 per cent unemployed and intend to take all summer off and spend time with my children who I feel that I haven't seen enough of at all. I think we're going to get the guide and work our way around our beautiful Britain, which is what we tend to do in the summer rather than jetting off anywhere, and find some great places to go and spend some proper quality time with my kids.
Angela Griffin and New Walkers Baked Stars have chosen 70 of the best locations from 1000's suggested by parents to create the 5 Star Guide to family fun. Available at www.netmums.com/walkersbakedstars
Femalefirst Taryn Davies