WHY TAMSIN GREIG LOVES SWANNING AROUND SWANAGE

Breathtaking clifftop views, dreamy cream teas and the best fish and chips in the world — oh, the actor does love to be beside the seaside in this Dorset town

- As told to Vicky Jessop

Swanage in Dorset. It was a destination that my husband's family started visiting in the early 1990s, I think. Then we just carried on going there, renting the same house and staying for a couple of weeks every year with my husband’s family.

It was a big old ramshackle house that sits on a cliff overlooking the sea. I think we visited that house for about 30 years and it’s just recently been sold, so our children are utterly devastated.

When was the last time you were there, and who were you with?

We still go back to visit Swanage once a year, but we don't stay over. Instead we do a day trip, to make our own particular kind of pilgrimage.

What has been your favourite meal there?

As with all family holidays, there were always certain traditions. We would all go down to sit on the sea wall and get fish and chips from what is, I think, probably the best fish and chip shop in the world. It's called The Fish Plaice and we'd eat them sitting on the wall, from the paper, with that lovely smell of masses of oil and vinegar. And if we didn’t do that, it was a ruined holiday. And there’s a little village just outside the town, called Worth Matravers, which in my opinion has the best afternoon tea shop in the country. Obviously, Cornwall and Devon would be very angry that I've said it exists in Dorset. But you can take your tea and go and eat it by a little duck pond in the village. It’s a really magical place and it's all homemade scones and local Dorset cream.

What would you do if you had only 24 hours there?