Robson Green: ‘Four hours' sleep is enough for me'

How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Robson Green
4.30am
I think: Thank God, I'm alive. Friends my age are dropping like flies. I'm surrounded by birdsong in Northumberland and that really cheers me up. The first words I utter are: Are you awake?, which wakes up my partner Zoila. I have a cold shower, which I've been doing for 25 years. (I have a warm one later.) You get a wonderful sensation of blood flow through your body. I moisturise with L'Oréal Power Age. If my skin feels great, I feel healthy. I don't drink or smoke any more. I have two flat whites with extra shots and turn on Sky News.
5.30am
Breakfast is berries with plain yogurt and a boiled egg. Once it's light, I go out and survey the garden for half an hour. I've had 15,000 daffodils this year.
7am
I love my job so I go to my office, or The Shrine as I call it because it's full of pictures of my work. I always make plans of what the aim is in each job. I'm writing a script for a BBC factual project at the moment, where I'll be going round the world. I enjoy the energy changes between performing in drama, such as Grantchester [available on ITVX], and factual entertainment like Weekend Escapes [available on BBC iPlayer].
11am
I take Mum out two or three times a week. She is 88 and suffers from dementia. We drive around and play music from the years she can remember; she loves Engelbert Humperdinck. We go to Whitley Bay and reminisce about where she met my father. There's a wonderful ice-cream shop in Blyth, Ciccarelli's, where Mum has cherry flavour and I have rum and raisin.
1.30pm
A favourite haunt is The View on Tynemouth Sands because it looks over the ocean. I have seafood linguine or grilled fish. All the ingredients are locally sourced. If I'm on my own, I chat to people I know or read.
3pm
I go fishing in the Tyne, either outside my house or at Dilston or Devil's Water. I often go alone but Zoila sometimes comes, or my son Taylor [from Green's second marriage], who works in film production. Fishing has been my road to Damascus. It gives me a sense of belonging and calm. For casting practise, I target salmon, but it's illegal to keep them. Otherwise, I catch sea trout, chubb or, if I'm lucky, pike. Some days I meet my brother and Uncle Matheson and we go sea fishing for cod, ling and haddock with guys who run a fishing boat out of North Shields. I once saw a super-pod of dolphins, which was spectacular. Off Newcastle – that's nuts!
6pm
I love cooking. I especially like making salt-and-pepper prawns, a Rick Stein recipe that has tons of crushed garlic. If I've caught a sea trout, I barbecue it with a tiny bit of lemon juice, with new potatoes, carrots or broccoli that I grow myself. I like the latest kitchen gadgets and was fortunate to be given a selection of high-class pans by the chef Chris Baber.
8pm
I walk along the river for two to six miles. If there's a Premier League football match to catch up on, I watch that. I'm a mad Newcastle United fan. Or I watch a box set. I've just finished Shogun and I'm really into [South Korean] K-dramas. If it's still light, I sit on the balcony, watch kingfishers and otters on the river and the sunset over the Cheviot Hills.
12am
My guilty pleasure is eating gruyère cheese in bed while watching Family Guy or reading. My current book is Fatherland by Robert Harris. Four hours' sleep is usually enough for me. I get good-quality sleep where I live – in the middle of nowhere.

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