The Guardian Published: 16th Feb 2011 Author: Emine Saner Source As a drama student, Anna Maxwell Martin used to go for walks along the Thames. "I would see the National theatre," she recalls, "and think, 'I'm going to be there one day.'" Two years later, in 2003, she was – playing Lyra in His Dark Materials, and bagging an Olivier nomination in the process. Such single-mindedness seems at odds with the slight person sitting before me in a London bar, finishing her stories with great squeals. Like the one about her mother inviting all her friends round after Maxwell Martin won her first Bafta in 2006, for playing orphan Esther Summerson in the BBC's star-studded Bleak House; the guests were invited, she says, "just to look at it!" Other times, she's thoughtful, delivering considered answers with a faint Yorkshire accent. Though a self-confessed "show-off", she is modest about her work: "I'm starting to t