00:00I haven't bought a piece of jewellery since. I've been nicking it all.
00:04I don't know if they're good though.
00:06I think they are.
00:07My excuse is that Joan isn't an actor, so I'm allowed some wiggle room there.
00:12How aware were you of Joan Hannington before this project? I don't imagine massively so.
00:17No, I wasn't aware of Joan at all, to be honest, before this project.
00:21But as soon as I got the role, I made myself very much aware.
00:27I read her book probably about nine or ten times,
00:31and I did as much research as I could possibly find on her.
00:35But she's an elusive figure, you know? She is quite elusive.
00:39So I eventually got to meet her and actually ask her the questions that I wanted to ask,
00:45because not much is out there for the world to see.
00:48I saw one of those photos of you meeting her.
00:51Yeah.
00:52What was that experience like?
00:53Was she what you expected, having only seen her in paper form before?
00:56No, no.
00:57I mean, you know, you get a little sense of who she is from her book,
01:02because it's in her own words.
01:05She has a very kind of really loud personality, and you can read it off the page.
01:12But when you meet her, it's like a whole other thing.
01:15I mean, she is so vivacious and vibrant, and she owns a room when she walks into it.
01:23And I couldn't quite get that sense off the page,
01:26but when I met her, it was abundantly clear just what a big personality she was.
01:32How is it, I mean, in the first episode, you're really kind of drawn into her relationship with her daughter, Kelly.
01:38As a mother yourself, are you able to draw parallels between the two,
01:42or do you like to keep them separate?
01:44Oh, I can draw parallels, absolutely.
01:46I mean, of course, it's a very different scenario that Jo's in to my scenario,
01:51but she, I mean, it all boils down to this mother who is ferociously trying to defend and protect her daughter
02:00and raise her the right way, and I think that's, you know, when I got this role,
02:05and when I was auditioning for it, I was, first time I auditioned, I was heavily pregnant with my second daughter.
02:11When I did the second audition, I'd just given birth,
02:13and so I had that maternal, animalistic ferocity in me,
02:19and it just felt like Joan and I were on very much the same page,
02:25and those scenes were so much more real to me than, you know, had I done them before I'd had my kids.
02:32Joan really informs the way I am now.
02:35I think I take something from each of my characters,
02:38and Joan gave me this kind of fearlessness that I don't think I really had before,
02:44and she very much kind of inspired me to stand up for what's right and do the right thing
02:50and have no shame or qualms about it.
02:53She just does what she wants, what she knows is right.
02:57She does things a little unorthodox, you know, but she will do anything for her child,
03:03and I am right there with her.
03:06I think the sign of a good actor is one who can do a different accent in every series or film,
03:11and you do multiple accents in the same series.
03:13I don't know if they're good, though.
03:15I think they are.
03:16My excuse is that Joan isn't an actor, so I'm allowed some wiggle room there.
03:21But that was fun. That was very fun.
03:24What was the most challenging one?
03:25I think it was American, but 80s American, you know?
03:29I'd done American accents before. Again, I don't know if they've been any good,
03:33but trying to make it specifically 80s and kind of inspired by old 80s shows like Dallas and things like that,
03:42that was fun to craft but hard to execute.
03:46What are people in for when they watch this series?
03:49Oh, people are in for everything. There's everything in this series.
03:52There's a beautiful love story, a tumultuous love story as well.
03:58At the crux of it, there's a mother and her child,
04:02and so it's very, very kind of harrowing at times.
04:07There's crime, there's intrigue, there's suspicion, and there's glamour.
04:14Every single element that you think you can put into a show, they put it into this,
04:19and it doesn't feel overwhelming or anything like that.
04:22It's seamless, but there's something for everyone.
04:25Has this changed the way you're going to jewellery shop in future?
04:28Are you just going to be there and be like, I'm not going to take it, but if I wanted to, I could?
04:32Yeah, no, I haven't bought a piece of jewellery since. I've been nicking it all.
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