ANGELA ADORES
LISTENING TO
Lianne La Havas is played a lot in our house and my daughters also love her.
I’ve just finished I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. It’s a phenomenal globetrotting thriller that grabs you by the throat and never lets you go.
Let’s not mess around here. Ryan Gosling.
At the moment The Big Short, which I saw only recently. It may be why Ryan Gosling is on my mind.
New York, because it gives me the same feeling that I had when I first went to London – it’s a place where anything feels possible.
There are so many women who look great in fancy clothes and make-up – Jennifer Lawrence, for example. But it’s the everyday beauty of women at the school gate that I admire.
I’m loving L’Occitane Divine Cream. Women – especially if they’re black or mixed race – often ask me about my hair. For the record, Junior Green [who specialises in afro hair at his Knightsbridge salon] cuts it and AJ at Harrods’ Urban Retreat colours it.
READING STUCK IN A LIFT WITH FAVOURITE FILM FAVOURITE CITY STYLE ICON BEAUTY PRODUCT RECENTLY SPLURGED ON
A bathroom refurb. Jason and I watch those house renovation shows where everything seems to cost about four bob. I find myself shouting: ‘I don’t believe you. Where are the receipts?’
PERFECT SUNDAY MORNING?
Waking up at our house in the Cotswolds with a cup of tea brought to me by my husband and a cuddle with the kids and the dog. Then fried eggs and a long walk before Sunday lunch.
Always have your bus fare home. It matters both literally and in the metaphorical sense of always having the means to get out of a situation.
MOTTO
DRESS, Self-Portrait ➤ her shell. Pauline [Penelope Wilton] escapes the loneliness of a bad marriage. Dawn [Sharon Rooney] has been left caring for her dad and three brothers after her mum’s death, but realises she has dreams of her own. And my character Nita learns the true meaning of female friendship in ways that I completely understand. The four of us got on like a house on fire – on screen and off. We met two of the original Ann Summers ladies. They were great – the experience had changed their lives, too. One had a husband who loved all the gear, the other didn’t; only one of them was still married. They had thought they would be selling underwear, some of it a bit racy, maybe – but at their first meeting with the company all these Bakelite sex toys appeared. They were shocked because you just didn’t see vibrators and pornography much in those days. I’m of the generation that grew up with Sex and the City and Rampant Rabbits. They weren’t. This is my first role in a ‘period’ drama. Mind you, it’s nothing like Downton Abbey, which was brilliant and gorgeous but very much about being repressed as a woman. They wanted to do stuff, but they couldn’t. This is the opposite. The 1980s – much more than the 1960s – marked a turning point. Women were working and having children. It was the decade when it dawned on women that they didn’t have to lie back and think of England – they could actually enjoy sex. I modelled Nita on my mum Sheila, but she may not realise it. She will love the show: she was the same age in the 80s and had three similar-aged children. And Nita has my mum’s incredible grit and