BEHIND THE SCENES WITH best

‘I’dlovetoseeRichardplayBond’

Keeley Hawes, 43, is married to fellow actor Matthew Macfadyen. The mother-of-three also stars in ITV’s The Durrells and the BBC smash hit drama, The Bodyguard.

Your character in Traitors, Priscilla, is quite scary!

That wasn’t what I was aiming for. But she is a very senior civil servant and, as a woman, she gives no quarter. She knows how she has to behave in order to be taken seriously.

Priscilla campaigns for the rights of married women to be allowed to work, too…

Yes, and that was fascinating. I must have missed a chunk of history at school, because I didn’t know anything about that at all.

Your character gets caught up with undercover agent Feef. Did you form a close bond with your co-star, Emma Appleton?

We had lots of tea and cake and laughter. We ate a whole Madeira cake – and not just on screen! It’s very hard to be mean to Emma – just look at her! I can’t wait for everyone to see how amazing she is.

Isn’t Priscilla a member of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society?

It is an all-singing, all dancing performance. It was part of what was so exciting about the writing for me – that level of detail.

The Bodyguard was a huge hit. Were you surprised by how much people loved politician Julia Montague?

Yes, it is always a surprise, and it was such a great reaction – so, pleasantly so.

What do you think about the Bond rumours swirling

around your Bodyguard co-star, Richard Madden?

I would love to see Richard playing the role of Bond. I think he would be phenomenal.

You star in The Durrells for ITV [series four is coming up soon], and you’re also in a new BBC drama, Summer

Of Rockets – do you ever take any time off?

It’s just how it works out – you do lots of things and then they’re transmitted at the same time, so it just makes it look like you never stop working! But I do, I have lots of time off.

Traitors is on Channel 4, 9pm on Sundays