Line of fire
Michelle Keegan is delighted to be back on the battlefield as Army medic Georgie Lane in Our Girl. But she still misses her home comforts – and husband Mark Wright. She tells Georgia Humphreys that absence certainly makes the heart grow stronger
SAY the name Michelle Keegan and you can’t help but think of her former Coronation Street character Tina McIntyre.
Keegan played the feisty character for six years before deciding to bow out.
And though her latest project is a long way from the cobbles of Weatherfield, she’s playing another strong female lead.
The actress is back for the third series of BBC One drama Our Girl, playing Army medic Lance Corporal Georgie Lane – and she’s not shy to reveal she gets nervous about some aspects of the role.
“I always get an injury when I jump out the truck,” she says. “Although they don’t look high on camera, jumping out of them they look really high! So I get really nervous jumping out the truck, and when you do it really fast-paced as well.”
Action aside, though, there’s another gap she’s had to bridge – being away from her husband, former reality star Mark Wright, while filming.
The 30-year-old spent eight months shooting away from home in some seriously exotic locations,
If fact, on the day we chat on the telephone, she’s in Malaysia, where filming saw her wandering through the jungle.
“We were like, ‘This is amazing, we’re doing this for a job’,” the actress recalls. “It was a pinch myself moment. Sometimes I’m very lucky.”
Wright recently moved to Hollywood to be one of the hosts of US news programme Extra TV.
“At the minute we’re finding the time difference really hard,” she confides. “When I get in from work, he’s getting up and when he’s going to bed, I’m getting up.”
The couple Facetime as much as possible, she says, adding: “Everyone else says absence makes the heart grow stronger and it is nice to miss someone.”
Not that she’d have too much free time on her hands – it sounds like her return to the popular drama has been actionpacked.
“It’s been a lot more physically demanding than the first [series] definitely,” she adds. “There are a lot more stunts involved, more Army-based scenes and a lot more running, which I’m not very good at! I’ve had to learn how to run like I’m in the Army – nightmare!”
In the first episode, viewers get a glimpse of Georgie on a mission in Syria, before cutting back to her doing normal everyday stuff at home.
“And then she gets a phone call from Captain James (played by Ben Aldridge) asking her to go to Nepal,” Keegan says.
“There’s been an earthquake over there, and she goes over to help villages, and look after the people and the children.”
When asked about how Georgie now feels about Luke Pasqualino’s character, Elvis Harte (spoiler alert – he broke her heart last series), Keegan replies: “We join Georgie and Elvis in episode one in Syria and they left things on an even keel. They are work colleagues but there is still love there.
“Georgie still believes they can’t be together, but Elvis still tries his luck a couple of times. Obviously Elvis is a ladies’ man, but she does find out a few things she doesn’t like. She tries to be professional, but deep down I think she’s genuinely hurt.”
Keegan took over the lead role in Our Girl from another well-known soap star, Lacey Turner, who played Army medic Molly Dawes, and it’s definitely given her the chance to really show her acting colours.
Part of which is learning all that medical jargon.
“Obviously, we had medical advisers on set with us the whole time,” Keegan explains. “But it’s trying to know your lines, speak your lines at the same time as doing something medical and bringing emotion or drama to the scene; I really struggled with that last time.”
The actress seems more settled in the show now it’s her second series.
“I feel more comfortable in what I’m doing now, I suppose,” she responds. “I know what I’m doing medically now and I know the character – so in that aspect, I do feel more comfortable.”
While Keegan sounds like she’s embraced the challenges of filming, she has, of course, missed a few things about home.
“I missed Love Island this year, I couldn’t watch it in South Africa, so I missed the big hype from that,” Keegan cries, sounding genuinely dismayed. “I’m with a group on WhatsApp with my best friends and literally every night they talked about Love Island, I had to mute them I was so jealous!”
Our Girl is back on BBC One on October 10.