‘People’s lives are all a bit messy...’
“But that’s what I think good British drama does. When it’s written as brilliantly as the stuff that Kay writes, It’s holding up a mirror to society and hopefully people can tap into that.”
Jensen praises Mellor for scratching beneath the surface when it comes to people and their passions, stating “there’s no baddies and no goodies, it’s just about truth”.
“It’s very pertinent to the world we live in, with people from different cultures, transgender, families on second marriages and families with stepchildren,” she says.
“In some ways it’s all quite messy, everything’s quite messy, but people’s lives are all a little bit messy. I think that everybody aspires to perfection but if we all actually dig a bit deeper, everybody is floundering a little bit.”
As an actress, Jensen is committed to her craft. When learning her “fair few” lines for Love Lies & Records, for instance, she confesses to “living like a nun”.
“I would literally go home, have my little bowl of soup, read my lines and then put my lines under the pillow thinking they would go in by osmosis,” she says, with a laugh.
Praising the registrars she met in preparation for the part, she says: “I suppose, like Kate, I would get very much involved with everybody’s story [if I did her job].
“To be honest, I’m kind of exhausted. At the end of the week I’d feel absolutely spent, I felt as if I’d been through the wringer with all these people’s journeys. It’s quite emotional and a lot of it is quite highoctane stuff.”
When it comes to her career, Jensen is clear she doesn’t have an agenda.
“I have never had a plan,” she told the Telegraph last year. “I don’t even know what I am doing tomorrow. I don’t worry about the future. They will always need someone to play the old ladies with wrinkles!”
Love, Lies & Records starts on BBC One on Thursday, November 16.