ON SET WITH... Joanna Vanderham

Joanna, 25, has starred in several major dramas including The Paradise and The Go-Between. Now she’s playing care home worker Claire Elliot in BBC1’s murder mystery One Of Us. Here she takes us through a week’s filming in her native Scotland.

MONDAY

One Of Us revolves around the murder of Lee Walsh, the main suspect in the deaths of newlyweds Adam and Grace Elliot at their Edinburgh flat. He’s been killed while being held by the families of Adam and Grace near their farmhouses in the Highlands. It’s a murder mystery but of course the cast all know who did it; the actor who’s playing the killer was thrilled when they found out it was them! The Highlands locations we’re using on the shoot remind me just how beautiful my country is.

TUESDAY

Getting ready for filming takes much less time than on the period dramas I’ve done. I put on my jeans, top and boots and I’m ready. I suspect it took rather longer to create the very lifelike dummy corpse of Lee Walsh, which is used in certain scenes. It’s creepily similar to the actor playing Walsh, Owen Whitelaw, and people have been known to mistake it for the real thing! Owen is the loveliest guy and really funny and it’s not easy to hate him, even if his character has behaved so terribly.

WEDNESDAY

We’re getting rather wet making this series, and I’m well wrapped up in a coat [right] for the storm scene we’re filming tonight. There’s actually a real storm howling: the wind is so strong that the rain is blowing upwards and the wind machine, brought in to make things especially blustery, has blown over!

THURSDAY

My character Claire spends a lot of time at the care home looking after a lady named Meredith, who’s in a wheelchair, and today we’re filming me pushing her in it. These are the most challenging scenes for me. In ensemble scenes, such as those with the Elliot family, the pressure is off to some extent because you’re reacting to other people and the focus is on a group rather than individuals. But when it’s just Claire and Meredith I’m having to dig deep to find the necessary emotion. I honestly didn’t think I could do these scenes and it’s a relief to get through them.

FRIDAY

Today we’re filming the final scenes, which explain what really happened at Adam and Grace’s flat and subsequently in the Highlands. I had thought it might be good fun to play the last episode without knowing the identity of the killer but as soon as I got the script I raced to the end because I had to know! Obviously my lips are sealed but I think viewers might be surprised by who it is and especially by the motive. At the end of filming I’m so tense but finally my shoulders can relax and I think to myself, ‘Oh my God, I’ve actually got a neck!’ One Of Us, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC1.