IN HER OWN WORDS: Hayley Atwell

Hayley, 36, the star of both Conviction (Wednesday, 9pm, Pick) and Agent Carter (tonight, 9pm, Paramount Network) has had plenty to say about recent roles – and on-set pranks…

On playing Peggy Carter for the first time, in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger: ‘The main reason I did Captain America was because I wanted to stop taking my work so seriously. I was like, “I want to train! I want to be a supergirl! I want a machine gun! I want to look fabulous and be surrounded by bare-chested men!’”

And on playing a prank on Agent Carter co-star James D’Arcy (Jarvis) in season one: ‘For Halloween, I put clingfilm over his toilet. I’m going to have to up my game in season two.’

On her character in Conviction – a lawyer and daughter of an ex-US President: ‘I love that she’s violent in her own way, not in the same way as

Peggy. There’s a lot of mental punching going on with her, as opposed to actual punching.’

On her character in BBC1’s Howards End: ‘I feel I’ve been lucky with Margaret, to have gotten to a level of maturity in my career where I can play parts like that, which are about brave ideas. I’m not interested in just playing the wife or the sex symbol.’

And on pranking Howards End co-star Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Henry: ‘We had this in-joke that Margaret infantilises Henry… On the last day of filming, I put a nappy in his costume trousers, a dummy in his pocket and a training potty on his toilet. He turned up to rehearsals wearing the nappy outside of his trousers.’