LIFE & TIMES: Rachael Stirling

Currently starring as Millie Harcourt in The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (9pm, ITV), Rachael Stirling, 41, has acting in her blood…

Scotch miss: She was born in London in 1977; her mother is actress Diana Rigg and her father is theatre producer Archie Stirling, who is Laird of Scotland’s Keir estate, giving Rachael a long line of ancestry from the parish of Lecropt, near her namesake city of Stirling. ‘In my bones, I feel like a Scot,’ she says.

In the spotlight: She has a BA in art history from Edinburgh University; while still studying, she won her first role, in the 1998 comedy Still Crazy, starring Bill Nighy – ‘I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.’ Other small parts followed, but it was playing Nan Astley in the controversial BBC series Tipping The Velvet (2002) that put her in the public eye, leading to roles in everything from Poirot to Hotel Babylon.

Like mother, like daughter: Following in mum Diana’s footsteps, Rachael’s often found treading the boards of London’s West End, and the pair have made a habit of working together – in 2013, they both starred in a Doctor Who episode, The Crimson Horror; Mark Gatiss wrote the parts especially for them. She has also become known for playing Becky in the hit BBC4 series Detectorists, in which Diana has also appeared – as Becky’s mother.

Wedding belle: In 2016, Rachael married Guy Garvey, lead singer of the band Elbow, in a low-key ceremony in Manchester; they had met at Benedict Cumberbatch’s wedding two years earlier. Their son, Jack, was born in April 2017.