Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
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The star of the glossy new period drama reveals five secrets from the set
1
My character, Anne Trenchard, is the wife of businessman James and they’re residents of elegant Belgravia in London in the first half of the 19th century. Anne owns a dachshund, Agnes, who’s called Emma in real life. She did very well on what was her showbusiness debut, and was very welcome on cold days because she’d sit on my lap and keep me warm.
2
We filmed in what seemed like every National Trust property around – my own National Trust membership wasn’t needed! In all, 107 locations were used, from the Assembly Rooms in Bath to Moray Place in Edinburgh.
3
Philip Glenister plays my husband and we had plenty of laughs. One day we were shooting a dinner party scene in a country house. Philip said, ‘This is insane, we’re all dressed up to the nines and having a six-course meal at 9.30 on a Tuesday morning.’ I replied, ‘Enjoy it – and remember, we’re getting paid for doing it!’
4
Paul Ritter and I play husband and wife in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner, but in this series he plays Anne’s butler. We decided early on we couldn’t mention our other TV life while we were on set. That would have been too unsettling and confusing!
5
The image in my head when playing Anne wasofaswan–serene on the surface but with lots of activity under the water. The series is set in two time periods, and what I had to wear helped differentiate between them. In 1815 the corsets were looser at the waist which meant I could move more freely and felt more youthful. By the later period, the 1840s, I had to wear four or five heavy petticoats as well as a corset.