I had dreams a the role... it was intense. It made me realise just how difficult it is for women to report rape

she went home to her husband, IT company owner James Cannon. Joanne admits: “On the weekends, I find it easier to let go of it. You have to, otherwise you will drive yourself mad.

“The moments you have to be completely in it and the scenes you have to do – that it is important you do, because it is an important subject. But you also have to be a human being. I don’t think my husband would be happy if I came home hysterical every day.”

Joanne was raised in the North Yorkshire village of Littlebeck, where her parents Ann and Keith ran a corner shop before becoming sheep farmers. She watched classic films and remembers wanting to be star from the age of five.

She excelled at a local drama school and had the newsagent set up a subscription for The Stage newspaper.

Joanne won a place at Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead, Berks, aged 11 and then spent two years trying to get a grant, before leaving home aged 13. By 1996, aged 16, she had made her TV debut on The Bill before landing a small role as teen mother Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street.

Roles kept on coming – and they were never easy. She played Myra Hindley in 2006 ITV drama See No Evil: The Moors Murders, then the lead role in Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback.

Her big break came in 2010, when she landed the role of Downton’s favourite maid. Her performance earned her three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a coveted Golden Globe – and meant she was in demand on both sides of the pond when the show ended in 2015.

Joanne has since mixed roles in films including Starfish and the upcoming Mary Shelley with TV series like last year’s Dark Angel, in which she played Britain’s first female serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton. It has meant splitting her time between

LA and her home in Buckinghamshire but fortunately James, who she married in 2012, has been able to work remotely and travel with her.

However, he was not invited when she first met up with co-star Ioan – the

Welsh hunk who made his nam Hornblower before breaking Hollyw

In Liar, Joanne and Ioan are believ as a flirty couple on a first date. Joanne explains the seeds of their liant chemistry were sown as they a “date-style” meeting in LA to bon

She says: “When we both knew were going to be doing the project both happened to be in LA because lives there and I happened to be the well. So we met for lunch just to m and get rid of that first awkwardnes