Statue for suffragette
GILLIAN Wearing has been chosen as the first woman to create a statue to stand in Parliament Square, it was announced yesterday.
The Turner Prizewinning artist’s likeness of suffragette Millicent Fawcett will also be the first statue of a woman in the London square.
It will be unveiled next year to coincide with the centenary celebrations of women’s suffrage in the UK. SHE became a household name this year as one of the bravest mothers to be seen on telly.
But after facing off against crazed rival Vicky McClure’s Paula in hit BBC maternity cover drama The Replacement, Scots actress Morven Christie is back among the nappies.
Morven, 35, from Glasgow, is back in Cambridgeshire filming period detective series Grantchester, playing single mum Amanda.
Instead of dealing with a psychotic architect, her alter ego this time is faced with social judgments as she prepares for life as mother to daughter Grace, in the 1950s-set drama.
But whatever period in time she is looking at, the Scot just loves working with babies. She said: “I am always broody, I love babies. The last two jobs I have done, I’ve spent almost all my time with babies. I just love them.
“Baby Grace is played by twins. It’s been just lovely. I adore them and I am going to really miss them actually.
“They have grown along the course of the show and that’s quite a significant period for a baby as they were four months when we first started and they’re seven months old now. They’re such lovely, fun little girls. I’ve had the best time with them. I keep saying, ‘Their mum doesn’t need two, perhaps I could have one’.”
Going back to Grantchester continues the amazing year the actress has been having, following breakout hit The Replacement.
The thriller series, about a careergirl architect terrorised by her psychotic maternity cover colleague, was one of the most talked-about dramas of the year so far, and has helped Morven build on a prolific and successful showreel to date.
She has been seen in hits such as the BBC comedy 2012, The Young Victoria, The A Word and Murder, and had a great part in Doctor Who.
But it’s been the ratings winning double-header of Grantchester and The Replacement that has seen her become one of the most in-demand performers in the business.
And she’s loved returning to the sleepy little town in Cambridgeshire to reacquaint the friendships that make the job so special, with co-stars James Norton, Robson Green, Tessa Peake-Jones, Al Weaver and Kacey Ainsworth on top form.
“We are lucky to have a really wonderful cast. James is fantastic, Robson is fantastic, Al is fantastic and Tessa and Kacey. It’s just a really special cast. More than anything, the scripts are just lovely and they always have been. It’s the perfect show to deal with issues because there is so much love and warmth in it.
“It’s got a lot of warmth and I think the characters are really connectable and the relationships are really real.
“We do go back to the village a lot. It’s funny though, it’s changed so much since the first series. No one had the faintest idea what we were doing back then. Everyone was welcoming but we just kind of got on