The messiness of people’s lives is right at the heart of involving yarn

et’s admit it; we don’t like watching TV shows about people who have everything all figured out.

We like seeing characters with messy lives, who we can relate to.

That’s one reason why Victoria Hamilton, 39, thinks her new BBC One drama, Life, is going to appeal to audiences.

“There are hundreds of different elements to this story, there are elements which are thrillerlike, elements that really make you laugh, elements that are just heartbreaking, and it shifts very quickly between those, all of the time,” elaborates the Wimbledon-born actress, on set earlier this year.

“And I also genuinely think they’re characters which people will want to follow. They are looking for a solution to their lives – which we all are, in some way.”

The writer behind Life is Mike known in recent years for her role in Gavin and Stacey.

“She says Gail was much more lively. She was a real clown of the school, she would tell jokes, she was adventurous. She was the one everyone looked up to, thought was funny. And then suddenly here’s this little classy lady who’s very quiet, whose husband talks over her.

“Henry thinks he’s just being the very energetic, professional guy he is, the life and soul of the party, telling jokes. He tends to not listen to Gail, and I think over the years she’s got into that thing where she’s gone under the radar and let him do all the chatting at parties and all the rest of it.

“This woman points out a few things to Gail that make her go, ‘Maybe I have been a bit silly to let this happen’ And so, she rebels.”

Discussing her character’s sudden change in behaviour, Liverpool-born Steadman reflects on how she found her own 70th birthday a particularly significant one.