sarah parish: ‘i can hardly keep a straight face’

Sarah Parish plays Anna Rampton in her new role as Director of Better in BBC2’S spoof comedy W1A. Here Sarah, 49, tells us more...

Anna’s hilarious this series, isn’t she?

She’s still bluffing her way through meetings and panic-attacking her way through situations, as well as getting out of doing anything of any value.

You’ve played her for three series, does it take a while to get into Anna’s character again?

It’s funny, I felt more Anna on this series than the other two. It took a long time for me to find her because she doesn’t say much. It’s quite difficult as you base a character around what you say and what people say to you. It was a challenge.

John Morton is known for his meticulous and true to life writing...

Filming has been difficult, as it is every series. But it’s such a joy to have such a brilliant writer, so it doesn’t matter how difficult it is to do those long scenes in the offices that take forever! We all know each other so well now that if we mess up it doesn’t matter. I will cry when filming ends!

Is there anyone you particularly enjoy playing opposite or watching them work?

I love them all – most of my scenes are with Hugh Bonneville and I love his character, Ian Fletcher – he is indefinably loveable. I can hardly keep a straight face when filiming W1A, and can’t even look at Rufus Jones without laughing!

Why is W1A so popular?

I think it resonates with anyone who works in a corporation and has to sit in meetings that go on and on. The characters are very well defined and well written, so people always come up to me in the street and say, ‘I have met your character –you’re the really intimidating one who never actually says anything!’’