‘I cried when I read the script’
Sheridan Smith, 37, stars as the daughter of a stroke victim – who goes on to develop dementia...
Tell us about your character… She’s a single mum of two girls. She’s still married to her ex, but they’ve been through a messy break-up and you can tell it’s awkward for her. In the opening minutes, Jenny’s mum Mary [Alison Steadman] suffers a stroke. She goes on to develop dementia… What research did you do? A number of my friends have had parents and grandparents with dementia and speaking with them taught me a lot about it. Alison Steadman was also hugely helpful – she’d done a lot of research herself, so a lot of the time I’m purely reacting to her performance. What made you want to take on this role? Jimmy Mcgovern has written the script. He’s a genius and when I realised what it was about and I read it, I cried all the way through. It really moved me and I thought it was a really important story to tell. Lots of people will be going through the same situation. Were there any particularly challenging scenes? At the start, when Jenny’s mum has the accident, Jenny’s out looking for her and she doesn’t know where her kids are. I’m getting all panicky just thinking about it! I was really shaking after that scene, and I was crying a lot. It took me a while to calm down afterwards. I really enjoyed the whole drama.