ON SET WITH... Sarah Parish

It, Sarah, 48, the star of Cutting plays Mistresses and Merlin, Marjorie American cornflake heiress drama The Sutter in glossy fashion us behind Collection. Here she takes which was the scenes on the show, and Paris… filmed in south Wales

4 MONDAY

My character Marjorie is one of the best clients of the upand-coming Sabine fashion house in late 1940s Paris, and the series deals with the political and social tensions there after the war. Marjorie’s much married and uses fashion to cheer herself up after romantic setbacks. Today we’re filming scenes at our studio near Swansea, where Marjorie’s being fitted for a new dress. I wouldn’t mind a few of her outfits myself. That post-war look – the nipped-in waist and padded shoulders – really suits me.

5 TUESDAY

South Wales in 2016 is a far cry from Paris in 1948 but the designers on the show have done a splendid job. Our huge studio, a former car factory, is now occupied by impeccably furnished sets of drawing rooms, bedrooms and Parisian hotel lobbies, with cars from the era – Citroens, Peugeots and Renaults – close by ready to use. You immediately feel you’ve been transported back to that time and the clothes have much the same effect. I feel instantly upholstered!

6 WEDNESDAY

Today I have scenes with Mamie Gummer, Meryl Streep’s daughter [right]. She plays Helen Sabine, whose husband Paul is the head of the fashion house. I haven’t had a lot of scenes with Mamie but those I film with her are a joy. She’s wonderful to work with, very sweet and an extremely good actress.

7 THURSDAY

Marjorie enjoys the high life as a means of escaping from her personal unhappiness and she’s not averse to cracking open a bottle of champagne. But while she gets to enjoy a glass of fizz, I don’t – the champagne I’m drinking in my scenes today is actually ginger ale. There are plenty of places in our version of 1940s Paris where Marjorie can have a drink. The design team has constructed a street just outside the main studio which has a brasserie, a café and a nightclub, and very realistic they look too.

8 FRIDAY

Marjorie has an east coast American accent and it’s fairly familiar territory for me as I’ve played a few Americans during my career. It’s hard to say why I find it so easy – I’m from Somerset, not the States – but it seems to be working. Today we’re starting on one of the great set pieces of the series, a fashion show that will take three days to film. Marjorie isn’t afraid to be honest about what’s being paraded in front of her. Her bluntness is one of the reasons she’s such good fun to play, and I’d love to play her again in a second series of The Collection!