DON’T MISS THIS!

The star of the Roman invasion series reveals five secrets from the set

1 I play General Aulus Plautius [main picture], the real-life Roman who led the invasion of Britain, and the new series sees the arrival from Rome of his wife, Hemple – a character who likes to eat human flesh. Sophie Okonedo [inset] was cast in the role and she’s an old friend. She sent me a text saying, ‘Fancy me as your wife?’ I texted her back straight away saying, ‘Yes!’

2 There are challenging scenes in the show, including human sacrifice, which I found disturbing. I tried not to take anything of my character home with me at the end of the working day. The hair dye, maybe, but that’s about it!

3 I was delighted there was an intimacy coach. I’ve felt for years that’s been missing from our business. If you have a stunt, a stuntman will talk you through it, so why not get someone in to help with intimate scenes? It didn’t make them any less bold.

4 Britannia isn’t historically accurate but we try to honour the world that existed in the first century AD, one based on myths, superstition and the supernatural. So I read Pandora’s Jar: Women In The Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes, which contains stories that would have been alive to the Romans and possibly regarded as fact, by people such as Plautius.

5 Because of delays caused by Covid, filming continued into the English winter and it was very, very cold. One battle scene went on for weeks, night after night. I did feel exposed in my Roman skirt and boots. Brave Eleanor Worthington-cox, who plays Celtic tribeswoman Cait, was held 200ft in the air on a harness at 2.30am with a -7°C wind chill factor!