The star of the tense new thriller reveals five secrets from the set JILL HALFPENNY

THE HOLIDAY

Tuesday-friday, 9pm, Channel 5

1

My character, Kate, is a police officer whose dream sunshine holiday is ruined by suspicious texts she finds on her husband Sean’s phone, which may indicate he’s having an affair. It’s supposed to be baking hot but we filmed in April and I’ve never been as cold as I was during a scene on the coast with the wind blowing in from the sea. I almost cried, it was so unpleasant.

2 Kate and the people with whom she’s on holiday – her husband and a big group of friends – have some fancy meals, but the cast didn’t. We filmed while Malta was in strict lockdown and restaurants were out of bounds. We got to know the hotel menu by heart and couldn’t face any more curry by the time we were done!

3

The most challenging scene to film was probably the one where fire has taken hold and trees and grass are burning and people are screaming. That was tricky, with people blowing the ashes of the fire from off-camera so the air on screen is full of dust and smoke, but it looks stunning. 4

The laughter you hear in the scenes where the women on holiday together get drunk and try to smuggle booze back to the villa was real, because – unlike the characters we play – we got on really well.

The alcohol, however, was fake – water and grape juice.

5

The pool at the villa where we filmed was beautiful but unheated, and that was a problem for the men in the cast who had to jump into the pool en masse for a scene shot at the end of a day’s filming. I think everyone from production gathered round to watch them have to do it several times. Rather them than me!

Owen Mcdonnell as Sean with Jill as Kate