Open house

Actress Priyanga Burford talks about Madonna, mattresses and MTV Cribs

Home is… wherever I am if I’m with my people – my husband Tom, our two teenage sons and the dog. Wherever they are, I automatically feel rooted and comfortable. Our home is a three-bedroom tile-hung brick cottage in the Surrey Hills with a manageable garden for two people who are interested in gardening but quite lazy!

My childhood home was… inconsistent. When I was little we moved a lot – everywhere from Bristol to Glasgow – with my dad’s work as a dentist in hospitals around the country. We all have a longing for roots, a place where we put our feet down. Whatever hotel I’m in for work, I put the book I’m reading by the bedside

(below) and that makes me feel grounded.

Right now I am… about to edit the first draft of my new film script. Although there will be many drafts to go, it’s exciting that the script is now going somewhere.

My dinner party table top aesthetic is… candles and, even though it’s spring right now, Christmas crackers. We use them at any time of year because we love a paper hat! Telling a stupid joke is a fun way to start a dinner party.

When I get home, the first thing I do is… take my tights off, if I’m wearing them, and have a cuddle with Rudy, our Welsh springer spaniel. She is a joyful, silly presence.

My favourite room in the house is… our bedroom. We’ve made it into a sanctuary. There’s no telly in there and I leave my phone outside. I love reading, so there’s a bookcase and the bed is super-comfortable. Tom’s parents advised us to spend as much as we could afford on the mattress and they were right!

My Zoom backdrop is… our dining room wall and a picture of a Namibian tribal woman wearing a pair of bright red leather platform shoes as well as her traditional dress. The photographer took a suitcase of Topshop clothes around with him.

My favourite homeware store is… Graham & Green – you don’t get the impression the pieces are mass produced. And last summer, we got some amazing Thai parasols from the East London Parasol Company. They’re brightly coloured with tassels and almost look like Indian wedding parasols (top).

My biggest extravagance is… our furniture. We ‘buy once, buy wisely’. When we first got married, we sat on an inflatable armchair until we could afford a good sofa!

The biggest bargain in my home is… our plants, which came from cuttings. Where I live, people often put little tables outside their front gates offering cuttings of plants in exchange for money in an honesty box, then that money goes to charity. It’s a lovely thing to do.

I love to collect… stoneware cups and mugs and wherever we go, I get a tea towel. I sound like a bit of an old biddy.

The home I’d like to nose around is… Madonna’s. I hear she’s got an incredible collection of modern art. I want to see inside so many people’s homes. I used to love Through The Keyhole and MTV Cribs.

My favourite design object from my travels is… an antique wooden horse we got during our last trip to Sri Lanka in Christmas 2019 to see my folks. We found it in a little roadside antiques shop while visiting the Knuckles Mountain Range.

Every Sunday you’ll find me… walking the dog, probably looking quite dishevelled because I just stick on whatever I’ve got to hand, put my hair under a hat and go. Watch Priyanga Burford later this year in Steeltown Murders on BBC One and iplayer and Before We Die on Channel 4

‘My rule for furniture is buy once, buy wisely!’