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Sheridan Smith has the holiday from hell in new four-part drama No Return. She plays Kathy, who arrives in Turkey for some fun in the sun with her family, but instead finds herself plunged into a nightmare when her son Noah (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is arrested after returning from a seemingly innocent beach party. Here, she tells us more…
Tell us about your character Kathy and her family.
Kathy and her husband Martin (Michael Jibson) have been together for years. They have two kids and they are just a proper, normal family.
They head off for a package holiday and they are really looking forward to it, but then it goes wrong.
What happens when the police arrive at the hotel to arrest Noah? They barge in and push Kathy out of the way to get Noah. She wonders what’s going on and because she doesn’t speak the language she can’t understand them. Filming that scene was horrible. The supporting artists playing the police officers had guns. It was terrifying!
What do Kathy and Martin do after Noah is taken away?
They are suddenly plunged into a completely different legal system. Every time they go to court it feels like a dead end, while their son is still stuck in prison. They are just lost, basically. It’s your worst nightmare as a parent.
Did being a mum [to one-year-old Billy] make a difference in this role? Absolutely! I’ve played a lot of mums, but this is the first time I’ve played a mum as a mother myself. It’s so different. You can act being a mum, but there’s something very different when you’re a parent yourself. I kept thinking, ‘What if this was Billy?’ and that would just set me off. I didn’t have to do too much acting in the crying scenes!
✱ No Return is on ITV