Lesley Manville

What's your starting point to get to the heart of a role when you first approach it?

You've got to kind of try and really get into the bones of these characters and work out what makes them tick. What gets me up in the morning is playing people that are a different from me and hopefully different from the character that I played last time. So that kind of diversity of uh that range of playing … You know, Ada Harris, who's a cleaner, and Princess Margaret, you know, that the gap between them, you know, socially and in terms of their class is what really thrills me. But, you know, ultimately, we're all people with beating hearts and blood flowing through our veins. So it's finding the emotional centre of these characters that's so interesting because, you know, Princess Margaret, her heart will bleed in the same way that Mrs. Harris's heart will bleed.

So were they a romantic couple?

They were childhood sweethearts and they were together forever. They were really, really part of that Brighton sixties gin and tonic set. You know, my mum looked great in a black cocktail dress and there's some great footage that I've got of them on 8mm film, no sound, of them obviously in some little club somewhere and they're just dancing and just having a great time. And they had some really kind of rock and roll friends as well.