‘I Never Take Anything For Granted'

With the new series of gripping ITV crime drama The Unforgotten back on our screens, actress Nicola Walker, aka DCI Cassie Stuart, tells Yours why she always counts her blessings

- Alison James

While she’s not been officially crowned, there’s no doubt that BAFTA-nominated actress Nicola Walker is the queen of primetime TV. She’s starred in Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax, River and The Split, and now she’s back with series three of The Unforgotten, the acclaimed crime drama in which a body is found many years after murder has been committed, leaving Cassie and her colleague, DI Sunny Khan, to solve the crime. With this calibre of acting CV, Nicola might be forgiven for expecting roles to fall into her lap – but not one bit of it.

“No, I don’t take things for granted,” she says as we chat on the set of The Unforgotten’s police HQ, which is actually the former St Martin’s School of Art in Holborn, central London. “When it comes to my career, it’s all about getting the next job. When you’re working in something, you still worry about where the next job will come from. I’m 48 now and I started working when I was 21, but that feeling never goes away. It’s just how it works. It’s now become a joke in my family that as soon as I finish a job I’m on a loop saying, ‘I’m never going to work again’. It drives everyone mad! Maybe that’s why I still don’t feel like I’ve ‘made it’ yet.