Hermione Norris: ‘My Children Are My Greatest Gift'

With a lead role in a new Aussie drama and a marriage that arguably had its genesis on our shores, Hermione Norris tells Jenny Brown that Australia has given her plenty to be thankful for.

- Jenny Brown

Hermione Norris gusts into a busy Bondi cafe on a blast of freezing air straight from the Antarctic. The Cold Feet favourite’s pale blonde bob is beaded with rain and her cheeks are windblown as pink as the flowers embroidered on her fine grey scarf. Outside, the main road leading down to the beach is deserted, thanks to an early morning downpour.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” the softly spoken British actress starts apologising before she even sinks down into the cushioned booth. “I’ve been talking to my family in England, and you know what that can be like with the different time zones!”

Hermione spent three months in Sydney, filming the Seven Network’s new television thriller Between Two Worlds, which she headlines alongside antipodean actor Aaron Jeffery. And as we met, the homesick star was missing her husband, Simon Wheeler, and their two children – Wilf, 15, and 12-year-old Hero – more than she could safely express.

“Don’t ask me about them, I’ll start crying,” she says, tears welling in her expressive brown eyes. “It’s harder to be away from them than I thought it would be. When [the show] was first mooted, I thought, ‘I can’t do that, it’s too far away, for too long’. But then my husband broke it down into bite-sized portions so it didn’t seem as daunting. They all came out here for a month, then I flew to England for the children’s half-term break, and they came back for another four weeks until I finished work. But I was by myself for a month in the middle, which was tough. I missed them.”