People can completely convince themselves of something if they want it to be true

JILL HALFPENNY STARS AS A SCHEMING LODGER WHO OUTSTAYS HER WELCOME IN NEW THRILLER, THE CUCKOO. JANE HAASE FINDS OUT MORE

ANOTHER week, another gripping four-part drama heads our way courtesy of Channel 5.

In The Cuckoo, Jill Halfpenny plays lodger Sian, who moves into the home of married couple Jessica and Nick (Casualty's Claire Goose and The Long Shadow's Lee Ingleby).

They have relocated to the countryside with their daughter Alice (Freya Hannan-Mills), and the house of their dreams, a grand doer-upper.

The family has been struggling financially and hope getting a lodger will help them get back on an even keel.

Sian quickly bonds with Jessica and Alice, making Nick suspicious.

It turns out his fears may be well-founded when ghosts from the interloper's past threaten to rear their ugly head...

Jill, 48, who has already appeared in Channel 5 thrillers The Drowning and The Holiday, is certainly a fan of the genre.

"That's the fun of watching a thriller," she says. "Nobody wants to be with the person who's like, 'I know exactly what happens "The fun of it is, 'It's them. Oh, it's her. I think that's why, as a nation, we've really-certainly in the last 10 years become obsessed with thrillers."

She says she was attracted to The Cuckoo because of the idea it would be "a bit of a nod to those old 1990s movies like Single White Female, which I thought was cool, and then we had this idea of a story about a woman who infiltrates a family" 

Initially, it was thought she would play Jessica, but Jill reveals: "It was me who said, 'Actually, can I play Sian? Can I be the person doing all this stuff, because that seems like more fun!' 

"I was attracted to playing somebody who was doing these things, rather than having them happening to her."