Life After Mum

Lesley Manville on moving on from widow Cathy to play it posh in BBC1’s epic Sunday night wartime drama.

- Sean Marland

DRAMA

World on Fire

SUNDAY / BBC1 / 9PM

Since making her West End debut in musical I and Albert and playing farmhand Rosemary Kendall in Emmerdale Farm as a teenager in the mid-1970s, Lesley Manville has gone on to build an enviable – and seemingly endless – CV, boasting an array of TV, film and stage credits.

But the past few years have been particularly good for the Brighton-born star. There was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in 2018 film Phantom Thread, plus her perfectly pitched performance as widow Cathy in BBC2’s hit, Mum.

As the third and final series of the sitcom came to an end earlier this year, millions of viewers were rooting for Cathy to take the plunge with old friend Michael (Peter Mullan), in a storyline that captivated people of all ages.

‘I was so happy with the way the show ended,’ smiles Lesley, 63, as she joins TV Times for an exclusive interview. ‘I think the audience were drawn to Cathy and delighted when she found happiness again. It was definitely the right way to leave things!’ Sweet-natured and incredibly patient Cathy couldn’t be more different to Lesley’s latest role in BBC1’s epic Sunday night drama World on Fire, which tells the story of the first year of World War Two through the eyes of ordinary people.

Lesley plays Robina Chase, a sharp-tongued aristocrat and, in this week’s second episode, her world is turned upside down when her son, Harry (rising star Jonah Hauer-King), returns from Poland with a surprise in store.

Here, Lesley tells us more…