The ITALIAN job

EMILIA FOX on playing a British spy who turns detective in Umbria

- IAN MACEWAN

SYLVIA FOX

EMILIA FOX

The ex-spy is in Italy for her niece's wedding, but soon has cause to use her sleuthing skills.

SIGNORA VOLPE

NEW FROM HOLIDAY MONDAY 2 MAY, ACORN TV DRAMA

She's usually seen conducting post-mortems under the artificial lights of The Lyell Centre's lab as forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander in BBC1 drama Silent Witness.

So Emilia Fox was delighted to be on location in sunny Italy for her latest series, Acorn TV's brand-new crime drama Signora Volpe.

The three-parter stars Emilia as Sylvia, a high-ranking MI6 employee who is taking a welcome break from work to attend her niece's wedding in Umbria, where she is reunited with her sister, Isabel, played by Belgravia star Tara Fitzgerald.

But when the groom disappears and a dead body is found near his home, Sylvia draws on her espionage skills to carry out her own investigation.

TV Times caught up with Emilia, 47, to find out more...

Your character’s surname is Fox, or ‘Volpe’ in Italian. Was the part written with you in mind?

It was a happy accident! There were a few conversations about changing her name, but none of the others worked quite as well.

What can you tell us about Sylvia?

Sylvia’s at a crossroads in her life. She’s been totally focused on her work at MI6, but she wants to escape her job for a while, because it has turned into something that she is dissatisfied with. Now she’s looking for something else.