Rachael Stirling 'sobbed' through mum Diana Rigg's last movie Last Night in Soho (2024)

Actress Rachael Stirling, 44, on caring for mum Dame Diana Rigg, why it’s vital to be ‘inappropriate’ and the genius of Anna Maxwell Martin.

Where are you today?

I’m at home. I just dropped my boy off at school. Jack is four and he’s just started his new school. I’m really thrilled. It means you’ve detached and done good parenting and all that malarkey.

My husband, Guy Garvey [lead singer of Elbow], has been on tour so I’ve done the new school uniform and all that. Now I’ve come back here and I’ve got six hours to do with what I want but I do everything in about the first hour and then twiddle my thumbs.

Congratulations on new drama Hollington Drive. What happens between your character, Helen, and Anna Maxwell Martin’s Theresa is gripping…

Thank you, yes, it’s right up my strasse. I like character-based, fast-paced thrillers and I just love the way director Carolina Giammetta has shot it. I like the twists and turns. It’s incredibly stylish.

It peeks into the darkest bits of human nature and dips itself in all our worst-case scenarios — fears about what we would do as parents in extremis. How far would you go?

It’s fascinating seeing the relationships between the two mothers and their only children, Helen’s Eva and Theresa’s Ben…

If those kids, Amelie Bea Smith, who plays Eva, Fraser Holmes, who plays Ben and Hughie Harmer, who plays the missing boy, Alex, weren’t absolutely brilliant actors the show wouldn’t work no matter how good Anna and I are.

This is Fraser’s first ever job and he could improvise on the spot.

Do you think there’s a unique intensity that comes with a mother and her only child?

Yes, I do. I think an only child, a mother and a daughter, can be so intense. The problem with it — and me and my beloved ma, Diana Rigg, had this and Helen has it with her daughter — is that Helen thinks she knows what her daughter is thinking at all times.

Helen’s major downfall is in not listening to her daughter. I think Eva is frightened of her mother, yet yearns for her approval. That’s the push and pull and therein lies the complexity — paging Sigmund Freud — of those relationships.

What do you most enjoy about working with Maxwell Martin?

She’s high-octane. If you’re not a genius and, unlike Anna, have to look at the script occasionally to learn your lines, you need to be prepared before you arrive on set when she is around.

You need to be on your toes before you have the rug pulled out from under you from the hilarious chaos that is Anna.

When the subject matter is as dark as Hollington Drive, do you need those moments of on-set levity?

Yes, they are so necessary. You let off steam. You do all the inappropriate things that you shouldn’t do in such circumstances. To me, to both of us, to go from hysteria to grief is not that much of a leap.

It’s really a short hop, whereas if I were wandering around deep in method, taking myself a bit too seriously, you lose energy somehow.

Did you enjoy your recent guest role on Grantchester?

Oh my God, I loved playing that tart with a heart, Margie Danker! I was offered it about two weeks after Mama died in 2020. I was so tired — I was her full-time carer — that I had forgotten I was an actress.

But Mum loved talking about work. I thought, ‘Do you know what? This is exactly what I should do and exactly what Mum would encourage me to do.’

I had a slight wobble on set but Robson Green and Tom Brittney and dear Tessa Peake-Jones and all the joyful people were so happy to be working that I was thrilled to be there. It’s all about the work and engaging one’s head and heart. Those are the things that my mum loved and those are the things that I love.

Your mother’s final movie, Last Night In Soho, is out soon. Have you seen it?

I have and it’s wonderful. I sobbed all the way through. Edgar Wright, the director, was waiting outside to see what I thought of it and I sobbed all over him. It’s witty and fun.

So, what are you doing with the rest of your day?

I’m going to the actors’ church, St Paul’s in Covent Garden, to meet the beloved Reverend Richard Syms, who is an actor who I did my first West End show with. I’m going to discuss and plan my mum’s plaque, which is really joyful.

I finally worked out what to put on it. I wasn’t allowed to be as irreverent as I wanted to be but it will be fun. Initially, they offered me a bench. They said, ‘I’m afraid we’ve run out of plaque space.’

To which I said, ‘F*** off, nobody is sitting on my mother!’ So I’m going to potter about with him and work out where to put it.

Hollington Drive continues on Wednesdays, 9pm, on ITV

MORE : Hollington Drive: Where was ITV drama filmed and how many episodes are there?

MORE : Hollington Drive: Who is in the cast of the ITV drama and is it based on a book?

Rachael Stirling 'sobbed' through mum Diana Rigg's last movie Last Night in Soho (2024)
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