Sarah Lancashire thought she was the "wrong" choice for the lead role in 'Happy Valley.'
Sarah Lancashire feared she wasn't right for Happy Valley role
The 58-year-old actress has played the part of police officer Catherine Cawood in the acclaimed drama series - which returned to screens earlier this month after a break of seven years - since 2014 but admitted that in the first few weeks of filming, she was sure that show bosses had made a "mistake" with her casting.
She said: "People have been asking me for years if there will be a third series. It was all down to Sally Wainwright finding the time to write it. For the first three or four weeks, I kept saying 'I'm wrong for this role, you've made a mistake!'. I couldn't find a way of feeling comfortable - I just felt like an actor in a uniform. I was scared the accent was coming across as too bored. Maybe it was because I was slightly stepping away from my comfort zone that I never really felt comfortable with her - and that was probably a good thing in retrospect."
However, the former 'Coronation Street' star went on to add that after watching the first episode, she thought the drama series was "terrific" and even though she has a "great admiration" for the police force, she could never really be an officer herself.
She told MyWeekly: "I thought it was terrific! The characters and the story were so engaging and really captured people's imagination. I also think that the production value is very high on this. The feedback was that [real-life police] had never seen a police officer portrayed accurately and that Catherine Cawood was an exception.
"This has been down to Lisa Farrand, who was our police advisor. She is retired from the force now but she was a sergeant and whenever we had to do any sort of procedural stuff, Lisa was with me. I've great admiration for the police but I've learned I really don't want to be a police officer. It's interesting but it's not for me! I also learned when I went out on call with them just how undermanned they are.
"But I've always said that 'Happy Valley' is not really about a police officer, it's about a woman who is clearly very damaged by losing her daughter and is just trying to get by, day by day. She's a bit screwed up, and I like that. We all are, whether we like to admit it or not. She wants revenge for her daughter, but she's not doing it as a police officer. She's doing it as a mother. And I admire the way in which she does the things she does."
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