Suranne Jones' starring role in 'Vigil' was the most bruising challenge of her career.
Suranne Jones
The 42-year-old actress plays Amy Silva, a police detective investigating a sailor’s mysterious death, in the new BBC drama, and she admits it was the most demanding role of her life.
Suranne - who performed her own stunts on the show - reflected: "When I first read the script, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this sounds amazing - I get to do all these stunts!’
"But I forgot how old I was. I thought I was 23 when I was reading it, and that’s not true any more. So I had to do a lot of working out just to build up my strength in order to do those scenes.
"I got whiplash, I put my back out a couple of times and I was covered in bruises. Every time I went home, my husband was like, ‘What the hell have they done to you now?’
"But it was fun to do and I watch the finished series and go, ‘Oh, Amy’s great!’ But I was hobbling home and having Epsom salt baths during filming."
'Vigil' features two female leads - Suranne's character and her lesbian lover Kirsten Longacre - and the actress described the show's approach as "modern and refreshing".
She told The Sun newspaper: "What the team have tried to do is really modern, because we’ve got a real old-fashioned boysy thriller in that it’s set on a submarine and it’s a police investigation.
"And they’ve put two female leads at the heart of it, which I think is brilliant and modern and refreshing.
"And there’s also a love story between these two leads that we’re uncovering at the same time, but it doesn’t clash in any way with the thriller elements of the plot."
Tagged in Suranne Jones