JUST PINCH ME

Charlotte Spencer on her parents' leap of faith - and an awkward handshake with Johnny Depp

- NICKY MORRIS

Charlotte Spencer is feeling lucky. The Essex-born actress is starring in season two of The Gold, the BBC drama about the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery, which premiered in 2023 to rave reviews, and says that sharing the screen with Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville and Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is a "pinch-me moment".

The 33-year-old actress landed her first major film role in Tim Burton's 2012 fantasy film Dark Shadows alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. She talks to HELLO! from her Hertfordshire home during a break from filming the TV thriller, Apollo Has Fallen – the latest in Gerard Butler's Has Fallen franchise.

Charlotte doesn't come from an acting background: her father is a builder and her mother works in a school. Her parents remortgaged their house to send her to theatre school, but she isn't the only famous face in her family – her sister, Jodie, a midwife, is married to Mamma Mia! star Jeremy Irvine.

Here, the Sanditon star shares details of an on-set encounter with Johnny Depp, exchanging acting tips with her brother-in-law, and how her parents’ leap of faith is paying off.

In The Gold you play Nicki Jennings, a working-class detective who’s determined to succeed in a male-dominated space. Is that what drew you to the role?