'I'VE BECOME ONE OF THOSE NOISY PARENTS'

Sophie Winkleman is loving her latest role as a busybody mother - and the actress is also raising her voice to keep her own children safe from technology in schools

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

She made her name in comedy shows on both sides of the Atlantic, has acted in period costume dramas and big-budget Hollywood films, and is a member of the royal family.

But the latest role in Sophie Winkleman’s eclectic career, as a busybody mother, is one of her favourites to date.

“It’s one of the nicest jobs I've had in years,” Sophie tells HELLO! as we sit down to talk about the BBC’s new drama Wild Cherry and her character, Frances, whom she describes as “Hyacinth Bucket reincarnated”, referring to the late Dame Patricia Routledge’s character in the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.

“She’s a curtain-twitching gossip and the worst kind of WhatsApp classroom-group nightmare. She’s meddling, judgmental and smug. It was fun playing someone that annoying, because I've had a few years of playing gracious, civil, good-hearted ladies. Plus the writer is a serious talent, and the rest of the cast and crew were wonderful,” she says.

Best known for her recurring role as Big Suze in the Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, Sophie, 45, also played Ashton Kutcher’s onscreen girlfriend in the US sitcom Two and a Half Men for four years.

More recently, she took on a role in the film Wonka, also playing Lady Susan in the period drama Sanditon and the Duchess of Rochester in Belgravia: The Next Chapter.

WILD TIMES