Beware the femme fatale

After years of delivering laughs alongside British comedy heavyweights like Kris Marshall in Beyond Paradise and Lee Mack in Not Going Out, Sally Bretton is flipping the script.

- LAURA CARRENO-MULLER

Trading punchlines for pulsating suspense, Sally dives headfirst into darker waters with Channel 5's new thriller, The Au Pair. "I couldn't resist," Sally says. "I've never done anything like this before."

In The Au Pair, Sally plays Zoe Dalton, a woman who seems to have it all. She's a successful seamstress, living in a picture-perfect Cotswolds home with her loving husband Chris, and his two children, Noah and Amber.

But beneath her calm exterior lies years of suppressed emotions. "She's very trusting and gentle by nature," Sally, 44, says. "She has listened and trusted people around her all her life to make very large decisions." Zoe is forced to break free of the illusion when her family comes under threat. "You see her tune into her own intuition and she starts to follow what she actually wants," Sally adds.

"I enjoyed that about her."

Zoe's bond with Noah is solid but teenage Amber has been a tougher nut to crack. After three years of subtle hostility and outright tension, there's finally a glimmer of peace between them.

Zoe's career is also flourishing but life throws her a curveball when her diabetic father George moves in, needing constant care. Enter Sandrine, the perfect au pair — or so it seems.