It’s the morning after the night before for Sarah Parish. She has had a late night out, not that you would notice. She is looking fresh and gorgeous, laughing and joking about.
This is certainly not something Annie Naylor, her character in Trust would normally get up to. Annie is a formidable force in law firm Cooper-Fozard, and knows exactly what she wants - a partnership - and how to get it.
"Annie’s controlling and quite stubborn," explains Sarah. "She’s quite a pedantic person who has to do everything herself, otherwise she doesn’t think it’ll be done properly.
"She’s one of those people who’d sit in the back of a cab and say, ‘No, no, no - you don’t want to go that way; you want to go down here!’, even though the cabby’s been living there for years and she’s only just moved there."
Annie’s drive and determination mean that her family ultimately plays second fiddle to her career.
"Annie’s a woman who is juggling a very difficult career and a family. At some point something’s going to break," explains Sarah.
"The emphasis for Annie is on herself and not so much on her family anymore. It’s Annie’s career: Annie’s got to get this, Annie’s got to do that - and I think that becomes quite tiresome for her husband after a while. When you are determined to get something, as Annie is determined to be made a partner, other things pale into insignificance. Things that should be important are suddenly left by the wayside - she wants that partnership no matter what, but she is actually losing her family because of it. She’s in a Catch-22 situation."
Annie is most certainly a focused woman and, according to Sarah, quite similar to herself. As Sarah explains, she tends to get asked to play strong, career minded women who are juggling work and family.
"I tend to play characters who are quite driven, which is great because they are always such interesting parts," says Sarah. "A lot of the parts I have played are similar: they are all strong in different ways, however. Allie in Cutting It was strong in a very vulnerable, sweet way. She looked after her family even though her mother was horrible to her. She tried to support everyone and make them all happy.
Sarah as Annie Naylor "Annie is strong in a more insular way; she is very focused on herself. It’s not that she’s being selfish, or a bad person, it’s just that she’s focused on one thing at a time, whereas Allie could deal with a million things at once. As for Amanda in Hearts and Bones, she was just a bit of a bitch!"
So, can Sarah identify with any elements of the characters she plays? "Annie is very similar to me insofar as I have a very unattractive quality of being quite controlling and a bit manipulative. I like to get what I want, but in a roundabout way. When I read Trust I thought, ‘Oh that rings a bell!’"
In Trust, Sarah is part of an ensemble cast which includes Robson Green, Neil Stuke and newcomer Chiwetel Eijofor. Sarah reveals that during filming the cast were far from serious. "I loved it," giggles Parish. "Neil Stuke nearly set me up good and proper with Ian McShane. He said, ‘Go up and ask him if he’s bought any antiques recently - go on’. Of course I had forgotten that he was in Lovejoy. I didn’t say anything, luckily!
"Robson Green is a gem; I can’t wax lyrical enough about him. He’s just the loveliest man, and brilliant to work with. We had a great chemistry, we got on brilliantly. He made me laugh hysterically and he’s just incredibly supportive. It’s very rare in the acting business that you come across somebody who is that supportive and that generous to other actors."
It seems that Sarah has not stopped working for the last few years. Since her starring role in both series of BBC One’s Hearts and Bones, Sarah’s credits include The Vice, Table 12 and Cutting It. The popularity of these shows has propelled Sarah into the public eye and, in turn, on to the front pages.
"I find being followed by photographers very funny; it doesn’t happen very often, though," she confesses. "The first time it happened I was in Hampstead and I didn’t realise what was going on. As far as I was concerned, I just seemed to be getting in the way of a tourist taking photos. Everything he wanted to take a picture of, I was there in front of it. I was trying to get out of the way, but there he’d be again.
Sarah with Amanda Holden in 'Cutting It' "Eventually he just had to come over to me and say, ‘I’m taking a picture of you, darling’ and I said, ‘Oh, right, OK’. So my entire shopping trip just went to pot because I spent the whole time posing!"
On the rare occasions when Sarah is not working, she loves to get out of London. Her new car is her latest passion, and she likes long drives into the country. She also tries to get home to Somerset as often as possible.
"I had a couple of months off at the beginning of the year when I went home to Somerset, crawled into bed and got out two months later. My mum said: ‘Now don’t do that again; it’s silly working yourself to death’, and I said, ‘Yeah, all right’. And then I took on six jobs back to back!"
Sarah has hardly had any time off for the last year, as she has filmed a TV feature film, again with Robson Green, called Unconditional Love. She is currently up in Manchester filming the second series of Cutting It for BBC One.