Bookish star Polly Walker on show’s 'lavender marriage': "There are a lot of sexless marriages"

We’ve got a big telly and a big sofa. I like to lie down on it when I watch TV, generally with my dog or my husband [actor Laurence Penry-Jones].

What programmes do you like to watch?

I was brought up not to turn on the TV until after 6pm because you had to be productive in the day. We’ll watch all the dramas everyone’s talking about, like The White Lotus, but left to my own devices, I like documentaries, most recently a fascinating one about the Titan submersible disaster. I’m tempted – especially when I’m away filming –to get ahead of Laurence on series, but generally I wait. It’s more fun watching with other people.

When you’re watching murder mysteries, do you always try to guess whodunnit?

Yes, I always think I know, and I make a big statement about my suspicions at the beginning. I’ve read so many scripts that I know the formula at some level. My hit rate’s about 50/50!

Did you try to solve the case when you read the scripts for Bookish?

Not at all! I read them initially as a story, with an eye on the character, and I really enjoyed it. Mark Gatiss’s writing is clever, like him, and it’s tight, fast, funny and astute. He’s got a great eye for the absurd. I asked Laurence to read it to give his take on it, but he stopped after ten pages and went, “I don’t want to ruin it for myself.”

Gabriel Book [Mark Gatiss] and your character Trottie are in a “lavender marriage” of convenience – he’s gay at a time when it was illegal. What do you make of their relationship?

It’s unconventional, but as she says, it works. It’s mutually beneficial, supportive and based on genuine friendship and love between two people who’ve known each other since they were kids. It protects them both. There are a lot of sexless marriages, and I just see it like that: she’s open, non-judgemental, and wants him to be happy. He wants that for her, too, and doesn’t give her a hard time about what she gets up to.

Bookish is set in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Did you know much about the period?

No, I wasn’t taught about it at school – I don’t know if I even passed my history GCSE! But I became obsessed with documentaries about the Nuremberg trials and it brought home to me the seriousness of it all. It was a remarkable time. Men came back incredibly damaged by the war, the women had been on their own for years, having had all these amazing jobs, and had to go back into the housewife role. Some of them said the war was the time of their lives. But there had to be a basis within Trottie of how serious it was, and that’s why she embraces colour, going out, getting drunk, having boyfriends…

Books play a central role in the drama. Are you a book lover?

Yes, but I’m not a great reader. I was always jealous of those kids who’d read all of The Lord of the Rings, aged ten, when I was reading the Mandy annual. I have a lot of books by the side of the bed – at the top of the pile is The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I also buy a lot of cookery books.

You also appear in Bridgerton – has its huge success helped you get the pick of the best roles?

Bridgerton’s definitely made things easier, but I try not to engage too much with the politics of being an actor. My family and my life at home is just as important to me, if not more.

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