Miranda Raison admits that she was in awe of her co-star Toby Stephens when she first turned up on the set of Vexed, both because of his reputation and good looks.
Miranda Raison has joined Toby Stephens in Vexed
"He's so handsome with those cheekbones to cut yourself on, and he's done so much, and he's one of those public school- sounding actors, so you expect him to be commanding the set."
It turns out one of our princes of theatre royalty, the son of Dame Maggie Smith and director Robert Stephens, is more interested in having a laugh...
"He's a clown. He rocks up, and within five minutes, everyone wants to be his best friend."
Detective Inspector Dixon (Raison) has to adapt to her colleague's strange working methods
Raison as the ambitious Detective Inspector Georgina Dixon is the latest addition to Vexed, the deliberately un-PC police drama - what she calls "a straight-faced poke at some of those dramas" - which meant stepping into the shoes of Lucy Punch's Kate Bishop, an intimidating challenge not helped by the fact Raison had seen Punch in action on the stage years before...
"... I didn't know who it was when I saw Being Julia, and I just thought she was brilliant. Fortunately, everyone's so sweet, so I managed to get over that."
This isn't the first time Raison has joined a series later than her colleagues, she did the same thing by coming on board as Jo Portman for the fourth series of Spooks, a show she seems to regard with respect and amusement in equal measure.
"It was great. Because of the story content, we had to be really serious all the time... part of me's always waiting for the parody to appear... Spooks the Musical."
Vexed returns to BBC2 on Wednesday evening at 9pm. Here they all are in action...
