Lisa Riley is Tina Regan

A tomboy, a tattoo artist and the family’s secret keeper, Lisa Riley tells us about her unpredictable character, Tina Finch.

"The best thing about Tina is that she deals with things through her sarcasm. She is the confidante and totem pole who keeps the family together. When the chips are down and low within the family, she deals with it so brilliantly. Everyone confides in Tina and she doesn’t miss a trick, she knows everything that is going on.

"Robson (Green) and I decided one day that Tina is like the modern day Miss Marple - nothing gets past her. She is everyone’s sister and friend and that is because she is so direct and deals with things through truth and honesty and I love that about her. To me, Tina is the unsung hero of the piece, which I love.

"Tina gets her gratification by keeping the ship afloat, and in this drama the ship is her family. If they didn’t have her, the ship would sink. Society has a tendency to judge everyone before they get to know them and that’s what everyone has always done with Tina but they are wrong, she has this wonderful and shocking secret which is revealed."

Lisa talks us through Tina’s incredible look and lets us in on the secrets behind each of Tina’s many tattoos:

"I worked really closely with the designer on the show and with hair and make-up, as we were keen not to make Tina too butch. We looked at people like Dita Von Tees but added a tomboy twist.

"Tina is the tattooist in the family salon, she tattoos eyebrows and lip lines. I have had to have lots of tattoos put on every day and each one of them has a story and meaning. You have the wise old owl which represents Tina’s role in the family; she is loyal and respectful. The Manchester bee, nothing flies by Tina. You have the key, which represents the notion that she locks away secrets - you can trust her. It is a really fun look and it works perfectly for the role."

Whilst she enjoys having her tattoos done every day, Lisa tells us it’s a bit more daunting when you’re the one with the machine in your hand:

"Doing the real tattoo on someone was a challenge. I sat in with a female tattooist for a day as research. So when I was doing it on set we had the foot peddle, the ink and the noise, everything except the needle. We had a supporting actress come in one day to have a beauty treatment done, which was Tina tattooing her eyebrows. Pre-tattoo, as prep on the day, you have this cream that looks like black hair mousse put on your brows so for a short while she looked a little like Freddie Mercury!"

As for Lisa herself, would she ever consider getting a tattoo?

"I have been to the tattoo parlour three times and chickened out. I do want one on my foot and I will probably get it one day, but the idea of it being forever freaks me out ever so slightly. Jim (Murray) and I play best friends in this drama and he gets his big tattoo covered up, whilst I get mine put on everyday which is always funny!"

Playing a character who works in a salon, Lisa talks about her own feelings towards the world of beauty and the pressures from it:

"I have had two massive operations on my body to make it better, but I have still not had Botox and I am 41, although I am never ruling it out. I am really into my fitness now too, it gives you an amazing buzz. Vicki (Myers) and I go to zumba classes together and I have had a few yoga classes which have been great and has helped me sleep at night.

"As actors there is a massive pressure to look good, but nowadays people talk about things like eyebrow tattoos like they’re buying a Twix. We are removing young people from being children now and that does concern me because I never had that - we were allowed to grow up. You are told you have to look a certain way but you don’t. It is much better to walk in your own shoes and find your own look. Be individual, that’s me all over. Even when I was at my biggest I still dressed differently. Don’t be a sheep."

In real life Lisa has one brother, but in the show she has lots of sisters. She tells us what it has been like working with her on-screen family:

"It’s been amazing. We have literally morphed into this family, and that is what has been so lovely about this project. When you are working so closely with people for so many hours day in and day out on set as a family it is bound to happen and I have loved it. Like Tina, I have genuinely been a confidante for the girls, but that is me, I am a good listener.

"Having Sue Johnston play my mum has also been amazing. We are inseparable. I love that woman, we have become so close. She is a dream on every level and there have been so many opportunities in scenes where we share a little look because we think the same, our characters both share that sarcasm and a sense of control over their decisions. Her playing my mum feels like one of those tick the box off the bucket list moments, just like working with Debbie Horsfield has been."

Working with amazing actors has been one of many highlights for Lisa, along with shooting in her hometown of Manchester:

"There is something special about coming home to film. I am so proud to be from Manchester and I love the way they have made this show very Mancunian.

"It is such a beautiful city and very multicultural, which I love. We did a scene the other night on the roof of the salon and we got to see the whole skyline. It really makes you realise how phenomenal Manchester is. We were all there with our iPhones taking pictures with the director laughing at us, as most of us grew up here!"

A Foreword by Debbie Horsfield

"In 2001 I worked with Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes on a series called Cutting It, which was set in the world of hairdressing. Fifteen years on, Laura, Sally and I were discussing what had changed in the world of makeovers and personal grooming, and we agreed that women - and increasingly, men - had become much more obsessed with looking youthful. The anti-ageing side of the beauty industry had exploded in those intervening years so we thought it would be interesting to explore the impact on three generations of one family by using it as the backdrop to our saga.

Age Before Beauty explores the expectations we have, and the 'rules' we create about what people are 'allowed' to do at any given age. It was inspired by a feature I read about what women were and weren’t 'allowed' to wear, according to their age and shape! [No bikinis after 35. No long hair over 40. No mini-skirts after 25. No leather trousers ever unless you’re 6ft tall and a size 8!] It made me wonder what other rules are there out there, which people feel they have to abide by? Especially in a world of selfies and social media where so many people are keen to pass judgement and so many people feel they have much to live up to.

So Age Before Beauty became less about specific anti-ageing beauty treatments and much more about characters deciding to confound age-related expectations - for better or worse - at whatever age they fancied! I say for better or worse because one of the things we explore is the midlife crisis. We ask the question: Is it automatically better to be young? Does age always envy youth? Is beauty always the thing to aim for? Or does youth and beauty ever have anything to learn from age and maturity?

We’re looking at three generations of one family and exploring how they deal with the demands of youth, age and everything in between. And how they confound expectations. So for instance, the worst-behaved generation is actually the oldest and the most sexualised and overdressed is actually a nine year-old!

Family has always played a large role in my work and I enjoy exploring the dynamics between siblings and different generations. In Age Before Beauty we have three generations, aged from nine to late 60s, and we’ve been fortunate enough to assemble an extraordinary cast. The drama is set in my home town of Manchester. Obviously I’m biased but I feel there are particular qualities about the city (its vibrant multiculturalism and ever-changing faces) and its inhabitants (their resilience, irreverence, inventiveness, humour) - which make for particularly entertaining drama.

It’s been fun to return to the world of contemporary Manchester after being immersed in 18th century Cornwall for the past few years, but in truth I’ve loved both worlds and would happily return to either and both!"

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two