Polly Walker is Isabel Finch

Polly Walker believes her role in Age Before Beauty is one that will strike a chord with women:

"Bel is the heart of the piece, she is strong, but she is also weak. Bel represents lots of women who have given up careers to look after children or families, and then due to circumstances she is forced to re-evaluate everything, including herself. It feels very apt for me, at my age, to be playing this part."

Polly reveals a little about the tumultuous journey Bel goes on throughout this series:

"After taking her teenage children off to university, Bel begins a brand new life without being at the beck and call of everybody else. Initially, she feels a little lost but she is soon roped into helping out at her family beauty salon. As the most business-savvy member of her family, Bel was about to launch her own beauty product range but she gave it all up to raise her children, which she was happy to do. However, feeling her role of older sister strongly, Bel has a fervent sense of loyalty so she agrees to return to help out, temporarily.

"It is all fine until something happens that completely rocks Bel’s world. It is a momentous event in her life, to find out that the man she has loved and sacrificed things for has betrayed her. Up until this moment Bel and her husband, Wesley (James Murray), shared a good relationship. As far as she was concerned, she felt happy and they had settled into a routine after 20 years of being together. She trusted him with her life but she doesn’t recognise him anymore. So she rethinks everything."

Although Bel is usually understated in appearance, Polly enjoyed a slightly over-the-top makeover during filming.

"Having ignored herself for 20 years, Bel is forced to take a long, hard look in the mirror and think, who am I? She has lost her barometer of herself, she doesn't know where to place herself in the world, which is really common for some women.

"Feeling insecure and totally rejected, having spent so long in her ‘mum’ uniform, she attempts to feel sexy, despite feeling a million miles away from that. So she does something a little dangerous… she lets her sisters loose on her. Her sisters haven’t got the best taste so she ends up looking ridiculous and she feels it too.

"It was very funny - Bel was supposed to be struggling with the high heels they make her wear but I didn’t need to act because I really was struggling! It was fun to dress up, everyone else was so colourful around me so it was nice to briefly join in. The purpose of Bel is to be unadorned and truthful, not masking things or being obsessed with the outside package, but it was fun to play dress up for a change."

Polly tells us about Bel’s image-obsessed sisters and the intricate relationships they share:

"Bel has three younger sisters. Leanne (Kelly Harrison) is the one who is running the business now, and is definitely the most superficial of the sisters. Slightly vapid and completely self-obsessed, Leanne behaves hatefully towards Bel, who doesn’t understand why. Bel still loves Leanne, but at the same time, she is infuriated by her. Then there is Heidi (Vicki Myers) who is sweet and vulnerable; she is desperate to please everybody and Bel feels very protective of her. Then there is Tina (Lisa Riley) who Bel is the closest to out of all her sisters because she sees things honestly like Bel does and says things how they are. These characters have interesting and relatable relationships with each other which I think has such appeal."

For Polly, it was working alongside these actors that made her experience filming this drama so special:

"Singing with Robson Green was pretty epic, and completely unexpected. I didn’t know when I signed up that singing and dancing was part of the role! Some of the scenes were quite emotional and hard hitting, so to have this reprieve and lightness was a wonderful contrast. Also working alongside Sue Johnston, as I am a huge fan of hers, so having her play my mother was wonderful. The people involved in this show were my highlights.

"Oh and another personal highlight was working in Manchester, which I loved and it was just after the Ariana Grande tragedy so there was a real sense of community, of Manchester pulling together. The series is shot pretty amazingly, it shows off Manchester in a wonderful way that people may not have seen before."

Polly shares her thought on Age Before Beauty and the messages it offers:

"This drama offers a lot and with it comes many important messages. It’s about not throwing away relationships: just because they are familiar and comfortable is not to say they are without value. It is about love and loving people and treating those people well. It also carries the vital message that the outside doesn’t really matter, it is what is going on inside someone that is important. There is so much emphasis nowadays, especially for young girls with social media, on what you look like and the perfect life and it is all a lie, so that is an invaluable message. People will enjoy getting to know this family and they will hopefully get swept away with Bel’s story and her dilemma. This is about Bel and her emancipation - she is free to discover who she is, for the very first time. It’s exciting!"

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