Interview with Katherine Parkinson

Yours is a slightly unconventional family unit...

Kim is in a relationship with Susie, who has a child that she conceived 15 years ago by artificial insemination with Neil. Kim is now pregnant by Neil and Susie thinks she was also artificially inseminated, but actually Neil and Kim have feelings for each other so things are a little complicated. 

Was it a joint decision for Kim and Susie to have a baby?

I think they both were very keen to add to their family. I think that whenever a woman gets to a certain age and is in a steady relationship, it's something she thinks about.  I always got the impression that they were both as up for it as each other. 

So a complicated situation is brewing and she's hiding a big secret from Susie…

I think Kim probably hopes that what had happened with her and Neil was a one-off and that the feelings will go away.  But the fact that she's carrying his child, that Neil is a very hands-on father with Jude and he's very supportive to her in her pregnancy, means that she's seeing him a lot and the feelings get stronger and stronger. She's lying to herself as well as Susie and it's making their relationship turn quite rotten. But she feels so guilty because she does love Susie and it's not just betraying her it's betraying her with her best friend - with the child they were supposed to have together, which is such an awful situation. 

Has Susie got an inkling something's not right?

I think so. I think that whenever you try and pretend that things are happy in a relationship and they're not, people usually guess something’s not working. You tend to see Kim and Susie at loggerheads but the reason it's so painful is that there was proper love there. It would be much easier for Kim to walk away if that wasn't the case. 

Kim's blog authors the piece...

The blog is the way all the women stay in touch with what's going on, but it's also the way that Kim is frank and can be so honest about her experiences. It's that modern thing; it's a great device as you've got an internal monologue but it's legitimately being communicated to all the other women. 

Have you ever blogged?

No, I'm so unbloggy! I don't even use social networking, just because I feel like I haven't got enough time as it is! But I like to read some. When I was pregnant with my first child I was really grateful for pregnancy blogs as you want to connect with women, so I'm very appreciative to women who do. 

You seem an extremely close cast

As a cast, we got on almost straight away, especially as some of us knew each other already. I've had a lot more to do with Hannah, Tara and Jonathan, but as a whole cast we all get on brilliantly. It's been a very happy job. One of the reasons I wanted to do it was because it had lots of females and I'm usually with lots of men. 

Being pregnant playing pregnant must have brought a whole other dimension...

I read these scripts and that didn't help my broodiness. It's been a lovely job to be pregnant on. I'd just filmed the Honourable Woman, just before this, playing pregnant in that too. 

What drew you to the project?

I love Kay's work, she's so prolific and it's such heartfelt writing and dramatic in all the right way. I was really drawn to do so something so female-led because I do a lot of comedy, where you find lots of men. And I thought it would be good to work with other women! Christine and I go way back.