Fresh off her captivating performance as the scheming bride-to-be Sonia in the Gavin & Stacey finale, Laura Aikman is set to grace our screens once more, this time as another villainess.
The actress, who left viewers gobsmacked with her unexpected appearance as Smithy’s fiancée in the Christmas Day special, will be portraying Rachel Duffy in the upcoming drug drama This City Is Ours, due on BBC One.
The high-budget series was filmed last year, coinciding with Laura’s work on Gavin & Stacey. “It was the year of the bitch,” Laura quips, adding, “But they’re great to play.”
While snobbish Sonia was what Laura fondly dubs a “rotter”, Rachel is a far more sinister character, harbouring aspirations to rise through the ranks of Liverpool’s murky drug underworld.
This role marks a refreshing change for Laura, who has spent a significant portion of her career playing romantic interests. “One of the first things I fell in love with about Rachel was that she never tries to make other people feel comfortable,” Laura shares. “We all have that tendency to laugh at a bad joke or fill silence but Rachel doesn’t give a s**t.”
She’s happy for everyone to get uncomfortable. She can be quite rude, she tells people what she thinks, she doesn’t like new people but she’s really smart, she’s determined and she’s ambitious.”
This City Is Ours also features Sean Bean as gang boss Ronnie Phelan, with Julie Graham portraying his wife Elaine. Laura’s character Rachel is their niece, a newly qualified accountant eager to claim her spot in the family enterprise.
(Image: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)
“She’s waiting to pick her moment and she feels she’s been very patient,” reveals Laura. “As the series progresses, that patience wears thin and you see her become more determined in pursuing her desires. She’s relentless.”
Off-screen, Laura, 39, is a vibrant and effervescent personality who enjoys her leisure time with actor hubby Matt Kennard and their adorable French bulldog Eric. This month, they’re raising a glass to 18 years of togetherness and a decade of marital bliss.
Last year, filming commitments often kept them apart, so they chose to wrap up the year by reconnecting in an off-the-beaten-path adventure – a scenic yet gruelling 12-day hike through Nepal’s Himalayan Annapurna Circuit. This trekking tradition was born out of their post-wedding escapade.
“After we tied the knot, we embarked on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu,” shares Laura. “It felt like a honeymoon and I became addicted to these adventurous holidays. We conquered Kilimanjaro four years ago, then jetted off to Nepal at the end of last year after wrapping up Gavin & Stacey and This City Is Ours, which were filmed concurrently.”
This getaway not only allowed Laura and Matt to rekindle their bond but also provided a much-needed escape from the pressures of their acting careers – something a beach holiday couldn’t offer. Laura enthuses, “It was extraordinary.
It was amazing to be immersed in the mountains and just reconnect with each other because our work often keeps us apart for significant periods.”
Laura shot to fame as the plucky junior doctor May Phelps in Casualty between 2009 and 2010, and she’s been dazzling us ever since with roles in The Job Lot, Bluestone 42, the Cary Grant biopic series Archie, and the retro ITV heist drama Joan.
(Image: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)
This April, Disney+ has everyone buzzing with the news that Laura will join the stellar cast of Suspect: The Shooting Of Jean Charles De Menezes, featuring alongside Daniel Mays, Russell Tovey, and Max Beesley. Despite her success, Laura confesses that the life of an actor isn’t without its worries, especially when it comes to landing the next gig.
“Being an actor comes with a certain level of anxiety about when that next job is going to come, and trekking really takes you away from it and makes you commit to not being even remotely in that headspace,” Laura shares, adding that her daily fitness routine is key to maintaining mental clarity.
She notes the difference between active getaways and more laid-back beach holidays, where the temptation to stay connected can make it tough to switch off from work completely.
“Whereas if you’re on a beach holiday, which I am also a fan of, your phone is still by your side all the time, so I think it’s harder to completely put your career in the bin for a bit.”
There was a time when acting jobs were thin on the ground, and Laura toyed with the idea of swapping scripts for spatulas. “I’ve done so many other jobs, but all of them absolutely dreadfully,” she admits with a hint of resignation.
Reflecting on a particularly lean period about a decade ago, she reveals, “There was a brief period of unemployment about 10 years ago when I considered baking cakes for a farmers’ market but I think I’d be the size of a house if that had worked out.”
Laura’s career is soaring, yet she still finds herself in awe when rubbing shoulders with the industry’s finest. Recalling her time on the set of Gavin & Stacey, Laura described filming Smithy and Sonia’s wedding as particularly daunting, with a star-studded audience including Alison Steadman, Larry Lamb, Joanna Page, Mathew Horne, James Corden, and Ruth Jones witnessing her character’s big moment.
The tension ramped up when Anna Maxwell Martin made a surprise appearance as the registrar. “It was terrifying on the day of the wedding, because everyone was TV royalty,” Laura admitted.
She explained the added pressure of wedding scenes: “It’s always nerve-wracking filming a wedding anyway, because usually when you’re in a scene, not everyone is looking at you. So I was dreading it, and then Anna Maxwell Martin turned up as the registrar and I was like, ‘Oh no, another one!’ But it was lovely.”
Laura, who also had to master line dancing for a party scene in This City Is Ours, was spotted in the Strictly Come Dancing audience last year, cheering on her friend Sarah Hadland, who made it to the finals with Vito Coppola. But would she ever consider taking a spin on the dance floor herself?
Laura was quick to shut down that idea, stating firmly: “Never would I ever. I don’t enjoy public humiliation, so no! I went to rehearsals and saw Sarah and Vito and Sarah’s a brilliant dancer… but there’s no amount of money you could pay me to do that!”.
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