Lives
London.
Who is she?
Rachael will be on our screens this Christmas, playing "a dirty vicaress" in Miss Marple, and a sexy aristocrat in ITV's comedy-drama The Quest. She's currently in rehearsal for Anna in the Tropics, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the Cuban writer Nilo Cruz, which is at Hampstead Theatre from November 25 until mid-January. Most people, however, will still associate her with the lesbian television drama Tipping the Velvet, and her prominent parents, Dame Diana Rigg and Scottish landowner Archie Stirling.
Having split from her long-term boyfriend last year, she's not necessarily looking for a perfect match. "I've never understood the theory that two halves make a whole. I believe a relationship should be about two independent people."
Rachael is a keen footballer, but her all-girls team, Frisky Tan, sadly disintegrated last year when the goalie got pregnant. She also enjoys a bit of yoga, lots of reading and dancing to good music.
Pluses
Although "pathetically star-struck" herself, Rachael is loath to be a celebrity and stays well away from the party circuit, disappearing to her mother's house in France at every opportunity. "I'd rather not be on the front cover of every tabloid. I want to be a well-respected actress at the age of 60."
Minuses
She completely submerges herself in every role — Anna in the Tropics is set in a Cuban community in 1929, so she's learning how to salsa and roll a cigar. "My mind is permanently occupied with new stimuli. I can concentrate, but I won't be the most generous listener."
Best date
"Sitting on a buttress of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, looking out over the river in the evening sunshine, with some bread, cheese and a bottle of red wine."
Worst date
"Luckily for my ex-boyfriend, I don't really have one. But I don't think we live in a dating culture here — not like America, anyway."
Most romantic gesture
"I'd been away for a month and came back to find my boyfriend had transformed my garden from a wreck into something that Alan Titchmarsh might have been at — full of beautiful roses and camelias."
Favourite film
The Philadelphia Story.
Favourite book
Anna Karenina.
Nothing is sexier than…
"A sense of the ridiculous."
