Rachael Stirling took being the star of a racy drama about lesbian love in her stride. But her dad almost choked on his popcorn.
Rachael Stirling has, up to now, perhaps been better known for being Diana Rigg's daughter than for her work. But that's set to be swept aside in controversial style with a passionate new TV drama series, Tipping the Velvet.
Rachael, 25, plays a lesbian heroine in the music hall world of the 1890s. The original novel was adapted by Andrew Davies, who turned Pride and Prejudice into one of the BBC's biggest hits.
Rachael's character Nan Astley has a series of affairs with women — played by the likes of Jodhi May, Anna Chancellor and Keeley Hawes — in the three-part series.
"There was no point me having any doubts once I'd been given this job," she says. "Some of the sex is very explicit and we all had to just go for it, with our characters doing some very naughty things with one another.
"A key moment for me was standing behind a curtain, ready for a scene in which I'm shown painted gold with a dildo. None of the film crew had even seen me in this state before the scene.
"But I found it strangely liberating. First, you don't feel totally naked because the gold paint is like a second skin. And second, I'm never going to do this again in my life — ever.
"So why wish it were over — why not relax and enjoy it? I've kept the gold dildo, too. I'm moving into a new flat soon and I might use it as a coat hanger — nailed to the wall."
As relaxed as Rachael was about her performance, she still warned Diana and her father Archie Stirling before they saw a preview tape of the first episode.
"My father was watching and whenever I kissed Keeley — there are a couple of double nipple moments in certain scenes — he said: 'Eyes on sandals.' Which is what he used to say to me when I was a kid.
"He was holding up a magazine over the telly, joking: "I can't. I just can't." I don't think he'll ever be able to watch episode two, which has some very explicit, full-on scenes with Anna Chancellor.
"Mum's reaction, as ever, was very supportive. She cried all the way through the first episode, which is what happens when she likes something I've done.
"It's probably the first work I've had after which they could both say: 'Yes, you've made the right decision.'"
Director Geoff Sax was aware of Rachael's work from his production of Othello and chose her for the key role.
"The first reaction at the BBC was: 'Tough tits — we've never heard of her,'" she says. "So Geoff went through a lot of interviews with other actresses, but six auditions later I finally got the part. It was one I wanted more than any other."
Rachael, who's also starred in the films Another Life, Still Crazy and Ben Elton's comedy Maybe Baby, is aware that Tipping the Velvet sets new boundaries of sexuality on BBC television.
"Some of the stage directions put off potential American investors," she says. "One just says: 'Nan stands with the dildo jutting obscenely from her bush.'
"But it's not grotesque. Many of the scenes are done with a great sense of cheekiness and humour. And it didn't feel odd, shocking or different to me.
"Love it love, whether woman to man, woman to woman or man to man. Perhaps I've underestimated some people's homophobia, but I didn't find any of it abnormal."
Rachael, who researched the role, says: "In the late Victorian era there was a fashionable underworld of lesbianism that was kept very quiet and low-key. But I've seen a collection of photos you wouldn't believe."
Rachael's own love life is strictly heterosexual. "I've never even kissed a girl before," she says. "I love women, but I'm not physically attracted to them and that stays exactly the same after all these scenes.
I can understand why some women are attracted, though, because women are much more beautiful naked and make such good friends."
What was the reaction of her boyfriend, London-based DJ John Green? "He said: 'Oh God, you didn't say there'd be tongues'", she laughs. "But he loves it.
"It was tough for him because it meant me working nonstop for three months, without any time for anything else. My character is in every scene throughout, so I was working from 5.30 each morning until 10 at night."
Rachael's clearly proud of having won the role without any influence from her mother Dame Diana, who became the only woman to marry James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
"I love her desperately and I love our relationship, but I find such a calling card really cringeworthy," she says. "I like the fact that I've made a go of things, keeping myself financially without any help from family or home."
Rachael, who'll also be seen shortly in a production called Bait with John Hurt and Sheila Hancock, is back in corserts again for a movie, the 18th-century love story The Triumph of Love.
