What is Life After Life about?

I find it very difficult to articulate in a nutshell, because it’s so rich and complex and thrilling. One night in 1910, on a winter’s night, Ursula Todd is born. She’s my daughter, and she dies. But on that same night she is born again, and she lives. I think we get to see her live something like 20 lives in our version of events.

It’s an adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s amazing novel and I think there’s a few more iterations of her life in that one. It’s about life, birth and death and if we had a second chance, a third or a fourth chance, an infinite number of changes; would we do things differently? Would we change the way we live our lives, the way we treat one another? It asks a lot of questions that I find really exciting.

What changes are there between Ursula and her mother Sylvie?

The relationship between them is so beautifully written by Kate, and by Bash Doran, our wonderful screenwriter. Because it’s so complex, I really believe it as a mother/daughter relationship. What’s beautiful about this story is that it has different outcomes depending on the choices that either one of them make. It shifts their identities sometimes, so there are versions of Sylvie that are completely different in certain lives, and that is absolutely what fascinated me about this character. To examine who we become, depending on decisions that we make, but also that other people make.

Why do you like playing the character of Sylvie?

She feels so real to me, she can spin on a dime. She can be really warm and loving and maternal one second but also has sharp edges. I really love the way she’s written.

What have been your favourite scenes to play?

James McArdle and I have been friends for over 10 years but never worked together. When I found out, it was a really joyous and amazing moment for us and it’s been a gift. There was so much trust there and an incredible rapport and chemistry that we have for each other, so I think some of those have been some of my favourite moments. The big family scenes have been amazing to do; tough and challenging in terms of capturing rhythm. I’ve honestly not felt this kind of magic on a set for a long time, it’s been really cohesive and collaborative.

What has it been like working with Thomasin McKenzie?

She’s an extraordinary actress, I don’t know how to talk about her without crying. We have four Ursulas: a baby Ursula, the wonderful Eliza Reilly who plays Ursula aged five; we then have Isla Johnston, who plays Ursula aged eight, and then Thomasin from aged 16 upwards. It blows my mind how those girls and those women have just captured the spirit of the same person.

Is there a specific costume from any scene that might have been put in the back of your car when you drive off on your last day?

A lot of my costumes have been made from scratch or hired, and all of them belong to a costume house, so I didn’t get to keep a single one. Some of them are incredibly delicate. There’s one dress that’s actually an original from 1905, a Liberty dress, and I ripped it walking onto the makeup truck which was absolutely devastating. They have managed to fix it but you could feel the fragility of the fabric. When you wear something like that, you can feel the history in it and it really makes me think about the person who would have worn it and feel the energy around it. So sadly I don’t get to keep any of them, but some of them are outrageously chic and Sylvie is very sophisticated.

How do you feel about Sylvie’s overall look?

Konnie [Daniels] has had an absolute mountain to climb because not only has she had to drastically age James McArdle and I, but she’s also had to make us look younger that we actually are. She’s done an incredible job. We have all worked so hard to get that look and also had a VFX specialist to come in as we had to gain quite a few years. It’s difficult to do that subtly and I know it was really important to John [Crowley] that we captured that in the acting as much as possible and had to feel different energetically.

We span so much time across the show, there are four decades in this, or more, as we do leap up to the 70s for one scene. It’s a lot and they have done an incredible job. I’ve never played someone as old as I do in this outside of drama school, but I’ve loved the challenge of it.

What makes this stand apart from other period dramas?

I love period drama but this feels very contemporary to me. The concept of a multi-universe, of reincarnation, of an infinite number of lives. Even the way we’re filming feels very contemporary; a lot of it is on a handheld camera and the bits I have seen of it on the monitors has a dynamic energy which I think is rare in a period drama. It feels very youthful and exuberant. I think it asks very philosophical questions.

Can you sum up Life After Life in three words?

Life, birth, death.