Lynda La Plante’s latest TV detective is not as tough as her predecessors. Laura Davis finds out more

WHEN Kelly Reilly was asked to play DC Anna Travis, it completed a circle in her career which began on the set of Prime Suspect more than 10 years ago.

The flame-haired actress was just 17 when she appeared in Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect: Inner Circles, alongside Dame Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison.

“I remember it being intimidating, but brilliant. I just loved working with Helen, but it was terrifying and exciting,” Kelly says.

“I asked her advice about whether I should go to drama school and she said it was the worst idea I could possibly have, that I should go off travelling for three years and then think about it afterwards.

“So I was 17 going ‘cool, I won’t go to university’ – and I didn’t, or drama school’.

“I don’t know Helen very well, but she’s somebody who’s about life. To be an actor you have to experience life and that’s what she was saying to do.”

Now 31, Kelly has worked her way up through the ranks of bit parts and supporting actress roles on stage and screen.

She played the lead in 2008 film thriller Eden Lake and now takes charge in ITV1’s Above Suspicion, based on Liverpool-born La Plante’s best-selling novel.

Kelly admits it was daunting to take on such an iconic character, but she’s quick to downplay comparisons between Anna Travis and Jane Tennison.