BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

Lauren Laverne here. We're taking our Easter break, so until we're back on air,

we're showcasing a few programs from our archive. This week's guest is the actress,

Helen McCrawy, whose unexpected death at the age of 52 was announced last week.

It was my pleasure to cast her away in July last year, as usual the music's been shortened

for right reasons.

My cast away this week is Helen McCrawy, one of the most critically acclaimed actresses working

in Britain today. Throughout her 30-year career, she's won rave reviews for her theatre performances

from Chekov's Uncle Vanya to Euripides Medea. On screen, she's played Anna Karenina,

Sherry Blair, Twice, Harry Potter's Narcissum Marfoie and Peggy Blinders' Matriarch and Polly.

Her performances have been remarkable both for the emotional insight she brings to characters we

might otherwise struggle to understand, and for the transformation she undergoes while playing them.

A diplomat's daughter, she spent her early childhood in Africa, where family concerts honed her

skills as a performer. She married fellow actor Damian Lewis after falling for him at first sight,

and today they make a formidable acting duo. About her craft, she says,

I'm much more comfortable subjugating my personality to someone else's. I'm an interpreter,

that's my job. Acting isn't about you. Well, it's all about you today, Helen McCrawy,

welcome to Desert Island Disks. Thank you very much, thank you very much. Acting isn't about you

then, Helen, but I know that when you approach a character, you do start by making a list of the

similarities and differences between you and them, and I wonder who's been most like you that you've

played so far? Oh, I think I probably have to say one of my first jobs ever, which was Rose Trelawney

and Trelawney of the Wells, because she was an actress, she'd been bought up in a theatrical trunk

...