Is there ever a part of her that misses Hollywood and being away? “I feel like I’ve got a life in LA and a career there when I want to,” she says. “I have a house there,” she adds, rolling her eyes and laughing, “as you can imagine, I thought I’d be there for six years, so now I take all my actor friends in when they visit LA. We call it Britwood.”

Right now, she says she’s going through “a period of going back to doing very British things” in her career. This is despite being offered “more than” six US television pilots following Pushing Daisies. She pinpoints being in the UK more as a reason for the decision, combined with the fact there just wasn’t an offer that excited her. Plus, she feels 2009’s The Street “a very gritty Northern drama” written by Jimmy ‘Cracker’ McGovern in which she starred as a desperate single mother who turns to prostitution was significant. “People responded to it so well I thought, ‘Right, I’ve got to introduce a bit more of that. Let’s use my [Manchester] accent again.’ I started to think that maybe people missed what I started off doing.”

Keeping it Private

One thing’s for sure, her next two projects, Neverland and an ITV1 adaptation of the bestselling novel by Nicci French, What To Do When Someone Dies, both due to be shown in the autumn, showcase her talent and depth as a leading actress, with the latter – the story of a widower grieving the loss of her husband – being Anna’s most challenging yet.

“We shot it in six weeks and the director pushed me to the point of breakdown,” she says. “But I had to hold it all in until the end, because I wanted to demonstrate these various stages of grief.” I comment that I’ve always liked her best in things that are emotional and gritty. “I feel like that sort of role really broadens my horizons as an actress and you need that to sustain longevity and get better,” she agrees.

She says the timing of the project was “weird” and from this I presume it was filmed around the time of the split with David. However, Anna won’t go into this except to later say, “We were together for 10 years and I’ll always love him very much.” Later, she reiterates how much she loves him and that he’s a brilliant father. “He’s a dear, dear man, and we’re great parents. He’s always got his eye on Gracie, as have I.”

The topic of Rhys Ifans remains tricky. “He [Rhys] won’t talk about it at all,” she says of their relationship. “Because if you don’t keep something private for you, your life’s a reality programme. I don’t go to places and go, ‘Come and pap me’. We go to a little pub or camping to Wales. I won’t put myself in that position because I want to keep my private life private; we don’t even walk together at airports.”

Interview: Anna Friel