\u201cYou\u2019re a terrible, insecure, cowardly f***er,\u201d Sister Anna cries.<\/p>\n
Do nuns really talk like that?<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. We had a debate about that line on set,\u201d Hawes says. \u201cWe agreed: nuns are women and they do have strong feelings. For research, I met a nun who went over the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
A nun going over the wall means one who has abandoned the consecrated life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might say she\u2019s got out of the habit,\u201d Hawes says. \u201cSee what I did there?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"NINTCHDBPICT001077514218\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/33d7760d-353d-40f5-9cc8-e388687ae956.jpg\")
\u201cA lot about modelling was not great. What young women were expected to do\u2026\u201dtom jackson for the times magazine<\/p>\n
Falling was created by Jack Thorne, who wrote the award-winning Netflix drama Adolescence<\/a>. Why has the man who wrote a zeitgeisty drama about online radicalisation (and is busy co-writing four hotly anticipated Beatles biopics) decided to write his first love story about a nun and a Catholic priest?<\/p>\n \u201cBecause he has some wonderful ideas about what true love is,\u201d Hawes says.<\/p>\n In the convent, Sister Anna can\u2019t wear make-up or have a smartphone. Also there are no mirrors and, over her 20 years in the convent, she has become \u201cprofoundly hairy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yet I totally see the appeal,\u201d Hawes says. \u201cLook at the pressures young women are under today. Even if they\u2019re not joining a convent, I know a lot of women are getting off social media and joining clubs or embracing traditional hobbies like knitting or baking because, well, they want to be in the moment with like-minded people. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Would Hawes make a good nun?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure I could handle being hairy for ever,\u201d she allows thoughtfully. \u201cBut mostly I would not want to be without my children.\u201d She has a son, Myles, 26, from a previous marriage to the cartoonist Spencer McCallum, and a daughter, Maggie, 21, and son, Ralph, 19, with her husband, the actor Matthew Macfadyen. \u201cBut what I found really interesting,\u201d she continues, \u201cis that nuns are mostly likely to go over the wall during menopause.\u201d<\/p>\n Interesting. I\u2019d have thought chastity in your twenties and thirties would be more challenging.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, yes, maybe they reach menopause and think, \u2018I need to have a go.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Sudden and powerful love. It does happen\u2019<\/p>\n According to Hawes, the inciting moment of Falling is lightly inspired by a story Thorne once read. In 2015, a Carmelite nun called Sister Mary Elizabeth living in a convent in Preston, Lancashire, inadvertently touched the sleeve of a visiting friar called Robert. She\u2019d lived an austere, almost silent life for 24 years, but a week later Robert wrote a letter asking to marry her. After experiencing guilt and suicidal thoughts, she eventually accepted.<\/p>\n In Falling, all Sister Anna does is make Father David some scrambled eggs before things start heating up.<\/p>\n \u201cSudden and powerful love. It does happen,\u201d Hawes says.<\/p>\n That\u2019s true. Hawes had been married to Spencer McCallum for a matter of months when she and Macfadyen met on the set of the BBC drama Spooks in 2002.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was awful because I realised I\u2019d fallen for her,\u201d Macfadyen reported afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cMatthew just came straight out with it and said, \u2018I love you,\u2019 in the rain one day,\u201d Hawes added. \u201cI thought, \u2018Oh dear, here we go.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n Was it like that?<\/p>\n \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of it like that,\u201d she says now. \u201cBut yes, that\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n We are meeting at her club in Chelsea, west London. I\u2019m a bit early. A very attractive young woman in jeans, jumper and flats walks into the bar, says, \u201cHi,\u201d and hugs me. I think, \u201cThat\u2019s nice, but where is Keeley Hawes?\u201d I know that sounds cheesy, but I really didn\u2019t recognise her. Tall and willowy, with razor-sharp cheekbones you surely only get after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. Hawes, 50, looks amazing.<\/p>\n However, we get off to a difficult start. Her club is quite smart (I\u2019m about to order the house white when I see it\u2019s \u00a330 a glass). We settle into a booth to discuss nun libido. Does Sister Anna lust for Father David or is it something deeper? A well-heeled family in the adjoining booth fall silent when Hawes exclaims, \u201cI made it absolutely clear to Father David three times I don\u2019t want to have sex with him.\u201d We move to another booth.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we spoiling a family lunch?\u201d Hawes asks, concerned.<\/p>\n \u2018People assume I\u2019m posh\u2019<\/p>\n Does the frisson between Father David and Sister Anna end with a bang or a wimple? You\u2019ll just have to watch Falling to find out. It\u2019s certainly a different role for Hawes, who has now been acting for more than 30 years. Roles like the shady cop Lindsay Denton in Line of Duty<\/a> or sexy, surly home secretary Julia Montague in the 2018 drama Bodyguard<\/a> (both of which won her Bafta nominations) have made her one of the UK\u2019s best-loved actors. Tomorrow she will get on a plane to Malta to make the second series of the Prime Video drama The Assassin<\/a>, in which she plays a hitwoman.<\/p>\n Hawes once jokingly told a journalist, \u201cI knew I was good,\u201d and this throwaway quip became the headline. When it was published, her son Ralph brought her the newspaper.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just pointed at the headline, pulled this face as though to say, \u2018Mum, that sounds a bit arrogant,\u2019 but, you know, I was joking.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes is not arrogant. In fact she\u2019s easy, relaxed company and enjoys a joke, even if she did spend her early years doubting herself.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one in my family had done anything in entertainment, so early on I did put a lot of pressure on myself: \u2018Why wasn\u2019t that better? Why didn\u2019t I get that role?\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n She is the daughter of a London cabbie, Tony, and a housewife, Brenda, and grew up in a west London council flat. Her older brothers, Keith and Jamie, both became cab drivers but, aged nine, Hawes won a bursary to the influential Sylvia Young Theatre School nearby.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s another thing journalists get wrong,\u201d she says. \u201cThey say I had elocution lessons. I didn\u2019t. The whole class was encouraged to speak in RP [received pronunciation]. You just couldn\u2019t get work with a regional accent so, even 20 years ago, everyone would be speaking the same way. It wouldn\u2019t happen now. These days you get to keep your identity.\u201d<\/p>\n The London accent is gone. Hawes is crisply enunciated and refers to her evening meal as \u201csupper\u201d. Some people find this intimidating.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I sound terribly posh, but I\u2019ve had experiences where I\u2019ve been left out of a conversation about the working-class experience in acting because the assumption is that I am posh, that I had it easy, even though I\u2019m probably more working class than they are. There\u2019s a danger of a sort of inverted snobbery. And anyway, why shouldn\u2019t someone who has had a private education be an actor? Do they all have to be bankers?\u201d<\/p>\n I point out her husband, Matthew Macfadyen, was educated privately and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite interesting to have seen it from both sides. Yes, he was privately educated, but he came from a very working-class family. His dad was bright, got a good job and worked hard. So yes, my husband was privately educated but I don\u2019t like the assumptions that go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n When she was left out of the conversation about working-class actors, why didn\u2019t she speak up?<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone is going to make assumptions based on the sound of my voice, I\u2019m not interested,\u201d she says firmly.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m not as special as I thought I was\u2019<\/p>\n There\u2019s another reason discussing tough issues on a modern film or TV set might not be easy. In the days before smartphones, a cast might hang out and bond. These days, actors are often scrolling between takes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to sound like I\u2019m 102, but part of being an actor is talking and listening to people,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes I see youngsters on their phones and I think, \u2018Why?\u2019 Michael Gambon [Hawes appeared with the late Shakespearean actor in the 2015 adaptation of JK Rowling\u2019s novel The Casual Vacancy] didn\u2019t sit there on his phone. He spoke to people and I learnt and gained so much confidence from him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sylvia Young school has nurtured all kinds of entertainers, from reality stars to TV presenters, actors including Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya, and singers like Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa and Spice Girl Emma Bunton. Hawes was a contemporary of Bunton and the pair lived together for a while after graduating.<\/p>\n Is it true Hawes advised her friend to leave the Spice Girls before they\u2019d even released a record?<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I had nothing against the group. Emma was at boot camp training to be a Spice Girl and she came home one weekend feeling very homesick. She said she wasn\u2019t sure she wanted to go back and I said, \u2018Just leave. Stay here with me, I\u2019ll look after you.\u2019 It can be really tough when you\u2019re young and starting out. Sometimes you\u2019re working hard without sight of the end goal and it\u2019s daunting being away from people you love.\u201d<\/p>\n Sylvia Young died aged 85 last year and Hawes attended her funeral in London.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was incredible, a true celebration of someone who really changed British entertainment. Our classroom had people from every walk of life, every religion, every colour, every sexuality. And at that time, that was very unusual. But the thing I learnt at the funeral was that I\u2019m not as special as I thought I was. I always thought I was one of the few who received a bursary. But talking to people, everyone had one. The important thing is British entertainment looks different today because Sylvia Young gave a chance to people who otherwise wouldn\u2019t have got one.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes has also done her bit by backing the campaign Acting Your Age, which lobbies for better representation of women over 45, and by using the clout of her production company, Buddy Club, to back dramas that otherwise might be overlooked.<\/p>\n \u201cThings are better but there\u2019s still a lot to do,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople will think it\u2019s sour grapes because I wasn\u2019t nominated but \u2026 look at this year\u2019s Bafta TV nominations. They\u2019re not exactly screaming diversity in terms of people or age, are they?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018There is sometimes a sense you can\u2019t do anything right\u2019<\/p>\n Hawes has been in the trenches and come under fire on this issue herself. In 2020 her production company made Honour, a drama inspired by the 2006 honour killing of 20-year-old British Muslim woman Banaz Mahmod. The story was told through the eyes of a white detective, DCI Caroline Goode, played by Hawes. It won an award but some took issue with the story being told from the policewoman\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is sometimes a sense you can\u2019t do anything right,\u201d she says, sighing. \u201cBecause really, what was the alternative? The alternative was to tell the story of a life of horrific violence, relentless horror in an arranged marriage. Who\u2019s going to watch that? Is it not better to tell the story as we did from the point of view of the police investigation, which was not perfect but Caroline Goode did an incredible job bringing these people to justice. She won the Police Medal for her work and we had the backing of charities that we spoke to and family members of Banaz Mahmod. It was a very brave thing for ITV to make it and seven million people watched it. So that\u2019s seven million people who are now informed about honour killings, which is surely better than not telling that story. I\u2019m very, very proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes certainly doesn\u2019t duck the tough or controversial roles. In 2024 she played Amanda Thirsk, private secretary to the former Prince Andrew<\/a>, in Scoop<\/a>, which told the story of the fateful Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis. It was Thirsk who approved the interview. Therein lay a major acting challenge: should Thirsk be portrayed almost as an enabler or a woman simply doing an impossible job?<\/p>\n \u201cMatthew and I have this conversation a lot partly because of what\u2019s going on in the world and the people who surround Trump,\u201d Hawes says. \u201cWho are these people around him? I think we\u2019re all wondering, you know, when is somebody going to step up and say this is wrong? Nobody does. But regarding Amanda Thirsk, I never met her. She signed an NDA. But it\u2019s worth remembering that, even until quite recently, women simply wouldn\u2019t work again if they questioned certain men indulging in certain behaviour. And it\u2019s also worth remembering there were plenty of people who liked Prince Andrew.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes\u2019 career has spanned big cultural changes. Her first screen sex scene was in the 1996 Dennis Potter TV drama Karaoke. She wore several flesh-coloured thongs while co-star Richard E Grant mounted her wearing a cricket box gaffer-taped to his groin (he also kept his brogues and socks on). She can still laugh at that.<\/p>\n But her views on the modelling she did in the Nineties have changed. She was talent-spotted at 15 by the Select agency while walking down Oxford Street in London. It\u2019s striking how, in old interviews, Hawes called it \u201cfun\u201d. Latterly, however, she has said the experience was \u201chorrific\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI did have fun. I made some great friends. I travelled. A lot of people were great. But looking back, a lot of it was not. When I started acting, the sort of expectations of doing a piece like this, you would then go to the photoshoot to accompany it and there would just be a rail of underwear, and you\u2019d have no press person with you. I\u2019ve been reading Melanie Sykes\u2019s autobiography. [In her 2023 book, Illuminated, the former model and broadcaster describes being sent, aged 18, to a photoshoot in Africa and being forced to share a room with a photographer twice her age.] Some sections made me feel incredibly emotional. What young women were expected to do \u2026 In so many scenarios, if you were a young woman you just took a deep breath and did it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes\u2019 son Ralph has signed with Select. Has she warned him what to expect?<\/p>\n \u201cWell, he signed up to earn money to go interrailing and then didn\u2019t actually do any modelling,\u201d she says. \u201cIn any case, the care for young models is much better now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018If something needs fixing, I love to have a go\u2019<\/p>\n Hawes is good company, warm and open, but she can be tough. When the barman starts crashing around with ice tongs and a bucket, it only takes one sharp look for him to get the message. However, she used to get anxious and suffer from bouts of depression.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things I used to worry about when I was young seem ridiculous now,\u201d she says. \u201cAll young people do it, don\u2019t they? \u2018Why didn\u2019t I do this?\u2019 \u2018Why did I say that?\u2019 \u2018Why haven\u2019t I got more friends?\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n Not now. She and Macfadyen recently moved to a Chelsea townhouse where she tends her garden (\u201cI\u2019m very pleased with my recent tulips\u201d), does Pilates and walks her rescue dogs, Lula and Buster. As she sips water, I can\u2019t help noticing a hand injury.<\/p>\n \u201cAn accident with a drill,\u201d she says. \u201cIf something needs fixing, I love to have a go.\u201d<\/p>\n At home, Macfadyen does the cooking, and Hawes admits that early in their marriage she\u2019d sometimes buy a ready meal for dinner, come home and mess up some kitchen utensils to pretend she\u2019d made it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s another example,\u201d she says. \u201cI used to worry, \u2018Why don\u2019t I know how to cook?\u2019 But these days I\u2019m very much, \u2018Who cares?\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Hawes is quite bullish about her quirky tastes. As a recent guest on the food podcast Dish (hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett), she discussed her signature \u201cKeeley Sandwich\u201d: chicken and lettuce accompanied by butter, cream cheese, mayo and Branston pickle.<\/p>\n \u201cI stand by my sandwich,\u201d she says. \u201cAs you get older, you realise what makes you happy. I know a cream cheese, pickle and mayo combination looks questionable on paper, but try it. It\u2019s a crowd-pleaser.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the other building blocks of midlife happiness?<\/p>\n \u201cNo 1 is family, of course, then trusted friends and then simply being grateful and excited still to be working. Also, a woman needs a good gynaecologist.\u201d<\/p>\n Once again the bar falls silent.<\/p>\n \u201cJust to get my HRT exactly right,\u201d she clarifies.<\/p>\n When she got the script for Falling, she and Macfadyen discussed the appeal of living in a religious order.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both had the same thought: when it comes down to it, what actually makes people happy? It\u2019s having a purpose in life and also feeling supported and loved when you get home. That\u2019s what nuns have. They\u2019ve discarded the noisy and confusing bits of modern life.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s why real-world nun applications are on the rise. The numbers are still very modest (about 20 women enter UK convents annually) but there are now even TikTok<\/a> accounts extolling the virtues of chastity and silence. One senior cleric has speculated that young women feel there is a \u201cgap in the market\u201d for meaning.<\/p>\n \u201cJack [Thorne] has some beautiful things to say about this,\u201d Hawes says. \u201cThere are many different types of love. Our love for our children or parents is different from the love we have for a husband or boyfriend. And what Sister Anna glimpses with Father David is far more profound than simply lust.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawes is not about to enter a convent. However, she does keep an eye out for women who are successfully navigating life and seeing if there are lessons to be learnt. Gwyneth Paltrow, the high priestess of glam woo-woo, springs to mind.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Gwyneth has such a healthy attitude to life,\u201d she says. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t seem to give a shit what people think and I try to have a bit of that attitude in my life. Turning 50, I didn\u2019t even think about my birthday. I had a few days away with Matthew but no big bash. I\u2019ve never felt happier or more confident. You gain a little armour and care a little less. Sister Anna feels she\u2019s missed out on something in life. I don\u2019t feel like that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Falling will be available to watch and stream from May 19 on Channel 4 at 9pm<\/p>\n Hair: Ben Cooke at One Represents using Kevin Murphy. Make-up: Justine Jenkins using Rare Beauty. Image 1 and 3: dress, jwanderson.com<\/a>. Earrings, tiffany.co.uk<\/a>. Image 2: blazer, maxmara.com<\/a>. Vest, arket.com<\/a>; Skirt, dior.com<\/a>. Earrings, tiffany.co.uk<\/a>. Ring, hannahmartinlondon.com<\/a><\/p>\n Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix<\/a>, the best Prime Video TV shows<\/a> and the best Apple TV+ shows<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check our critics\u2019 choices to watch<\/a> and our comprehensive TV guide<\/a>, plus our look at the finest films<\/a> and TV shows<\/a> this month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When did you last speak to a nun? For me it\u2019s been a while, so I\u2019m all ears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-431363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Falling\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3e6c552c-8990-44d9-b6c9-b9664897b50a.jpg\")
With Paapa Essiedu in new Channel 4 drama FallingChannel 4<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/df9797d6-144e-4c47-a5f6-3ed42dcd5b2f.jpg\")
With her husband, Matthew Macfadyen, at the Met Gala in 2024. \u201cSudden and powerful love. I hadn\u2019t thought of it like that, but it\u2019s what happened to us\u201dGetty Images<\/p>\n![\"NINTCHDBPICT001077514072\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a1484ef1-8b28-4564-857c-bfab00551392.jpg\")
\u201cTurning 50, I didn\u2019t even think about my birthday\u201dtom jackson for the times magazine<\/p>\n![\"TV](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/270fea8a-afbb-4a69-afc3-8043d00d969f.jpg\")
With Richard Madden in BodyguardBBC<\/p>\n![\"NINTCHDBPICT000482627225\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/016e0e85-20b7-42b4-899a-c7d688ace7a2.jpg\")
With the cast of ITV\u2019s The DurrellsITV<\/p>\n![\"NINTCHDBPICT000149662638\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9db7736c-0d27-430c-8a53-8ff25a920e82.jpg\")
As Samantha Mollison in JK Rowling\u2019s The Casual Vacancy<\/p>\n![\"Film](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b13739e5-fcb2-4849-bd33-89a8609526b1.jpg\")
In Scoop with Rufus Sewell pa<\/p>\n![\"NINTCHDBPICT000003174908\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a77a739b-b334-4848-80d0-324cd3e00259.jpg\")
As Zoe in SpooksBBC<\/p>\n