Keeley Hawes: ‘I’m basically the new Tom Cruise!’

Keeley Hawes, 49, grew up in a council flat in Marylebone and won a scholarship to Sylvia Young Theatre School. She has been nominated for a Bafta three times, for her performances in Line of Duty, Bodyguard and Mrs Wilson. Her other TV credits include Spooks, Ashes to Ashes, The Durrells, It’s A Sin, Stonehouse and Scoop. In February she starred as Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, in BBC drama Miss Austen. She now plays a former hitwoman who is forced out of retirement in Prime Video thriller The Assassin. Hawes lives in London with her husband, actor Matthew Macfadyen, their children and two poodles.

In The Assassin, your character is called a ‘perimenopausal James Bond’. Were you happy with that description?