Angela Griffin: It was hard to stay nonchalant during explicit scenes in TV show

Angela Griffin has said she felt “uncomfortable” about some of the more explicit scenes in her new TV series, but added that is what made her want to do it.

The former Coronation Street star plays the organiser of lavish sex parties in the Netflix series White Lines, but said she was reassured by the fact she did not have to get involved in the more debauched activities that are shown on screen.

She told the PA news agency: “It does get quite raunchy, in a very beautiful way, it’s shot stunningly, but my character Anna Connor, her business is giving sex parties to people who have got a lot of money essentially.

“People like to call them orgies, she doesn’t like that, they are high-class sex parties, but she never gets involved.

“So when I read the script, if it had been Anna gets in there, takes all her kit off and so on, it might have been a little bit different, but she is the orchestrator, she’s the puppet-master, she organises, she’s the pleasure-giver as opposed to the partaker, so that didn’t worry me when I read it.

“I was really drawn to it because of how far away from me Anna was, she is about the same age as me, she’s got two children the same age as mine, but in terms of her personality, she’s so different from me and that was such a massive appeal.

“So I read it, it did make me feel slightly uncomfortable, but that is what made me want to do it, because it becomes a challenge then.”

She said filming the explicit sex party that ends the first episode of the series was her first day on set and said: “It was three night shoots of the party. What it did do was it really made me connect with who Anna was instantly, the way that she moved, the way that she dressed, the way that she interacted with everybody, it was a real masterclass in how to find your character.

“It was the most intense first day of a job, in terms of experiences on a set, I have never been a part of anything like that before. I don’t think I ever will be. It was crazy.

“The challenge of it was to act like this happened all the time, because a lot of what is going on is going on, they are taking all their clothes off, they are getting involved.

“When you are in a cop drama you have to say this speech about dead bodies and so on like you say this every day of the week, when you run sex parties, you have to walk around without your eyes on stalks going ‘aaaaaah’, so that was a challenge, but I think I did it.”

She added: “I have never been to a party like that before and I don’t think I ever need to now, I think I’ve had the experience of going ‘wow people really do this and have a lovely time’ and that’s it for me.”

White Lines will be released on Netflix on May 15.