Hidden talent
Sally Bretton is big in TV, but she prefers to let her work do the talking
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- Gareth McLean
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Despite the fact she’s the leading lady in not one but two of British television’s most popular programmes, Sally Bretton remains a bit of an unknown. As Lucy in Not Going Out she’s a redoubtable Everywoman, foil and love interest for Lee Mack. In Beyond Paradise – which returns for a third series soon – she’s Martha, partner to bumbling DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) in a scenic but crime-ridden fictional corner of Devon.
Beyond Paradise’s success – the series pulls in audiences of over 6.5 million – delights the 44-year-old Bretton. Towards the end of the pandemic, she got a phone call asking if she’d be interested in reprising the role of Martha who had been, in effect, Humphrey’s exit storyline from Death in Paradise. “I loved that job and the thought of working with Kris again was just heaven,” she says. “I thought to myself at the time, ‘Even if this never comes to anything more than this phone call, I will ride this feeling for the next three weeks’. But it did magically happen, and it’s the loveliest show in the world. I’m so thrilled that it’s loved. And so quickly.”
Sally Bretton and David Suchet in The Au Pair. Channel 5
An instant hit and an enduring success – a drama and a comedy, both returning series – each with Bretton front and centre. But who is Sally Bretton? Even after chatting for an hour to discuss her most recent drama, The Au Pair, a cuckoo-in-the-nest thriller on Channel 5 in which she plays a people-pleasing stepmother, I’m still not entirely sure. She is, to misquote Winston Churchill, an enigma wrapped in a cardigan.
Bretton rarely does interviews, which is a shame because when she gets talking, her enthusiasm is infectious. Like when we discuss the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee. She was in a production in 2002. “When you have incredible writing, you never have to think about how you’re going to get to the next line. Working on plays like that is just like getting onto a slipstream or something.”
And when she talks about Not Going Out, “It’s so much about timing that it’s music almost. And you have to pitch it right. It’s big and broad but you’re always trying to keep the characters truthful.”
Incredible writing is just like getting on a slipstream
What Bretton won’t discuss is her life beyond acting. When I ask about her parents’ professions, she replies, polite but firm: “I don’t really like talking about my family if that’s all right. I keep it as separate as I possibly can.”
This guardedness goes some way to explain Bretton’s near-anonymity despite her on-screen visibility. With no social media presence and a skeletal Wikipedia entry, her digital footprint mostly consists of a hefty entry on the website IMDB detailing an impressive career, from bit parts in Doctors, The Bill and Casualty to roles in Green Wing, Absolute Power and The Office.
Not Going Out season 12. BBC
Bretton loves acting and has done since she was seven. I ask her why. She hesitates. “To be honest, this is the first time I’ve thought about why.” She pauses again. “I think it’s to do with tapping into an emotional journey, exploring how people feel, and then being able to sort of hit or trigger those emotions from your imagination, almost magically. Getting inside those feelings is what draws me.”
She also says she doesn’t feel famous – and can’t even bring herself to say the word. “Um… I… don’t really… think about it,” she says haltingly. “People might look over – that’s what most people do – but some people come over and say something. But they’re always friendly. So I don’t really feel it.”
So that’s who Sally Bretton is. The famous invisible woman.
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All episodes of The Au Pair are available on My5
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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