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Joanne Froggatt stars as 'Lexie' in 'The Lie', a drama about a woman who discovers her husband is living a double life. Here, she discusses Lexie's shocking discovery and working with co-stars Emilia Fox and Ben Chaplin and director Dominic Savage.

Joanne Froggatt in 'The Lie' with Ben Chaplin

It's a horrible thing to think that the person you’re married to could lie to you

Joanne Froggatt

How does Lexie feel when she discovers Philip’s secret?

At first I think she’s confused. She knows he’s lied to her about something and the first inkling she gets is a phone call from the doctors mentioning his son, but you know that could just be a mistake. Then she follows him to work, when he is supposedly going away, and he doesn’t go where he says he’s going and he changes his car. So straight away there is something huge that he’s lying to her about, and it’s a horrible thing to think that the person you’re married to could lie to you and what would be the reasons for that. When she realises what it is, it’s a wretch of emotions that one would expect in that situation.

What’s going through her mind when she goes to meet Zara undercover?

She wants to gather as much information as possible before she confronts Philip. She’s very angry and hurt, but before she can start to process those emotions she needs to know everything she possibly can. I think she’s trying to figure out why before she feels strong enough to confront him. That’s what makes her feel like she has some power in the situation – that she’s going to choose when to face the truth of this with him and confront him - and in the meantime she is desperate to understand the details. She can’t leave it alone. She has to know as much as possible, which I think is a very natural human reaction.

What was the atmosphere like on set?

It was great. It was so lovely working with Dominic, and Ben and Emilia were amazing. We had a really lovely time on that job. The first day of any job is a bit nerve-wracking, but when you’re working in an ever evolving way it’s more nerve-wracking, but it’s more rewarding. And I’m sure Ben and Emilia feel the same, that we all got a lot out of it, and I really enjoyed working with both of them. Ben and Emilia had worked together before quite a few times, and I’d worked with Emilia years ago so there was a connection between us anyway which was really nice.

What do you hope the audience will take away from watching The Lie?

I hope they take away Lexie’s strength from it in the end, and the pain that relationships can cause, and the sadness that you can bring to somebody if you don’t treat them respectfully. But for Lexie, I think she’s very strong and she’s not willing to settle for second best, and I don’t think any of us should.

The Secrets champions new writing talent. What was it like working with Elinor Cook?

It felt like a real passion project for everybody. It’s lovely to get to work with new talent whether that’s writers, directors, actors – whatever it is. Our writer was really wonderful. She’d written this beautiful story and it was just great to meet her and feel her enthusiasm for getting her script made. It’s always really important to champion new talent because that’s the future at the end of the day, and that’s one of the places where new and interesting ideas come from. It was great hearing why she’d developed that story and what had given her the idea for it. She was really fascinating.