Scouse actress who’s one of the stand-out stars of C4’s A Woman of Substance

For anyone who hasn’t binge-watched Channel 4’s epic remake of A Woman of Substance, there’s huge excitement as part three of the ‘bonkbuster’ series is screened tonight.

And while Brenda Blethyn is the big name star of the rags to riches tale of Emma Harte by Barbara Taylor Bradford, there’s a Scouse actress who’s stealing the scenes as the unpredictable lady of Fairley Hall where a young Emma begins her working life as a maid.

Liverpool-born Leanne Best has been described as ‘absolutely on fire’ as Adele Fairley, the agoraphobic and alcoholic wife of mill owner Adam, who’s caught in a destructive spiral as she fights her demons to become the sophisticated beauty she once was.

Justification for 46-year-old Leanne – who left her own wedding celebrations to fellow actor Tomiwa Edun early to start filming!

She says:

“I got the script just before I was going away to get married and I was interested because we all grew up with Barbara Taylor Bradford. I remembered my mum and nan avidly watching the original series.”

Leanne knew it was the one time in her schedule that she just couldn’t film anything, and that a part would ‘have to knock my socks off’ for her to fly home early from her own wedding festivities. 

But she says: “In the end she was impossible to turn down, so we changed our flights – I left a party in my heels, got straight on a plane to London, then on a train to Leeds.

“It was all worth it to have the opportunity to play a woman like Adele though … thanks to my husband, who is also an actor and was very cool about it!”

Leanne Best is one of those actors whose face is instantly recognisable, not least in her home city where she is Scouse royalty.

Her uncle is Pete Best, the original drummer for The Beatles, and her dad is Roag Best who owns the Liverpool Beatles Museum in Mathew Street where, in November last year, the Legends Hall of Fame was launched honouring Merseyside’s other famous people and their achievements.

Leanne herself was inducted for her contributions to TV and film – which are many.

Since training at LIPA, she’s been busy on stage and screen, appearing in series like Casualty, Cold Feet, The Bay and Line of Duty and, most notably as Jane Cobden in the period thriller, Ripper Street, and Celia Donnelly in Fortitude. 

On the big screen she had the title role in The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death in 2014, as well as being part of the fighting force in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

On stage she’s had various roles as Lady Macbeth, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Rita in Educating Rita.

Most recently, too, she’s been filming in Sam Mendes’ Beatles films in which she’s playing John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi.

Back to A Woman of Substance – in which Liverpool too played a major role, doubling as New York with scenes around Water Street and the Port of Liverpool building – and Adele was a challenging role.

“It was really interesting because she’s an alcoholic, and agoraphobic,” says Leanne. “Addiction is a very complex illness, but on top of that she has also been treated badly, and this adaptation really shows a woman navigating the world at a time when women were second class citizens.

“It didn’t matter what your currency was, you had to barter with it to get as much as you could. Adele was the enigmatic daughter and that’s what piques the interest of Adam Fairley. The trade for marrying up is that she has to be this constant, dazzling presence, and it costs her dearly.”

Leanne, who played many of her scenes with Emmett J. Scanlan who is Adam, goes on: “We did a lot of the distressing stuff in one chunk at the beginning, so it felt a bit like going down the mine for hours and then you’d go back to the hotel.

“The thing that I loved about Adele is that often in art and in life you’re only allowed to be one thing – the beautiful one or the difficult one or the clever one – but Adele is many. Having the freedom to go full pelt, with big operatic swings at these kinds of scenes was really good fun. I did lose my voice a couple of times.”

A Woman of Substance is set between the early 1900s and the 1970s, but Leanne is confident of its relevance to today’s audience.

“When I mentioned the job to my mum and aunties, they were so excited. There’s a newness about it that feels a bit more reckless, which I think makes it feel timeless and very modern. 

“A lot of the structures in place in the drama are things we’re still coming to terms with today, and when you look at what Emma goes through as an unmarried woman with children, it throws up some really interesting things. 

“What’s telling is how these societal structures don’t actually work for anyone – they destroy Adele but they destroy Adam too. 

“The dazzling uniqueness of Emma Harte is that she does outrun her life, but the cost is massive. So you see this really oppressive system that isn’t working for anyone.”

You can watch A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.

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