One of those is Ophelia Lovibond, who is playing Carrie Johnson (then Symonds) opposite Branagh. Ahead of the series airing, Lovibond spoke exclusively with RadioTimes.com<\/a>, and revealed that she didn\u2019t contact the real-life Carrie before playing the role \u2013 for a very specific reason.<\/p>\n Lovibond explained: \u201cI didn\u2019t speak to Carrie<\/span>, no. I did think about it and I\u2019m sure there would have been a way to make that happen. But I just had this feeling that it wouldn\u2019t be the right way to go.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018What if I\u2019m just completely charmed by her and then that might influence my portrayal of her? Maybe that wouldn\u2019t be quite accurate.\u2019 So I decided it probably wouldn\u2019t be advisable.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovibond revealed that instead of speaking directly to Carrie, she instead spoke \u201cto a few people that had friends of friends with her, which was helpful\u201d.<\/p>\n She also \u201cdid lots of research\u201d for the role, looking to Carrie\u2019s background, including \u201cwhere she grew up, what school she attended, and then went into quite a lot of detail about her career path\u201d.<\/p>\n The series also had plenty of consultants with inside knowledge on hand, with Lovibond acknowledging that \u201camong others we had Tim Shipman [journalist and former political editor of The Sunday Times], who was giving us lots of very specific, reliable information\u201d.<\/p>\n Lovibond said that Shipman has \u201cspoken to [Carrie] many times\u201d in the past, meaning he was able to give \u201cquite helpful insights into her character and her nature and things like that\u201d.<\/p> Alongside This England, Lovibond is also currently starring in HBO Max comedy series Minx, which is available to stream in the UK on Paramount Plus<\/a>.<\/p>\n This England is coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW on 28th September 2022 \u2013 find out more about\u00a0how to sign up for Sky TV<\/a>. Check out more of our Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By James Hibbs Published: Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 12:00 am Sir Kenneth Branagh\u2019s portrayal of Boris Johnson may be a major talking point around This England, the new Sky Atlantic series charting the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he is joined in the series by a host of big name actors playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22716,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role.jpg",1440,960,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role.jpg",1440,960,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/this-england-star-reveals-why-she-didnt-contact-carrie-johnson-before-role.jpg",1440,960,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By James Hibbs Published: Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 12:00 am Sir Kenneth Branagh\u2019s portrayal of Boris Johnson may be a major talking point around This England, the new Sky Atlantic series charting the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he is joined in the series by a host of big name actors playing…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/22715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/09\/0210This-EnglandS01-4b6caf3.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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