Rebecca Front: Facing my fears was a triumph

The Bafta-winning actress, best known for her roles in popular television series such as MP Nicola Murray in The Thick Of It and as Detective Chief Superintendant Jean Innocent in Lewis, has tried hypnotherapy (unsuccessfully) but now has cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which she says helps her through difficult moments in closed, narrow spaces.

“I remember doing a TV series years ago, set in a magic theatre, and the producer asked if I would be sawn in half, which – of course – involves getting in a box. I said, ‘There’s no way in a million years you’re going to get me into that tiny box!’

“But generally, I’m probably at my most relaxed when I’m working. I love acting and being on set and I’m very chilled about all that.”

When she first met her husband, TV producer-turned-writer Phil Clymer, a keen traveller, she realised her fear of flying was going to be a problem.

“Flying stayed every bit as hard for me for the first 10 years or so of our relationship, but the point is, I did it. So in that sense, it was a triumph.”

When their children, Oliver and Tilly, came along, her fears eased even more. “We flew long-haul to New York and Los Angeles, and because I was adamant that they shouldn’t see my anxiety, I smiled and watched films and read stories to them as if I was a normal, relaxed traveller, rather than someone who’d spent the night before praying for fog to ground all flights so that we could just stay home.”

Today, Front, 50, is known largely for her comedy, having being a guest on panel shows including Have I Got News For You? And BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, where her natural humour shines. She also appeared on Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge.

Brought up in a middle-class household in Essex, Front’s mother Sheila was a teacher who wrote children’s books while her father Charles, an artist, illustrated them.

She studied English at Oxford University and was the first female president of the Oxford Revue, a comedy society, which gave Front her first taste of her future career.

“It’s best if you don’t think about it too much, because you can start to screw yourself up, worrying about if you are as famous as you were before.”

In everyday life, she and her husband often work in the same room in their house in London. “It’s a hive of industry. Very often we sit in our living room opposite each other with our laptops, chatting away. I’d love to tell you that he’s a distraction, but we’ve been together a long time. I run things past him. He’s very honest so it’s really valuable. He’s very tolerant.”

She’s currently filming a new series of Lewis alongside Kevin Whately, and will be appearing in the second series of Up The Women, a suffragette sitcom, and in a new series of a sketch show.

Her career goes from strength to strength but she’s quick to play it down.

“When you’re an actor, you are always assuming that every job is going to be your last, so it never feels like my career has gone from strength to strength,” says Front. “It feels like, ‘I’ve just finished that job so I’ll probably never work again!’