ITV's gripping new thriller, After the Flood, has had us glued to our sofas since it first premiered earlier this month. The series is set in a fictional Yorkshire town which is devastated following a flood. After a dead body is found in a lift at an underground car park, police assume he became trapped during the natural disaster. But PC Joanna Marshall thinks there's more to it and is determined to uncover what really happened.
Starring alongside Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders) and Matt Stokoe (Jamestown) in the drama is actress Lorraine Ashbourne, who is a familiar face on our screens thanks to her roles in The Crown, Bridgerton, Sherwood and Unforgotten. But did you know that she's married to a Hollywood star?
Lorraine, 63, who hails from Manchester, is married to actor and filmmaker Andy Serkis.
Andy, 59, is famed for his impressive Hollywood career and is a pioneer of performance capture. He is perhaps best known for his motion-capture roles, including Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films.
The actor is also known for playing antagonist David Robey in the Netflix crime thriller, Luther: The Fallen Sun, Glen in the 2011 drama Wild Bill, and Alfred in the 2022 action film, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson.
The Middlesex-born star has won various accolades in recognition of his work, including an Empire Award and two Saturn Awards for his motion-capture acting, and a Daytime Emmy Award for his role as the Mayor of Mistrinaut in Netflix's adventure series, The Letter For The King. He also received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema in 2020.
Andy and Lorraine have been married since 2002 and share three children: Ruby, 26, Sonny, 24, and Louis, 19.
The two actors met whilst co-starring in a play and decided to go on a date whilst still in character. During an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show last year, Andy explained how he first met his wife. "We got together in character - we'd both split up from other partners and we had started rehearsing this play where the couple we were playing were about to break up," he said. "We thought it would be good to improvise the moment they got together which was a failed excuse for getting off with each other.
"We agreed to meet at the back of Manchester Piccadilly Station at this pub. We sat down and started interacting as the characters and it went on, it carried on all night and we never broke character. We were immersed in our characters and it got to about 12 o'clock and had our first kiss in character."
Andy and Lorraine have clearly passed on their performing genes to their children, who are all actors. Viewers may recognise the couple's youngest child, Louis, for his starring role in the ITV miniseries, No Return, in which he played Sheridan Smith's on-screen son.
Meanwhile, Ruby, the eldest child, has appeared in the historical drama, Becoming Elizabeth, as well as the BBC crime drama, The Serpent. She also had a lead role in the Netflix series, The Letter for the King, starring alongside her dad.
As for Sonny, he's made appearances in Young Wallander, The Witcher, and is set to appear in Apple TV+'s upcoming World War Two drama, Masters of the Air.
Despite Lorraine and Andy's hugely successful careers, they're keen to keep their home life "normal". During a previous interview Red magazine, Andy spoke about the importance of keeping their children grounded.
"We've always explained to them that we're really lucky to do what we do, but at the end of the day, it's still a job," he said, per Yahoo! Life. "It was very important for us to ground them, keep them in school and teach them that nothing would be handed to them on a plate.
"You might have to audition for something ten times before finding out you didn't get it."