MARRIED Suranne Jones has revealed how she drew on the heartbreaking experiences of two close friends to play a betrayed wife in Doctor Foster.
The BBC five-parter has been heralded as the drama of the year after pulling in eight million viewers for Wednesday’s finale.
Former Corrie star Suranne, 37, who tied the knot in August, earned rave reviews for her gripping performance as cheat-victim GP Gemma Foster.
And the actress has told how she was inspired by two friends who were similarly treated by their husbands — and the lengths they went to find out the truth.
She said: “Unfortunately I’ve got two friends who this has happened to.
“Some of the things that they found themselves doing, whether it is just the start of looking at someone’s email or checking someone’s mobile phone, what that can lead to is quite something.”
Before long she is following him and checking his emails — which Suranne believes is a line which you can never come back from.
She explains: “She can never be the wife that didn’t look at her husband’s emails ever again once that path has been crossed.”
Gemma eventually gets devastating confirmation that Simon, with whom she has a son Tom, is having an affair with a younger woman Katie, played by Jodie Comer.
But Gemma then initially decides to stay with him — something Oldham-born Suranne can understand.
“Somebody’s told her that they’ve seen her husband kissing. She’s seen photographs.
“But yet there are years of trust that she doesn’t want to let go.
“Could she maybe let that go, if it’s just a fling? Or is it something serious? She needs to know these things.
“Viewers at home are going, ‘You need to leave him’, or ‘Don’t leave him’, or, ‘You need to find that out’.
”Suranne married magazine editor Laurence Akers in a low-key ceremony in London this summer after a whirlwind romance.
And asked if the harrowing role had made her question her own marriage when she got home each evening after filming, she replied: “I just went in and said, ‘What’s for tea?’, and fell asleep.”
“You have to let go of the relationship, or you think you are letting go of it, but you can’t because life is bigger, plans are bigger.
“Gemma and Simon probably have a year of plans, picking up Tom from school, holidays, plans with friends.
“So even if you’re capable of letting go of what the relationship was, it’s hard to let go of the whole life around it.
“Maybe that’s what keeps you there, whilst you’re still sleeping in the same bed as someone you hate and can’t stand. Life is complicated.”
The series finale saw the GP engineer a dinner with her husband, his now-pregnant lover and her parents.
After finally confronting him she ends up on the floor in a heap, having been smashed into a window.
In typically understated fashion Suranne says: “It might be slightly uncomfortable for some couples.”
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