Fearless: Helen McCrory reveals all about onscreen love interest John Bishop

The 49-year-old, who takes the lead as human right lawyer Emma Banville, revealed all about the relationship between her character and Steve. 

Speaking to media including Express.co.uk at a recent screening, Helen said: She’s defended him in the past and I think that he looks after her. He’s the one person in the world that looks after Emma and that Emma allows to be looked after. 

“I think people who have been quite badly bruised are independent and resilient and it’s quite an admirable thing but it’s quite a lonely thing to be. I think he’s the one person she allows to take care of her and decompress her and also he makes her laugh.”

The actress added: “I think he enjoys a beer and football and finds her a little bit too dark and politicised for her. But he loves her.”

Reflecting on working with John, 50, the Peaky Blinders actress said: “I loved working with John Bishop. He is completely charismatic, warm and funny. I like people who are light-hearted. I like to laugh on set.”  

The star also revealed the inspiration for Emma in the ITV thriller. Helen who is – best known for her performances as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films and mafia matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders – admitted that she did a fair amount of research into her new part, however she wasn’t inspired by Amal Clooney.

Human rights lawyer Amal, 39, rose to fame after marrying Hollywood star George Clooney and gave birth two twins last week. She has taken on some tough cases and represented some controversial clients including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but Helen confessed it wasn’t really part of her research. 

When asked in a recent interview if she’d looked at the work of barrister Amal, Helen explained that she had only looked at the lawyer for “two seconds”.

She told media including Express.co.uk: “I mean, Amal Clooney – I looked at Amal for about two seconds and I thought, ‘My legs will never be that long and my hair will never be that long.’ 

“It was quite an interesting reference, I thought, ‘Next’. So I didn’t really look at her but I looked at Michael Mansfield, I looked at Gareth Peirce.”

Nevertheless, Helen’s research took an interesting turn when she admitted that she actually stalked and “highjacked” a lawyer on the train. 

She confessed: “I was on the Northern Line, this guy was chatting to another guy. I thought, ‘I’m sure this guy’s a human rights lawyer.’ 

“When he got off at the Strand, I just ran after him and said, ‘I’m an actress, please can I come and talk to you.’ And I did and I just listened to him and that was interesting because of course Emma’s not a barrister.”

The six-part drama, penned by Homeland writer and executive producer Patrick Harbinson, sees Helen taking centre-stage as the dogged lawyer Emma, who is trying to prove the innocence of the convicted killer. 

As the ITV series goes on, Emma realises that the case goes far deeper than she could ever have imagined and involves the highest echelons of power on both sides of the Atlantic.

As well as her picking up the cold case, she is also sheltering a Muslim woman called Miriam Attar (Karima McAdams) and her baby son who have attracted the intense interest of the secret services. 

Throughout, the two stories run in parallel as Emma finds herself falling down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and cover ups. 

The show was inspired by the work of campaigning lawyers like Gareth Peirce and Helena Kennedy, who have taken on high profile cases.  

It was recently revealed that the programme makers behind Fearless wrote new scenes to make reference to President Donald Trump in a bid to make the show more current.  

Reflecting on how she portrayed Emma, actress Helen said: “I approached her as she approaches her work, so she’s all about finding out the truth and she’s all about not trusting anything until she’s double-checked it herself. 

“She doesn’t trust something just because it comes from the police or comes from the army or it comes from a file – a legal document. 

Helen added: “She’ll always go and look at it again and so that’s really the way I looked at Emma, which was really interesting as an actress. You’re so often given roles that your part is actually showing the emotional response you have to something.”

Fearless airs on ITV tomorrow at 9pm.