Hopes are high for the North-East-set sitcom Hebburn. Steve Pratt reports

GINA McKEE has made a long career out of powerful dramas. She has starred in Our Friends In The North, The Forsyte Saga, US series The Borgias and, most recently, BBC police thriller Line Of Duty.

But her latest role is quite a contrast.

It’s not in a gritty drama but a gentle comedy, and she’s not playing a hard woman, but a sweet, caring and bubbly mother. Hebburn is a sitcom which follows Jack, played by stand-up comic Chris Ramsey, as he returns home to his hometown to introduce new girlfriend Sarah (Fresh Meat’s Kimberley Nixon) to his family.

What he doesn’t quite know how to tell them is that he and Sarah are actually already married.

Jim Moir – the real name of Vic Reeves – plays his unsuspecting father, and McKee is his mother. The comedy, written by comedian Jason Cook, who also stars as Jack’s best friend, is inspired by Cook’s real family and his North-East hometown of Hebburn.

Part of the series was shot on location in this small town on the River Tyne, but scenes inside the family home are filmed in the studio, a former print factory in Salford.

“Pauline is the antidote to a few characters that I’ve been playing recently, so that was very appealing,” says McKee. “You think it’s time for a change or it’s time to frighten myself.

Just so you don’t find yourself in a comfortable cul-de-sac.”

The actress admits she was concerned initially about playing a character based on her co-star’s mother, but Cook soon set her mind at rest.

“Having seen a little bit of Jason’s mother, on a tiny, tiny bit of film and then meeting her very, very briefly, I’m not entirely sure,” she says. “I think the spirit of her might be there, but it isn’t by any means an impersonation of her.”

For his part, Cook insists his mother doesn’t mind being the subject of comedy. “To be honest she’s more blown away by Gina McKee. She says, ‘Ooh Gina’s very glamorous, Jason, that’s not me, that’s not me at all’.”

Pauline wears her heart on her sleeve. In contrast, McKee is very reserved.

She speaks slowly and carefully, never wanting to give away more than she intends to.

And while Pauline is content with family life in her hometown, McKee – who grew up around County Durham and Sunderland – swapped home for the bright lights of the big city as soon as was possible. “I moved to London when I was 18,” she says, “and I had the energy to explore and to try different lifestyles. It felt very natural to me to do that.”

DESPITE being known for her drama work, McKee has done her fair share of comedy. She starred in In The Loop, the film spinoff of hit political satire The Thick Of It, and in Chris Morris’ controversial Brass Eye. “And many, many years ago I did the Lenny Henry show,” she says. “But this is quite different, because we’re not doing it in front of a live audience, but it’s lovely to be in a comedy.”

McKee adds that choosing this role was also in part because once in a while she likes to give herself “a scare” by doing something a bit different, and next up is a trip to Detroit, in the US, to appear in a film, Jimmy Picard. The movie also stars Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric and is about a Second World War veteran seeking therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Though passionate about acting, McKee rarely talks about her own influences.

We know that her father was a miner and that she lives in East Sussex with her husband Kez Cary, and that she has no children, but not much more. She explains that this is because she feels there is a boundary between being an actress and a showbiz personality,.

“I think it’s a skilful thing to negotiate, and I’m not sure I’m that skilful with it, which is why I’ve avoided it,” she says. McKee’s enough of a household name, however, to be recognised in the supermarket on occasion.

“I used to often get people think they know me, but they didn’t quite know why,” she reveals. “Whereas now, if you’re standing still in a queue or something like that, people begin to talk to you. And people are usually really supportive and lovely, so it’s certainly no hardship. It feels rather nice actually.”

  • Hebburn ( BBC2, 10pm)