As the mother of two daughters, former EastEnders' regular Lindsay Coulson says she could empathise with her character, Maggie, in ITV's The Stepfather, whose daughter goes missing. She talks to Steve Pratt.

Playing the mum of missing children is getting to be a habit for former EastEnders regular Lindsay Coulson.

A mother-of-two in real life, the actress is best known as the trauma-prone Carol Jackson in the Albert Square soap. Only a few months ago, in ITV1's drama She's Gone, she played the mother of a girl who goes missing in Turkey.

Now she's back in the world of vanished children for another ITV1 two-parter, The Stepfather. She plays Maggie, a divorcee and mother to Scarlett who takes up with widower Dougie (played by Robert Glenister). His 15-year-old daughter Pippa disappeared three years previously, so when Scarlett goes missing soon after Maggie and Dougie get married, the finger of suspicion points at her mother's new husband.

Coulson, who has two daughters, says that Maggie is very self-sufficient, has a great outlook on life and isn't at all materialistic.

"She wants to believe in and see the best in people," she says. "Her only problem is that she doesn't have a cynical side. She's very caring and committed to both her daughter and her new relationship with Dougie."

So how does she cope with her daughter's disappearance? "Like anyone, I don't think she doesn't cope with it because it's not something you ever think could happen to you," says Coulson.

"She just goes from minute to minute and hour to hour on a day to day basis. Her emotions are all over the place. She doesn't completely crumble and hide away though."

She sympathises with new husband Dougie over the disappearance of his daughter and the agony of not knowing whether she's dead or alive. But she doesn't realise how sad he must have been about Pippa going missing until she's put in the same situation.

The actress didn't feel the need to research her role. "I wanted to play that moment of panic when suddenly the people you love the most are no longer in your grasp," she explains.

"For me personally, if my children went missing, my life would just be completely blown apart. So the fact that she manages to survive, get dressed in the morning and do the things that she does is quite incredible.

"She's in a traumatised state but knows that she has to hold on and believe that Scarlett is still alive. All she wants is that tangible moment where she's touching her child again.

"For me, I don't think there is any way you could research this situation. Just being a mother myself is what helps me empathise with the role."

When Carol Jackson went through the trauma of her son being kidnapped in EastEnders, Coulson used up so much emotion that she says it was almost like she'd been through it herself.

"My natural feeling is that as a parent it's your biggest nightmare, your biggest fear and you have to get in touch with that, which none of us want to do," she says.

Despite the dramatic nature of the story, filming The Stepfather wasn't the grim affair you'd imagine - thanks to co-stars Philip Glenister and Cold Feet star Robert Bathurst, who plays Maggie's first husband.

"They made me laugh so much," she admits. "I'm not sure how I managed to play such heart-wrenching scenes when we were having such a laugh behind the scenes.

"I've worked briefly with Philip on Clocking Off but I haven't worked with Robert before. I'd love to work with them both again as they are both really lovely people to be with."

Coulson, who is married to fellow EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer's brother Harry Harris, has worked steadily since leaving the Square in 1999.

Her fears about being typecast after so many years playing Carol Jackson proved unfounded. "I was worried but I knew that was the reality if you have been in someone's sitting room nearly every day. I thought it might take longer to get away from Carol than it did," she says.

"I play lots of mothers and I guess I'm known as the London mother but people still call me Carol on the street. I have a familiar face and people often think they went to school with me. I feel embarrassed saying to them, no, you know me off the telly."

She'll soon be back on ITV1 in a second series of police series MIT as well as an episode of The Last Detective.

* The Stepfather is on ITV1 on Monday and Tuesday at 9pm.

Published: 03/02/2005