There was a time early in Tamsin Greig’s career when she would have found it difficult to be recognised in her own home without opening her mouth. As a regular on that radio tale of ordinary farming folk, The Archers, she was known entirely for her voice.

In recent years, thanks to lead roles in Black Books, Love Soup and Green Wing, that has all changed.

Now, Greig is big business: BAFTA-nominated and an RTS-winner for Green Wing, she is now sufficiently A-list to present gongs at prestigious shows such as the Q Music Awards and the Brits. If that doesn’t tell you that Greig has made it, try this on for size: Bono has got down on his hands and knees in front of her and kissed her pregnant belly.

It seems that the days of anonymity are a thing of the past. After negotiating a seven-figure fee through a phalanx of agents, Greig finally agreed to a carefully-controlled interview provided she was given a bath in caviar eggs. Below, she discusses sheep’s bottoms, her habit of corpsing, and, of course, that Bono moment.

What initially drew you to acting?
I was an attention-seeking middle child. I suppose it was the only way of channelling that rather unpleasant trait. I basically couldn’t do anything else except show off. So I ended up studying drama at university.

How did your career pan out after that?
About a year after I got my Equity card, I got my job on The Archers, so it’s been my mainstay throughout my career, which has been extraordinarily lucky, to have that continuity.

Is Debbie Aldridge [her Archers character] now part of your life?
[laughs] In as much as any invisible, unbelievable, unknowable fictional character is, yes. I suppose more real in my life is the odd train trip up to Birmingham, where the show’s recorded. That’s become a significant feature of my life. I’m very happy to do a bit of lambing, and spend an afternoon with my hand up the back end of a sheep: It’s what I’ve come to know and love.

You are aware The Archers is a radio show? Don’t you think spending an afternoon with your hand up a sheep’s backside might be taking method acting a little too far?
How dare you!

In recent years your career has also developed rapidly in television. Is it difficult to combine TV series like Green Wing with the radio stuff?
It can get quite tricky, yeah. For most of last year I didn’t do any radio because it was too tricky - having to go up and down to Birmingham as well as filming two TV shows at the same time was just impossible. The beauty of the radio is that you can say you’re going to be unavailable for a while, and they often work the storyline around your availability.

So they had you go off to run a farm in Hungary for a while, didn’t they?
Yes, that’s right. And they’ve just gone on air now where Debbie is going to have two jobs, where she runs the farm in Hungary, but she also manages the estate farm as well, so there’s a storyline that’s been built around my itinerant, annoying behaviour.

You did Doctor Who recently. Was that fun to be part of?
It was great! I loved it. I was very excited to see the inside of the Tardis. And also to know that it all happened in Cardiff! I wouldn’t have put the two together. I was slightly mad, because my baby was only six weeks old when I did that, and it was my first bit of work after this one was born. So I was a little bit mad and crying a lot, and not speaking much, and a bit afraid of words that I had to remember.

So you’ll probably never be welcome in Cardiff again?
I don’t think the Doctor will be running after me, put it that way.

You now have three young kids. Is it difficult to balance work and family?
It can get tricky, yes, when things all happen at the same time. I’m doing a full time job now, which means I see them less than I want to. But I suppose that’s the cost of working. I have a lot of support and a lot of encouragement, and very forgiving children.

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