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Anna Madeley, who plays Audrey Hall – better known as Mrs Hall – on All Creatures Great and Small, has revealed she had to be kept apart from her on-screen son Edward (played by Conor Deane) to film emotional scenes.

Speaking on the Masterpiece Studio podcast, Anna opened up about her character’s vulnerability after waiting almost endlessly for Edward to turn up in episode five of the third series. 

When asked what direction director Andy Hay provided in terms of the tone for these scenes, she explained: “We did talk it through a little bit and Conor Deane, who came into play Edward, who was just lovely, he kept us apart as actors.

“I think he wanted to keep this sense of… Even though these two people know each other really well, because of this estrangement there is this distance between them.

“I think he really wanted to have that awkwardness of the unfamiliarity of it, even though on one hand you know them really well, on the other he’s now a young man arriving in naval uniform.

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“I think it’s that sense of not knowing quite what you are walking into of feeling hopeful but also a little bit anxious, and trying to do the right thing by her little boy.”

“But also this young man appears,” the actress continued. “We just wanted to have all those layers in it and not have that preconceived idea really of how that day was going to pan out for her.”

Anna added: “She’s had so many disappointments with Edward before and we have seen her reach that point of her saying, ‘He knows where I am.'”

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The star said her character is just putting herself in pain every time she reaches out and gets nothing back from Edward.

During the episode, Mrs Hall tried to reconnect with Edward by making him his favourite childhood snack, but he did not seem impressed.

Edward, who had been working on board the HMS Repulse for the Navy, brought up the subject of his father and Mrs Hall asked if he was still drinking.

He told his mother he was worried he was developing the same bad qualities as his father, but she disagreed.

Discussing her hopes for their relationship, Anna said: “Her heart will be open to it and she will want to believe it and it will be hard to accept if it doesn’t work out.”

“It was a careful calibration of the hope versus the cold reality of what it has been like in the past,” she remarked.

Will the mother and son become closer in the upcoming season of All Creatures Great and Small?

All Creatures Great and Small episodes are available to watch on My5.

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