Sally Lindsay on The Madame Blanc Mysteries and why she hasn't watched Coronation Street in 19 years

I always have loads of candles going. I recently got a new sofa and my television is above the brick fireplace.

Who controls the remote at home?

It’s pretty 50/50 between Steve [White, her drummer husband who has worked with Paul Weller and The Style Council] and me. He’ll watch nonsense about catching monsters in the deep… Our 14-year-old twin boys have their own telly, but we force them to watch films with us on the weekend.

You write, produce and star as antiques dealer Jean White in The Madame Blanc Mysteries — where did the inspiration for the character come from?

Years ago, we went to Majorca and met a woman called Jan, who’s an antiques pundit on shows in the UK. She’s so knowledgeable, but also the most normal person you’ll ever meet, which I found fascinating. Apart from Miss Marple, detectives are usually male and often something’s happened that’s sent them mad. I thought: what if we had someone completely ordinary?

Do you like collecting antiques?

I like collecting art and on-set photographs. I’ve got an original photograph of Sid James and Kenneth Williams having a cup of tea on the set of Carry on Camping. Betty Driver, who played a barmaid in Coronation Street, was an old friend of mine – I loved her. I’ve got a massive photo of her face.

Do you still watch Coronation Street after playing Shelley Unwin?

I’ve not watched it since I left. The commitment is too much – the nuances are too important to miss an episode.

What have you been watching on TV?

My guilty pleasure is Botched and I’ve just finished Matlock. Kathy Bates is so good in it [as a retired lawyer who returns to work]. You get to a certain age and you become invisible, which means you’ve got a superpower, because people don’t notice you as much as they used to when you were young.

Do you feel invisible at the age of 51?

Definitely. Compared to the hassle you get when you’re a young woman, you don’t worry about walking past a building site or anything like that any more, which is fabulous.

A revolution is happening with women of my age with hormone replacement therapy and menopause. In my mum’s generation, you just shut up and got on with it. Now, there’s no one I’ve met around the same age as me who’s not mentioned it. We need to talk about it, so it’ll be easier for women coming after us.

Do you think older people are well represented on TV?

We should see people in their later years having a bloody good time! The opening scene of the new series of The Madame Blanc Mysteries is Robin [Askwith] and Sue [Holderness] on jet skis in hot pants. That’s what they were doing the year before on their day off. I took a picture of them and it inspired me!

There's also a middle-aged romance between Jean and her sidekick Dom (played by Steve Edge) — but why are they keeping it secret?

When I first met my husband he was 38 and had two children. He came as a three, so we had to get serious very quickly. Dom and Jean are in their late 40s, they don’t want any children, or to move in with each other, and they don’t need to prove anything to anyone, so they’re keeping it a secret to see how they feel before they tell the world.

You're talking to us from your writing shed. What’s it like?

It’s all teal with cushions. I painted it myself in lockdown. I have all my notes, a massive computer, a little couch, lamps and a bookshelf. My top shelf is all the murder weapons and artefacts from The Madame Blanc Mysteries. No one’s allowed in here.

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The Madame Blanc Mysteries season 4 starts 9pm on Thursday 20th March on Channel 5.

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