"We ARE going to see more of Lucy, and, yes, she does have something to share."
Tanya Franks, like the rest of the cast of 'Broadchurch', has been sworn to secrecy over the identity of Danny Latimer's killer in the ITV drama that has caught the Monday night imagination, so this is all she's allowed to tell me.
But it's a relief that her character Lucy Stevens, the bad egg sister of Detective Miller (Olivia Colman), who turned up wanting cash for clues last week, is not another red herring, so best keep an eye on her from now on.
Tanya Franks plays Lucy Stevens in the hit drama 'Broadchurch'
The drama was shot last year, and Colman has already reported on the frenzy that accompanied the seaside production, once Dr Who fans had learned there was a Tardis alumnus in their midst. Franks, who hasn't shared a scene yet with David Tennant, wasn't affected by this so much as by the "absolutely crazy weather, which meant for a hectic schedule. But I knew it was going to be great, as soon as I read the script."
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It's not the first time Franks has played a seemingly incorrigibly bad egg, with four years as Rainie in 'EastEnders' under her belt. Typecasting, or…? She laughs. "I like to think there were separate elements of badness in all of them - the same but very different."
But the biggest drama for Franks in the last couple of years, perhaps both on and off the screen, was getting the part of famously abandoned Sybil Burton in the US tele movie 'Liz and Dick', the big-budget telling of the fabled Taylor-Burton romance. Yes, that one with Lindsay Lohan playing the violet-eyed star, that notoriously had to be worked around Lohan's off-set antics.
Franks is appropriately discreet for an actress who would be very happy to work in the US again, describing only the "long hours" and "sometimes fraught" atmosphere that ensued. "In the end, they only overran by one day, which was an amazing achievement, and a sign of how much money was involved," she reflects. But the experience was still overwhelmingly positive, and one she'd be happy to repeat.
'Kitten Chic' sees a much broader turn from Tanya Franks as a fun-loving mum
In the meantime, however, there's one-off comedy 'Kitten Chic', coming up on Sky Living. In a completely different turn again, Franks played a mum, too preoccupied with eBay and her own love life to attend to her teenage daughter. Another bad egg, then?
"Oh, that depends on how she's perceived," laughs Franks. "She's going out with a boy nearer her daughter's age, yes, but some people might aspire to that. Let's just say she's fun-loving."
Which we all might need after the last three episodes of 'Broadchurch'.
'Broadchurch' Episode 6 is tonight on ITV1 at 9pm. Kitten Chic begins on Sky Living on 11 April.