Ruth Wilson on exploring her own family’s story in new drama Mrs Wilson

RUTH WILSON was 15 when she learned her family had an incredible secret.

She found a photo of her grandfather, whom she had never met, in a chest of drawers. Ruth then went on to learn the uncomfortable truth about this mysterious man.

It was only after he died suddenly of a heart attack in the 1960s that Ruth’s grandmother, Alison, discovered she was not the only Mrs Wilson, and her two sons were not his only children.

Now the actress, best known for her roles in Luther and The Affair, is exploring the full story in new drama Mrs Wilson, in which she plays her own gran.

As revealed in the drama, it turned out Alison’s husband Alec actually had four wives, and with them a total of seven children.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a few more come out after the show airs,” says Ruth with a laugh.

Alec, played in the three-part series by Edinburgh-born Game Of Thrones actor Iain Glen, was also a novelist and a spy whom Alison met while working at MI6 during the Second World War.

Ruth says: “I found him fascinating, and I’m a curious person anyway, so I was just like, ‘Wow, great, our family’s not boring!’

“But it’s just been incredible, and the story keeps revealing itself, it hasn’t stopped yet.”

Ruth says she had no option but to take on the role of her gran herself.

“The only way I could protect her was to play her,” she admits.

“Protection not in the way of making her a nice woman, it was actually in a way of showing all her sides, all her complexities.

“I think somebody who was playing my grandmother might feel self-conscious, or concerned about how they portray her, with me watching over their shoulder.”

Mrs Wilson, BBC One, Tuesday, 9pm