Sick Note star Pippa Bennett-Warner reveals her excitement at working with Harry Potter star Rupert Grint

SHARING a screen with big movie stars is becoming a habit for Brit actress Pippa Bennett-Warner.

Last year she completed a film with Elektra star Jennifer Garner and Bryan Cranston, from Breaking Bad.

And now she’s starring in Sky 1 sitcom Sick Note alongside Harry Potter star Rupert Grint and Nick Frost.

A generation of moviegoers grew up with Rupert as Ron Weasley, but she says he ensured no one was overawed.

“I used to love Harry Potter but it wasn’t really strange walking on set with Rupert because he’s so normal,” says Pippa.

“He’s really approachable and that really set the tone.

“He didn’t carry that fame with him and it made for a very relaxed set.”

Pippa plays the girlfriend of Rupert’s character Daniel, who is misdiagnosed with cancer by Nick’s incompetent doctor. When Daniel finds people treat him nicer, he forms a plot with the medic to cover up the error and continue pretending to have the disease.

“It is an unusual topic for a comedy, but the humour very much comes through,” says Pippa.

“The lies all spiral out of control but Rupert and Nick do such a great job that you’re rooting for them all the way despite what they are doing.

“I’m the sassy girlfriend who’s bored with Daniel who is a bit lazy and sits around playing games all day. They’ve been together for years and she’s fed up that he’s not doing better.”

Sky has ploughed a lot of money into Sick Note and bosses were so confident in its success that a second series was filmed before the first was even screened.

“You can never tell what will happen, so we were really chuffed when we got word that we were going to get a second series,” admits Pippa.

The first – which starts this week – was filmed some 18 months ago, with the second completed much more recently.

It’s a real big-name affair with other stars involved over the two series including Lindsay Lohan and Miami Vice’s Don Johnson.

Pippa is used to having starry encounters, though, including the Garner/Cranston film Wakefield.

“My stuff was really with Bryan but when I met Jennifer she was the friendliest person you could imagine – and with amazing hair!” laughs Pippa.

The 29-year-old is one of the country’s most in-demand young actresses, with ITV series Harlots just another of her projects. The first series earlier this year went down so well that Pippa has just started work on the second series, which also stars Lesley Manville and former Downton Abbey favourite Jessica Brown Findlay.

Set against the backdrop of 18th Century Georgian London, it’s based on the real stories of women of the time.

Acclaimed theatre actress Pippa had appeared in period dramas on stage, but Harlots was her first on TV.

“You show up and someone is there to put you in a corset and stockings and big skirts, which was a whole new experience for me.

“It was fun, though, and it was very female-led.

“We had female producers, directors and pretty much an all-female cast and that doesn’t happen very often.

“It was lovely to be part of that.”

Despite the fact that she’s obviously more than happy with her chosen profession, acting wasn’t Pippa’s childhood dream.

She was initially aiming to be a doctor until a heartfelt family loss changed everything.

“I definitely wanted to study at Cambridge and become a doctor.

“But then my grandfather died and it hit me really hard. I was very, very close to him and when he died I just couldn’t cope with the thought of losing someone.

“As a doctor you can have someone’s life in your hands and I was terrified then about what might happen.

“If I couldn’t save someone then I’d be heartbroken.

“So right from then I went completely the other way and discovered singing and dancing and acting and that was that.”

Sick Note, Sky 1, Tuesday, 10pm.