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- guardian.co.uk, Sunday February 20 2000 12.44 GMT
How do you follow up a role in one of last year's most controversial films? Well, if you're Lorraine Pilkington, you decide to star in a gentle BBC drama and appease some of those 'disgusted from Tunbridge Wells' types who railed against your sex and drugs and techno movie, Human Traffic.
In Monarch of the Glen, Pilkington plays a wilful schoolteacher who exchanges waspish banter and meaningful looks with the reluctant young laird (Alastair Mackenzie). Needless to say, the young man already has a posh lass waiting for him down in London. Created by Michael Chaplin ( Grafters ), this mainstream drama boasts a cast of eccentric characters familiar to viewers of Celtic dramas such as Ballykissangel and Hamish MacBeth.
With her unruly blonde curls and smart tongue, Pilkington should stir things up a bit in the sleepy Highlands. Producer Nick Pitt chose her because he thought she had a 'soft centre under a tough exterior'. For the 24-year-old actress, an opportunity to work alongside Richard Briers and Susan Hampshire in a potential ratings winner proved too attractive to resist.
Although she won the role of Katrina before anyone saw her as clubbing diva Lulu in Justin Kerrigan's Human Traffic, both characters are feisty souls. Pilkington is as effervescent off screen, too. She claims the role of Lulu was 'very close to me', especially during her club-loving days in Dublin. She was the most glamorous member of the youth movie's cast, enjoying a very modern, chemically enhanced romance with John Simm. Human Traffic fans may be surprised by her appearance in Monarch of the Glen, but it is her practical concession to career-building without wearing a corset.
As a teenager she was fond of rounding up stray ravers and bringing them back to her house to enjoy a less vigorous stimulant. 'I used to love bringing all my mates back to my flat and having my mother giving them cups of teas and toast. I'd be saying: "OK, no more drugs now."'
Her first taste of showbusiness came after she skipped school and GCSE revision to star in Neil Jordan's teenage film, The Miracle. The film got decent reviews but did little for her fledgling career. She did have small roles in The Last of the High Kings (1996) and The Boxer (1997), but her career took off again with Human Traffic. Ironically for an Irish actress, her biggest roles to date have been in a Cardiff-set movie and a Highlands drama.
Last year she endured her most embarrassing screen moment, playing a disgruntled daughter in ITV's Four Fathers drama. She had to strip in a real pub in front of 60 real customers. Unfortunately, the extras had been paid in beer. 'It was horrific,' she recounts. Thankfully, those roles are in the past. If Monarch of the Glen attracts enough pre-watershed viewers, there will be a second series. And that would be a different kind of high.
