Katherine Parkinson happy to be ‘In the Club’

It seems Katherine Parkinson just can’t escape babies.

She’s starring in her second drama in a row as a mum-to-be while waiting to give birth for the second time for real.

IT Crowd favourite Katherine is one of the cast of new BBC1 drama In The Club, which follows six women about to give birth.

“I read the scripts and that didn’t help my broodiness,” laughs Katherine, who also starred as the receptionist in Doc Martin. “It was a lovely job to be pregnant on. I’d just filmed The Honourable Woman before this, playing pregnant in that, too.”

Katherine, 37, who has a daughter, Dora, with actor husband Harry Peacock, was going through the rough early months of her pregnancy during filming. But she says having an understanding cast around was a real help.

“We got on straight away,” she confides. “It was a happy job and one of the reasons I wanted to do it was because it had lots of women.

“I do a lot of comedy where you find lots of men.”

Katherine’s character Kim’s blog is the focus for the series but she admits she’s no expert.

“I don’t even use social networking as l don’t have enough time. But when I was carrying my first child I was really grateful for the pregnancy blogs.”

The cast includes Hermione Norris, Jill Halfpenny and Christine Bottomley, with former Heartbeat star Jonathan Kerrigan one of the few males on board.

In The Club is penned by Kay Mellow, who was behind top dramas such as Fat Friends and The Syndicate.

“I love Kay’s work,” admits Katherine. “It’s such heartfelt writing and dramatic in all the right ways.”

And Katherine’s far from the only one in Kay’s fan club.

“I’m a massive Kay Mellor fan,” reveals Hermione, most recently seen in Crimson Field.

“I think she’s a huge ambassador for women. I was also handed six brilliant complete scripts to read when I was offered the part, which almost never happens.

“All of Kay’s characters are rich, vibrant, real and raw and there is an honesty that ran through all of them.”

Hermione plays one of those nearing their delivery date and, being a mum-of-two herself, she admits the prosthetic baby bump took her back.

“It was really uncomfortable,” she says.

“And as you’re not really pregnant you don’t have the spatial awareness that would actually come with your size if it really was you.

“There was lots of bumping into things and people!”