Rising star Abigail Lawrie on joining JK Rowling thriller and a life-changing school trip in Our Ladies

It is a journey stretching from Aberdeen to London but it was a memorable summer in Edinburgh that helped Abigail Lawrie realise an acting career could be more than make believe.

The Bafta winner has been in demand ever since she made her professional acting debut in the BBC adaptation of JK Rowling’s first adult novel, A Casual Vacancy, in 2015, while still a student.

Tonight she will be seen in the fifth series of Strike, also based on Rowling novels, a showcase winter drama for the BBC but, she says, taking a school play to the Fringe was the turning point.

Lawrie, 25, said: “I was quite shy when I was a kid so going to drama club was an extra thing to do where I could meet other people and it would maybe bring me out of my shell a bit. I really enjoyed it but it never crossed my mind that it could be a career.

“My family moved to London when I was 14, which is a big thing to do at that age. At the time I didn’t necessarily want to be moving but I’m glad I did and I’m so grateful for it. I wouldn’t have had the career I have if I hadn’t moved down, because I wouldn’t have met the people I did and I don’t think I would ever have seen it as an option.”

After a string of acclaimed parts in recent years and more to come, it is certainly an option now.

It was in Edinburgh that Lawrie realised her hobby could perhaps become a career and she has since gone on to star on the big screen in Our Ladies, and TV in Sky series Tin Star and the award-winning Murdered For Being Different.

Next year she will be seen in The Blue, a major new Paramount+ series; Canyon Del Muerto, a movie about a pioneering female archaeologist; and the new series of Good Omens alongside David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Before that, though, she can be seen in Strike: Troubled Blood, based on the novel written by Rowling under the pen name of Robert Galbraith, about a ramshackle but effective private investigator.

After moving to London Lawrie became a student at The Harrodian School – whose past pupils include Robert Pattinson and Jack Whitehall – and her drama teacher, Mr Parker, was a big influence.

She said: “Our class came to the Edinburgh Fringe in the summer of 2013 with a play and it was just the best time. We had a really early time slot and some days we were performing to one person in the audience but it didn’t matter. It was then that I realised this was something I could do after I left school and that a world existed where adults were acting. After Edinburgh, Mr Parker asked if I would like to meet with an agent and see where it goes, and I’m with that same agent now.”

One of the first jobs she was put up for was as troubled teen Krystal Weedon in The Casual Vacancy, a drama about the conflict triggered by a council election in a West Country town.

She followed that up with her professional stage debut in a play written by Keira Knightley’s mum, Sharman Macdonald. And, with the offers continuing to pour in, Lawrie decided to forego drama school and learn on the job instead.

Working on Strike saw her reunited with some of the behind-the-scenes crew from The Casual Vacancy and gave her a chance to reflect on how far she has come in a short time.

She said: “Ruth Kenley-Letts is a producer on both and I hadn’t seen her since I was 17, so it was lovely to catch up with her and reminisce a little. It was great to work with those people again and it did feel like a full-circle moment but I also thought, ‘oh God, what am I doing’ – that hasn’t changed on any job I’ve been on! I reckon that feeling will always be there but I think that’s a good thing because it keeps me on my toes.

“I’ve been really lucky with some of the actors I’ve worked with who have taught me a lot. Many of them have been doing it much longer than I have so I’ve been able to soak up lots of things. I stay in touch with them, which helps me with both my career and life.”

In Strike: Troubled Blood, Lawrie plays Margot Bamborough, a GP who is murdered in 1974 as she leaves her surgery to go to the pub. In the present day, her daughter contacts private detective Strike to ask him to look into her death and find out who killed her.

“We filmed it in London at the start of the year, so it was good to film at home,” Lawrie continued. “We actually shot in a nightclub next to where I lived at the time, which I had been in before, so it was odd to go in during the day and film.

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“I’d never done a job set in that era before so it was great fun going to the costume warehouse in north London and trying on all the clothes from the ’70s. My character works in a nightclub called the Kit Kat Club, based on the bunny clubs from the ’60s like Mayfair, and those costumes were all handmade and tailored for each of us. I didn’t feel at all like myself, which is a great thing, getting to play someone completely different and very glamorous.”

Filming the scenes where she is abducted and murdered, working under a rain machine and in freezing conditions, could have been tough but she was helped by director Sue Tully – who played Michelle Fowler in EastEnders.

Lawrie said: “I’d worked with Sue before on Tin Star, so I knew exactly how she worked and we communicate well. That was comforting and also a lot of fun. She knows exactly what she wants and has such a clear vision. It helps that she has been in front of the camera, too.”

Tin Star, in which Lawrie starred alongside Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, saw her relocate to Canada for filming. Her performances as Anna Worth, Roth’s daughter, won her a Bafta Scotland award.

“We made three seasons over the course of four or five years and I’d describe it as being my drama school,” she said. “I had never spent that long on set before and it was also my first time away from home. I went over to Canada when I was 18 or 19.”

The day after Lawrie finished filming Strike: Troubled Blood, she flew out to Thailand to begin work on The Blue, which will debut early next year and also stars Rhianne Barreto, Susie Porter and Jay Ryan.

She said: “I was there from March to September. I doubt I’ll ever do a job like that again, because we filmed on a boat in the middle of the ocean in the heat, surrounded by amazing landscapes.”

She also has historical movie, Canyon Del Muerto, directed by Coerte Voorhees. She said: “I play one of the first female archaeologists, Ann Morris. I didn’t know about her at all previously but she’s an amazing woman so I’m glad her story is being told. We filmed it in New Mexico in the height of Covid when nothing was being made. It took a while due to restrictions but we managed it.”

Lawrie also returned north of the border this year to film for the next series of Good Omens.

“We filmed in Edinburgh and Stirling, and it was good to work with the Scottish crew and to be able to visit family as well. It’s only my second job in Scotland, the first one being Our Ladies,” she said.

Michael Caton-Jones’ adaptation of Alan Warner’s cult novel about a group of Catholic schoolgirls who find adventure in Edinburgh while in the city for a choir competition was nominated for best film at the Scottish Baftas last month.

“It was such a special job because we all became such good pals and have remained so,” she said. “And it will always be special, because not only was it the first job I filmed in Scotland, but it’s about Scotland, too.”

Strike: Troubled Blood, BBC1 Scotland, 9pm, tonight and tomorrow, concluding next Sunday and Monday