Only Child and Holby City star Amy Lennox on breakthrough year

From putting the world to rights in Rab C Nesbitt’s trailer to filming fight scenes with Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, Amy Lennox has had an unforgettable year.

While the Aberdeen actor has been working in the industry for more than 20 years, 2024 has felt like all the hard graft has paid off.

The Olivier Award-nominated star has worked consistently since her first professional role in panto at His Majesty’s Theatre in her home city in 2003, with an impressive list of stage and screen credits, including playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret in the West End and 100 episodes of Holby City as Chloe Godard.

But the past 12 months have been particularly memorable for Amy, who has booked roles in two very different TV shows.

A breakthrough year

The first of those is Only Child, a bittersweet BBC comedy also starring Rab C’s Gregor Fisher and Gary Tank Commander’s Greg McHugh. After that, she’ll be seen in the big-budget Blade Runner 2099 series starring one of her screen idols, Yeoh.

Amy said: “I feel lucky and grateful that I finally – after quite a long time – have the versatility I’ve always dreamed of having. You can get boxed in with this industry and there’s been times I’ve felt stuck. You bang your head and moan and find a way round it, and it eventually works out. It’s the only thing you can do, because if you really want something, you’ll find a way.

“If something is inherently inside you, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll fall on your face, get back up and find another way. I did a lot of theatre for a long time before I broke into television, so it’s mad that this year I’ve done a brilliant comedy and I’m also filming Blade Runner for Amazon – you couldn’t get two more different jobs in the same year.”

When she was studying at Guildford, Amy was a fan of Yeoh’s martial arts films, like Police Story 3, Magnificent Warriors and, later, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. “I grew up watching her and was obsessed with martial arts back in the day – I loved stage combat at drama school – so it feels mad that I get to film fight scenes with her. I don’t think I’d believe it if I told my younger self this would happen. And Michelle’s so lovely and down to earth.

“With the TV I’d done up until Blade Runner, I could understand the machine and see all the cogs, but with Blade Runner it’s an unknown world. It’s mind-blowingly huge and hard to fathom. The most exciting part is walking onto a set – some of which are unbelievable – where there are loads of supporting artists because then it feels like another world.

“We’ve filmed in Barcelona, Prague, and we’re going to Berlin soon. I’ve been yo-yoing to various parts of Europe and the schedule changes all the time – it’s hard to even book a dentist appointment at the moment! But it’s exciting and I feel like I’m living the dream.”

That dream started when Amy was in first year at Aberdeen Grammar. She remembers watching television one day and suddenly having an overwhelming feeling of jealousy at the actors on screen.

“I decided I had to do this, but I had no clue how,” Amy recalled. “I had a chat with my mate – we’re still friends now – in my school registration class and he told me he was in a youth theatre group called Giz Giz. I went along and they shoved me in at the deep end – they put me on stage alone and asked me to sing. I was so terrified my knees were knocking.

“My dad had always told me I had a beautiful voice as a kid, but the more he told me the less I wanted to do it. But to be forced up in front of all those people and be told I had a nice voice opened something up inside me and planted a seed.”

She joined lots of groups, such as Aberdeen Youth Music Theatre, and performed in school shows. There was barely a night went by, she says, when she wasn’t rehearsing for something. She successfully auditioned for Guildford School of Acting in Surrey and has been based down south since, which made the opportunity to come home and work with two Scottish TV comedy legends like Gregor and Greg so special.

Only Child

The pair play a bickering father and son in Only Child, which starts this week. McHugh is Richard, a bit-part actor who returns home to Forres from London for an overdue visit with his recently widowed dad, Ken. Richard quickly realises his old man, very much stuck in his ways, might need more help than he first thought.

Amy plays Richard’s old school friend, Emily, whose parents lived across the street until their recent passing. A nurse, she has been checking in on Ken since his wife died.

“I love how dry Emily is and the way in which she deals with hard aspects of life. She takes everything on the chin,” Amy said. “She’s been through it all. There’s a lovely dynamic between her and Richard – she’s already lost her parents and he’s a step behind, where he’s lost his mum and is going through things with his dad. Her perspective on life is different from his. She’s a part of the community and has a big heart, but she’s not a wet lettuce of a person. She’s funny and very straight. She’ll sit back and watch Richard dig these awkward holes for himself. The more of an idiot he is, the more endearing she finds it, even though she takes the mick.”

Amy with Greg McHugh. — Amy with Only Child co-star Greg McHugh.

Building believability in the relationship between Richard and Emily was important, and Amy says she and Greg – who is also the star of this year’s panto in Aberdeen – hit it off straight away, albeit in odd circumstances.

“We had a chemistry test on Zoom, which feels like a contradiction in terms since you can’t even look someone in the eye on Zoom,” she laughed. “But the minute we started chatting it was so easy. We knew we were going to get on like a house on fire and we did. It feels like I’ve known him for years and we’ve stayed in touch since. It felt very quickly like a wee family, which is lovely because it’s not always like that.”

Amy – who is married to fellow musical theatre actor Tom Hargreaves, whom she met doing 9 To 5 on stage more than a decade ago – got on just as well with Gregor Fisher.

“Getting to know the real Gregor, as opposed to Rab C Nesbitt, The Baldy Man and all these other things he did as I was growing up, was great,” she commented. “It was really cool to sit with him doing a crossword in his trailer and having a chat about life.

“He’s such a modest person. I don’t think he realises how talented he is – some of the best people are like that. He makes it seem so easy and effortlessly funny coming on set as Ken. It’s a gift.”

Amy describes Only Child as one of her favourite jobs thanks to the working environment and camaraderie.

“Al Campbell, our director, created a perfect atmosphere with a lovely energy – and he’s such a giggler, he was the worst out of everyone. And Bryce Hart was so clever with how he wrote it, because it would have been quite easy for the characters to be annoying or unlikeable, but he made them loveable and universal.”

The acting industry has had a difficult time in recent years with Covid and then the writers’ strike, so Amy is thankful for where she finds herself at the moment.

She added: “It’s a really odd time, so to be involved in projects I’m really proud of makes me feel all the more grateful.”

Family focus is perfect

A comedy about approaching middle age and dealing with parents growing old is an interesting part of life to focus on, according to Amy.

“I’m glad someone has written about this stage in our lives,” she said. “Some of the scripts are so funny and then hit you in the stomach with a heartbreaking moment. Bryce [Hart] has done such a great job with it.

“You know, you go through your 20s and if you’re lucky to still have your parents, you don’t really consider that they won’t always be here. But as the years go on, and you maybe don’t see your parents so much, you suddenly realise they’re getting old, and it hits you like a smack in the face that one day they won’t be here.”

Amy lives in the south of England while her parents moved from Aberdeen to Edinburgh a few years after she moved to London.

“I’m back and forth to Prague at the moment filming Blade Runner and I’m going to be away for Christmas, so while I was up in Scotland for a screening of Only Child last week I booked a train to Edinburgh, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen them for months,” she explained.

“They come to visit us – we have a beach at the bottom of the road, so they get nice holidays – and I love Edinburgh. We hang out enough before we get sick of each other!”

Only Child, BBC Scotland, Thursday, 10pm, BBC1, Friday, 9.30pm, and on iPlayer