…Thewlis, brought up in Blackpool which features heavily in his book, wrote The End on the final page of the first draft seven years ago, went out to celebrate with a mate and met Anna Friel. They’ve been together ever since.

‘The attraction was something simple really in that we were from the same part of the world, from Lancashire,’ he says.

‘There was something very familiar about her. She was like the girls I’d grown up with. Before Anna, I’d had a few relationships and I’m glad I’ve been around a bit. I know where it’s gone wrong or know who are the wrong people for me and who I might be wrong for.

‘I’d had a relationship with a French girl, a Japanese girl, an American girl, a Filippina and she was there all the time - a Lancashire girl. I thought: “It’s a Lancashire girl I was looking for. Why didn’t I realise it?”

‘Before that night, Anna and I had actually met on an aeroplane going to Cannes. Channel 4 was flying out what they said were 20 of the most prominent actors of the time - it was about 1995 - to promote the British film industry.

‘Everyone was there - Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz. It was weird because some people you knew and some you didn’t. I sat there thinking: “We’re all very famous on this plane. If this goes down there will be an awful lot of happy equity members.”‘

Read the whole article, where David Thewlis talk much more about Anna, here