Anna Madeley Interview: Skeldale's Housekeeper & Heart, Mrs. Hall

I think her lust for life, really. When you talk about her relationships, she's an epitome of that community. She's someone who will step up when you're in trouble. Whatever it is that she can, she'll do for you. And I think that nurturing spirit in her, and her emotional courage, her wisdom. But she has wit with it, as well. She's in a funny spot, in a way—she's at a point in her life where she's had her child—but she manages to make a family out of the people she's around. She's someone who carves out that community.And I just love that she's quite an independent lady. I think it was in [Episode 1] where she hears a noise in the night, and you think, well, she's in a household with men…But she doesn't question going downstairs herself, and grabbing the cricket bat, and going out to the shed to see who's there. I just love that about her, that she just gets on with it and does it: whatever the job is that needs doing, she'll set herself to try and do it. And she doesn't always get it right, and she doesn't always say the right thing, but she's there and she's willing and she's open-hearted.Like in her dealings with Tristan—she can see he's getting into trouble, and she'll try and help him through it. She's not there wagging a finger, going, "You shouldn't be drinking whiskey. And who's this girl hiding in the cupboard?" She helps him through it and eases the water. You see it as James arrives, too, as she helps him through those first tests that the community set him. I think she probably quite enjoys bringing them up and nurturing them, in a way. But helping people along their way is such a part of who she is. One of the things I really love is that they've brought the women to the fore, and in relationships, like hers with Jenny Alderson. She's a young girl who may have different opportunities ahead of her. And seeing someone young have a passion, and helping them work it out, or find what that is, and help them along their way, is exciting to Mrs. Hall.Her ability to build community and relationships spans the generations. She's not forgotten what it's like to fall in love, and get up to mischief, or to not want to go to school—all those things—as much as she knows how to help people when they're older, in difficult stages of life when things become more complicated. So yeah, it's essentially her lust for life.