Suranne Jones discusses changing her name
Viewers of BBC One's latest Sunday night drama, Vigil, may best know Suranne Jones as DCI Amy Silva at the moment, but as it turns out, Suranne isn't even the star's real name.
As Vigil continues, Suranne – who's also starred in the likes of Coronation Street and Gentleman Jack – has revealed that she was actually christened Sarah-Anne, after the priest overseeing the ceremony offered his two cents on her parents' first choice.
Telling the sweet story that led to Sarah-Anne changing her stage name to Suranne, the actress said that her father had intended to give her the same name as her great-grandmother, but was talked out of it at the last minute.
She previously told Scotland's The Herald: 'I think my name means "Princess". My great gran was called Suranne and when my dad told the priest he wanted to call me Suranne, too, he said, "Now, that's not a proper name", so I was christened Sarah-Anne.'
When Sarah-Anne became an actress, her father's wishes were finally respected. 'When I got the chance to pick a stage name, my dad asked if I would consider Suranne,' she added.
Suranne and Sarah-Anne aside, the star is currently best-known as Amy Silva, a police detective who's parachuted aboard military submarine HMS Vigil to investigate a crew member's death in Vigil.
Opening up about what drew her to the new series, Suranne told BBC that she was attracted to 'what it was trying to do'.
'It was trying to be something different. It was trying to have a different voice in the landscape of TV. It's a boys-y show, a boys-y thriller with two females at the heart of it – and a complex storyline about sexuality,' she explained.
'You put all of that together and I think what they were trying to do with it really spoke to me and I thought, "This is the way we should be going now."
'It shouldn't be unusual for a show to have all those elements in it. It should just be a TV show, and a really really bloody good one. So that's what attracted me at first – and the stunts!'
Vigil continues Sunday (September 12) at 9pm on BBC One.
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