ACTRESS Jodie Whittaker returns to our screens this week in a supernatural drama.

The 28-year-old Skelmanthorpe actress will star in five-part Marchlands playing the emotionally-charged part of a grieving mother.

And she’s gearing up for her next big screen role alongside Hollywood starlet Anne Hathaway.

The former Shelley High School pupil spoke to the Examiner about her career, working with some of the industry’s biggest names and coming home.

Speaking from her North London home, Jodie explained: “Marchlands is set over three decades and I play the mother Ruth in the 1968 scenes.

“The scenes I’m in are about Ruth and her family trying to come to terms with the loss of a child and how difficult that is.

“Ruth and husband Paul, played by Jamie Thomas King, react very differently – Ruth is unable to accept why the little girl died.”

Marchlands is a cleverly constructed story that switches between 1968, 1987 and the present day. Although in the story Marchlands is in Yorkshire, it was filmed on the outskirts of London.

“When I got the job I thought I’d be living at home or staying with a friend in Leeds, but it was not to be,” Jodie added. And even though she moved away more than a decade ago, home is still Huddersfield where her parents live.

She added: “I’m only two hours 10 minutes from Wakefield Westgate, so it is easy for me to come back, it’s where my family and my friends are. I spent Christmas up there and it was lovely.”

And her home county features in her upcoming film with Anne Hathaway, who appeared in The Devil Wears Prada, and who will soon host the Oscars.

Anne had to work with a dialect coach to perfect a Leeds accent for the film One Day, which is based on the David Nicholls novel.

Jodie plays Tilly and she said fans of the book may be surprised by her portrayal of the character: “I was given the script and cried my eyes out at the end.

“Tilly is quite different in the film to the book, avid fans will be interested to see the character development from book to screen, but sometimes it’s hard to get it exactly like the book.”