Half an hour, tops, then Emily Atack has to be off. To pose for photos in the Broadwick Street shop window of Agent Provocateur, the coquettish British lingerie brand with whom she’s recently begun working. The Luton-born 36-year-old logs on to our call from a suite inside The Broadwick Soho, or, more accurately, her hair stylist does, spraying and brushing at someone just out of camera. And then, in a flash of blonde hair and white dressing gown, the familiar energetic blue eyes appear.

“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!”

Not at all. Lovely to meet you.

“Lovely to meet you.” And then, gesturing to the champagne flute in her hand and the glam squad pirouetting around her, “This isn’t my normal life by the way.”

Hmm.

“Ha! Okay, maybe it is at the moment! But it’s not always been like this!”

A reminder of how we got here: in 2007, aged just 17, Atack, the daughter of actress and singer Kate Robbins and Child guitarist Keith Atack, was cast as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ Hinchcliffe in E4’s wildly successful laddie comedy series The Inbetweeners. Appearing as the promiscuous, older girl-next-door led to appearances on a number of celebrity gameshows – aged 19, Atack became the youngest-ever contestant on Dancing on Ice and, in 2018, finished runner up behind Harry Redknapp in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! – but also paved the way for a torrent of unwanted male attention. In 2023, Atack would explore the issue of online sexual harassment in BBC documentary Asking for It?. She has subsequently said she has no regrets about appearing in The Inbetweeners, pointing instead to the way she was portrayed in the media afterwards.

Film credits followed, including 2016’s Dad’s Army (Bill Nighy, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Gambon) and 2017’s Lies We Tell (Gabriel Byrne, Harvey Keitel, Toyah Willcox). In 2020, Atack demonstrated her comedic diversity, writing and appearing in the ITV sketch and stand-up programme, The Emily Atack Show, which ran for three seasons. “I’m good at throwing myself into things,” she says, her makeup team having evaporated like the hairspray. “I grew up in a family where trying new things was very much a thing. I’m lucky – people have always given me space to do that. I love being an all-rounder, but my heart will always be rooted in acting, especially in comedy drama.” Comedy dramas like the recent smash-hit series Rivals.

In 2024, Disney+ adapted Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel, ramping up its raciest scenes and signing up a cast of household-favourites, including Atack, David Tennant and Danny Dyer. The show’s mix of ’80s glamour and nostalgia proved bingeable. More than 5.2 million viewers tuned in within a week of launch. It became Disney+’s most successful UK drama of 2024.

“Jilly Cooper literally changed my life,” says Atack. “I’ve been acting for 20 years and in the short time I knew her she gave me everything I could have ever wanted – the dream role, the dream character, the beautiful set, we call it ‘Jilly’s world’.” How does Atack explain the success of the series? “It’s such a great cast, such great writers, such great production. We’ve all become friends. I call it a ‘pinch-me’ job. I look around and go, ‘I can’t believe I’m here playing this role with these people’.”

Following Cooper’s death from a fall in her home in October 2025, a memorial service was held at Southwark Cathedral. Atack attended, along with a number of her Rivals co‑stars, and Her Majesty the Queen. After Dame Joanna Lumley read extracts from another Cooper classic, The Common Years, the cathedral’s bells rang and guests were plied with champagne from 130 magnums of Moët & Chandon. “She was just an incredible woman,” says Atack.

It was the Rivals role that led to the collaboration that, in a little over an hour, will see Atack appear in the window of Agent Provocateur. In the Disney+ series, Atack plays the wife of the deputy prime minister, featuring in some of the programme’s raciest scenes, including a game of naked tennis. Agent Provocateur was founded by Joseph Corré, the son of Vivienne Westwood, and his then-wife Serena Rees in 1994. Since 2010, creative direction has been provided by Sarah Shotton (not to be confused with Atack’s Rivals character, Sarah Stratton). Featuring polka dots, florals and PVC a-plenty, the brand’s SS26 campaign taps into the aristocratic glamour that’s central to the Cooper adaptation. “We needed someone bold, British and utterly gorgeous to bring it to life,” says Shotton. “It could only ever have been Emily.”

“My mum used to tell me off,” says Atack, who wasted no time in saying yes to fronting the campaign. “I basically wanted to wear the brand from a very young age. This campaign was another ‘pinch-me’ job. I love the message the brand, and this collection, puts across about female empowerment. It’s very late-’80s; it’s over the top and just really fun.”

When we speak, filming for Rivals season two has just wrapped (the series is slated to premiere on 14 May 2026). “I was so emotional,” says Atack. “I literally burst into tears.” Not that it takes much these days. In June 2024, Atack welcomed her first child with her partner Dr Alistair Garner, an aerospace and nuclear applications specialist, whom she began dating in 2022. Barney James Garner was born via emergency caesarean after a 12-hour labour.

“I’ve always been a sensitive soul so was an emotional wreck beforehand. Now I can’t even put the TV on without crying… Everything becomes very overwhelming, but in a really great way… I always welcome emotion in our house. I think it’s important to show emotion and show how you feel about things.”

With Barney, Atack says she wants to raise a man who’s in touch with his feelings, “who knows his own worth”, who understands how his actions might affect the feelings of others. Who, by extension, knows how to treat women and girls. It’s a topic, even before she became a mother, that’s close to Atack’s heart.

Atack speaks on tackling violence against women and girls with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, 24 April 2023. Images: Alamy

In 2021, the actress teamed up with Grazia magazine and a cross-party of MPs to make ‘cyber flashing’ (the act of sending unsolicited nude images) illegal. She attended Parliament in 2022 to raise awareness among other MPs. “There’s a certain way that men think they can communicate with me,” Atack said at the time. “I’ve had enough of it.” Cyber-flashing was banned in England and Wales in 2023.

Airing later that year, Asking for It?, the BBC documentary, asked if enough is being done to protect young women and girls online, despite the ban. The programme, for which Atack underwent therapy, saw the actress speak to her parents for the first time about the harassment she’d faced. She hoped the process would help her stop blaming herself.

In 2024, in partnership with Right to Equality, Atack went further, launching the ‘I’m Asking for It’ campaign. The initiative believes current rape and sexual offence laws put too much burden on women to express they don’t consent. It argues that there should be clear consent from both parties, rather than the absence of a ‘no’. Atack insisted the proposal wasn’t about “man-bashing” and wasn’t “men versus women”. It was about accountability, not hostility, she said, and concerned a minority of people rather than men as a whole.

Next year will mark two decades since Atack was cast in The Inbetweeners, the show that catapulted her into the national consciousness. She’s been a near regular on our screens ever since. Rivals returns in May. Nobody’s Fool, a new game show she’ll be co-presenting with Danny Dyer, will air later this year. If the tabloid press is anything to go by – it seems obsessed with every detail of Atack’s private life – interest in the actress has never been greater. Does she consider herself to be famous?

“I feel like ‘famous’ has become a dirty word,” she says. “People don’t want to admit they’re famous. It’s almost like you’re admitting you’ve achieved a certain amount of success, like you’re giving yourself a pat on the back. I grew up in a family in which both my parents were on TV, so fame was a very known thing for me, but I never wanted to be famous. I wanted to be recognised for the quality of my work. I’m a hard worker, I’m a grafter. If that has led to a certain level of fame, then I’ll wear it – ‘Yeah, I am bloody famous!'”

What’s been the cost of celebrity? “There seems to be a bit of a blurred line about what people think you should expect when you’re famous. People say, ‘You chose this life – you should have known that it comes at a price.’ OK, but I think people have gotten that blurred line very wrong over the years. There’s this scrutiny, which social media has a lot to answer for. I’ve developed a very thick skin, but there have been days when I just wanted to pull the duvet over my head. I’m still a human being, yeah? Things hurt me.”

“Sorry to interject,” says someone out of screen. “But we’ve got to get Emily dressed. Any other questions?”

Yes, right, sorry. How has motherhood changed you? “I think it’s helped me understand who I am as a person and what I like about myself – I don’t want to change too much; I want to enhance those things so that I can be the best possible mum to Barney.”

What makes you nervous? “Barney.”

What scares you? “Barney growing up.”

Do you suffer from imposter syndrome? “A bit. Not as much as some people would like to think I do.”

When do you feel most like yourself? “When I’m with Alistair and Barney.”

Perfect weekend? “Being on the sofa with Barney watching Moana, with someone bringing us snacks.”

How’s the wedding planning going? “I think I’ve nailed it. We’re getting married in September. I’ve very much enjoyed the planning process. Choosing napkins and stuff. I’m like, ‘My God, my life is here!’”

What’s next in the calendar? “I’ve got one of these celeb-y dinners with Agent Provocateur at Quo Vadis this evening. Alistair is coming. We’ve got a babysitter.” Photos in a press release the next day show that Atack was joined at the Soho venue by Katherine Ryan, Laura Whitmore and Sophia Hadjipanteli. Not your normal life, though, right?

“I know, I know, it’s ridiculous that I get to do this stuff – it doesn’t get lost on me.”

“I’m really sorry,” says the voice, “but Emily’s got to go.”

“Sorry,” says Emily.

Not at all. Good luck in the window. And with the wedding planning. Enjoy this evening.

“I will! Cheers, bye, thanks!”

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