Samantha Bond is no stranger to playing inquisitive women. Having shot to fame as MI6 secretary Miss Moneypenny to Pierce Brosnan’s 007 in the late 1990s, the London-born actress is back as an amateur sleuth in the second series of The Marlow Murder Club, U’s mystery show from Death in Paradise creator Robert Thorogood.

The daughter of TV producer Pat Sandys and actor Philip Bond, Samantha plays crossword-setter and retired archaeologist Judith Potts, who, when she’s not swimming naked in the Thames, solves crimes with her like-minded friends in the idyllic riverside town of Marlow.

Samantha has been a regular fixture on our screens since landing her first TV role in the BBC’s 1983 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. The 63-year-old – who has two children, Tom and Molly, with her actor husband Alexander Hanson – has since appeared in hit shows, including the sitcom Outnumbered.

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She also starred in period drama Downton Abbey, playing Lady Rosamund Painswick, the on-screen daughter of her “immensely kind” real-life friend, Dame Maggie Smith, who died last year.

Here, Samantha recalls a touching memory from her decades-long friendship with the actress and speaks about channelling her late mother in The Marlow Murder Club.

Samantha, why did you say yes to this series?

“It’s always the script. The plots are so good and so complicated; that’s what pulls an actor in. Plus, there were all sorts of things about Judith herself, who has got a lot of me in her.

“She’s also got a lot of my late mother, who was a crossword addict and had a great investigative brain. She would have a whisky at 6pm [like Judith] – and in fairness to Judith, she’s about to get in the river naked, so she’s allowed a whisky.”

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“Judith has got a lot of my late mother, who was a crossword addict and had a great investigative brain.”

Was it scary filming in the river?

“There was a scene in series one when Judith was in an inlet to the river. It was a beautiful day and you could stand up. I’m only five foot six but it wasn’t deep or wide and it was clean and clear. I could have swum there all day.

“It’s when they bung you in the middle of the river, which is incredibly deep and has very strong currents, that it’s seriously frightening. There was always someone in the water with me, so if I got into a panic, there was a butch person who could pick me up – not that it happened.”

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Have there been any guests in this series whom you were particularly happy to welcome?

“We’ve had some amazing guest artists, many of whom – because I’m of a certain age – I’ve worked with before. The first episode involves the death of Sir Peter Bailey, who was played magnificently by James Wilby, whom I first worked with around 25 years ago.

“Then there’s Caroline Langrishe, who I’ve known for what feels like literally forever, and an actor called Dominic Mafham; I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company with him when I was pregnant with my son, who’s now 32. So that’s been a huge bonus.”

What was it like reuniting with Jo Martin, who plays Suzie Harris, and Cara Horgan, who portrays Becks Starling?

“It was great, because in series one, the three of us were getting to know one another just as the characters were.

“We got on fabulously well, and so, going back, we were into a shorthand with one another and the characters have developed a huge affection for each other.

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“There’s immense warmth. There’s immense love, actually, between the three of them. It was lovely to return to that.”

Dame Maggie Smith was a great loss to the industry, but also to you, because you knew her for such a long time. Do you have any standout memories of her?

“I first worked with Maggie on stage in an Edward Albee play called Three Tall Women. In the first act, you meet Maggie’s character, a frail woman with dementia – a screamingly funny frail woman with dementia, of course.

“But in the second half, I play young Maggie. That’s when I first got to know and love her. It was a time when my mother was very poorly, and Maggie was immensely kind and wise and generous with me.

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“Then, of course, there were the Downton Abbey years, which were a lovely reconnection. We have great mutual friends, so we would see her for lunches and dinners.

“The first meal she had after the Covid-19 lockdowns was at our dear friend Derek Jacobi’s house. She’d been alone in lockdown and she walked in and promptly burst into tears, which is not something that one would connect with Mags. Her loss has been huge.”