“I struggle with not finding the humour in anything,” says Tanya Reynolds. That’ll come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen one of her irrepressibly funny recent roles.
After coming of age as an alien porn-obsessed teen in Netflix’s Sex Education, she’s currently bringing welcome levity to some of the most irreverent historical dramas you’ll find on stage and screen. We chat while she’s hanging out in her book-lined flat, between performances playing a sweary Tudor midwife in the wildly successful West End drama 1536. In Netflix’s The Decameron (2024), she was still more mischievous, playing a Machiavellian servant girl who pushes her snobby mistress off a bridge.
And this spring, she took on her funniest role yet, in the form of the oh-so-cutting Caroline Bingley in the lively Austen spin-off The Other Bennet Sister (“she’s like an iconic mean girl”), who cattily describes the put-upon Mary Bennet’s fumbling piano recital as “truly unforgettable”. So is she fond of a witty put-down in real life?
“Oh my god no, no, no,” says Reynolds, sinking back into her chair in horror. “I love playing characters that are as far as possible away from myself – it’s like putting on a costume. It’s so much easier because you become a different person.” She drops her voice to a diffident murmur. “I’m actually a very introverted person, very shy. I don’t feel particularly comfortable talking about myself… she says, in an interview,” she adds, wryly.
