BBC One’s ten-part adaptation of Phillipa Gregory‘s historical novel series, The Cousin’s War, began last weekend.

Discussing her role, McTeer commented: “Jacquetta was an amazing woman and she was a really interesting character to play … You know that old joke about Hilary and Bill Clinton? They broke down in their car and called whoever and the guy who came to mend it was a guy she used to go out with and he mended the car and he said “isn’t it marvellous, isn’t it a coincidence wow if you’d have married me you’d have been the wife of a car mechanic”, and she said “no if I’d have married you, I’d have been the wife of a president”. That’s what she wanted and that’s what she’s going to achieve. To a certain extent I think Jacquetta is a little bit like that.”

The actress added: “I really enjoy [the role]. I think partly I enjoy it because almost all of my scenes are with Rebecca [Ferguson, who plays Elizabeth] and we have such a lovely time together. We really like each other’s company and we just howl like idiots because we have a very similar sense of humour and both work very very hard and that’s been great.”

Set against the iconic backdrop of the War of the Roses, The White Queen tells the story of the women caught up in the on-going conflict for the throne – they are some of the most ruthless players in history and will stop at nothing to support their own causes and those of the ones they love.

Episode 2 airs at 9pm on Sunday night on BBC One.

> Order The White Queen on DVD on Amazon.

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