So, is the honeymoon over for The Other One?

For many people, discovering that your late father had a secret second family would come as a huge, unpleasant shock. Learning that he’d given you and your long-lost sibling the same name would probably just add insult to injury.

But actresses Ellie White and Lauren Socha can see an upside – and that might explain why they have been such perfect casting as the two Catherine Walcotts in the sitcom The Other One, which concludes tonight.

Lauren, who plays outgoing Cat says: “I’d love it! I’d love to have a sister, I really would. I’d reach out and do anything I could to reach out and find that. Everyone wants a sister to have as a best mate.”

Ellie, who stars as the more uptight Cathy, adds: “I think I’d find it quite fun to be honest. I’ve always wanted a sister so it would be interesting. I mean if we didn’t get on I would disown her and pretend it never happened, but if we did, great!”

Luckily, despite the awkwardness of their situation and the fact they have very different personalities, their on-screen alter egos have managed to bond.

In fact, they’ve become so close that in the last of the current series, Cat decides to take Cathy on a “sister honeymoon” to cheer her up. But when Marilyn discovers Colin’s missing will, it leads to some shocking news.

Still, even if the honeymoon doesn’t go to plan, at least the actresses enjoyed it. Ellie says: “There’s a whole part of the last episode where Cat and Cathy take their dad’s boat out. It was incredibly fun to film, and playful. Cathy is much more free and loose than she has been before, so I hope people will enjoy those scenes.

She adds: “There was also added excitement and jeopardy when we filmed it, in seeing whether or not Lauren Socha would fall into the freezing cold water and get the entire shoot shut down.”

If she had fallen in, it wouldn’t be the first time one of the actresses had suffered for their art. Ellie reveals: “There was a scene where I was hanging, legs spread from a tree dressed in a monkey costume. It wasn’t so much as funny as deeply humiliating. Still I think the people around me got a lot of laughs from my cries of agony.”

Luckily, it seems unlikely that will put either her or Lauren off if The Other One is commissioned for a second series.

They’ve both already given some thought to how their characters would have coped with the lockdown.

Ellie thinks Cathy would have experienced: “a few anxiety attacks mixed with super-organised shopping trips mixed with extensive sanitising mixed with trying desperately to volunteer for the NHS and making a hundred rainbows for the window. Then a mild breakdown.”

Meanwhile, Lauren believes Cat would have made the best out of a bad situation. “I think she’d probably be a DJ, have all the street dancing around and socially distancing.”

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