Will Leah find lasting happiness in the final Three Little Birds?

For Rochelle Neil, who plays the central character of Leah, it started out as being rather scary. Thankfully, that didn’t last long.

“When I was first cast, it was really intimidating,” she explains. “It’s Sir Lenny Henry, and you’re playing a character inspired by his mama. And God love him, he’s just been really generous and gracious in giving me full rein to play Leah. He has seasoned the pot. If there was ever anything I questioned – ‘It’s interesting that she’s making this choice…’ – he would sit down and discuss that with me. He’s been incredibly encouraging and incredibly empowering and just said, ‘Go and fly. I trust you. I think you’re great. Have fun’.”

The actress, whose previous credits include Das Boot, Guilt and The Nevers, also draws comparisons between the story and that of her own relatives.

“My dad was born in Jamaica and his mum and dad came over, and then the kids arrived two years later,” says Rochelle. “So they spent two years setting up home here. One of my dad’s earliest memories is the lights at Heathrow. He was about five and he doesn’t really remember his life in Jamaica.

“My mum was born here, but it was the same thing. My nan came over with a friend, my Auntie Bernice, and my Auntie Tiny, her older sister. It’s insane how similar their stories are to Three Little Birds. It’s like my exact lineage. My dad’s mum also wrote her memoirs, so I’ve had so much firsthand about her life in Jamaica growing up in the culture and going to church. She trained to be a seamstress as well. How lucky am I to have a script land in my inbox that is just so close to home for me and my family? It’s a joy.”

She adds: “When I spoke to my grandparents, they told me survival was a bigger thing than self-protection. They didn’t really have the same vocabulary that we have for our emotions and our mental health. It was very much like, ‘Get on with it. I need to keep a roof over my head. I need to keep food in my belly. I need to keep my kids alive and healthy.’ Happiness hopefully will come, but that was never the goal.”

Will Leah find lasting happiness? We’re about to find out as the final episode dawns, although first she has to ensure that Aston and Hosanna’s wedding takes place after a last-minute hitch.

Regular viewers will be hoping all goes well, and Rochelle is keeping her fingers crossed that the series as a whole has made an impact.

“We do very much tell the truth and show the racism and the prejudice and the cold and the acclimatising,” reveals the actress. “But for all that, it’s a joyous drama. I do feel like it has a very universal multicultural appeal because there is a cast of other races other than just Black people.

“And so I really hope people are entertained, and I really hope it starts conversations in households about that time – I hope they think about the good, the bad and the ugly.”