‘Agatha Raisin’ Star Ashley Jensen Thinks ‘The Shape Of My Face’ Is A Big Part Of Why She’s Funny

Ashley Jensen came to American audiences’ attention via two memorable mid-’00s series. First came the 2005-07 series Extras, where she starred as Maggie Jacobs, best friend to Ricky Gervais’ suddenly-popular actor Andy Millman. Then, in 2006, she came across the Atlantic to be in the ensemble of Ugly Betty as Christina McKinney, a seamstress who becomes a confidant for Betty Suarez (America Ferrera).

Since then, she has appeared in various roles where her physical comedy skills —including myriad funny expressions— could be taken advantage of, from the American sitcom Accidentally on Purpose to Sharon Horgan’s riotous series Catastrophe.

Currently, she’s beginning the second season of Agatha Raisin, which streams on Acorn TV. Agatha is a former PR executive who finds herself escaping London to a small village in order to get away from the rat race, but finds herself solving murders by utilizing her abilities to get the chatterboxes in the village to spill dirt. The first movie from the second season, Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham, debuted last week.

Decider talked to Jensen about why gentle mysteries like Agatha are so appealing to audiences and actors, what her favorite outfit of Agatha’s was this past season, where her physical comedy skills came from, and how her Betty character was supposed to be American until she came through the casting director’s door.

DECIDER: What draws you to a character like Agatha? Someone who gets her nose in a lot of people’s business and likes to be a sleuth.

ASHLEY JENSEN: Well, I think it’s that thing, isn’t it? Of getting to behave in a way that one might not ordinarily behave in real life. There is certainly elements of me that would not behave like Agatha Raisin and I kind of do take “no” for an answer, it has to be said, whereas Agatha absolutely doesn’t. She will knock it over and push her way through and she’s very entitled to be wherever she is. If she wants to get something she will do that and I think these parts are always very fun to play. It’s like people saying they like playing baddies because they get to behave in a way that you’re not allowed to behave in real life, are you? [Laughs]

What is the thing that you get to do as Agatha, that you would absolutely never do in real life? Something she gets to do that just blows your mind?

Oh, gosh! Well, I think it’s the thing of just not taking “no” for an answer. And she can manipulate people quite well into talking to her. Yeah, I think that’s it, really, just that she’s utterly confident in her own ability at what she’s doing in terms of crime solving. She’s had a whole life of being a PR executive and pushing her way into situations. So she has a sublime confidence, doesn’t she? She’s also got a fantastic wardrobe.

I was going to say that! What’s the favorite thing of hers that you got to wear, either last season or this season?

Oh, gosh, this season there’s a couple of jumpsuits. I loved the pink jumpsuit with the giant orange hat, that was a triumph! There’s another one which was a joy to wear, which had some bright green… oh, I could go on. It was great, it was such fun to wear really.

And running around in heels must be an interesting thing to have to do on a daily basis shooting the show.

It is! I was just saying that I was never really good in heels and I cut my teeth in heels when I worked on Ugly Betty in America because it was all about glamour and heels over there, wasn’t it? It was one of these things where I thought every woman on American television had amazing hair until I worked on Ugly Betty and realized that everyone wears a kind of lift in their hair to bulk up their hair and I did on Ugly Betty. But that was where I learned to walk in high heels, to be honest.

And don’t attempt to do it in real life, it doesn’t fit well when I’m out walking a dog, or doing a school run, or shopping, or whatever. But that doesn’t stop Agatha, I mean, she literally walks through gravel and fields and scales walls all in a high heel, which I think is part of the fun of playing her, actually. I think that this series we’ve kind of gone all out for as much physical comedy as we can. Scaling walls and falling into wheelie bins, meanwhile still not dropping mobile phone. Any opportunity for a pratfall and a comedy pop up, I’m there.

Where did you learn your physical comedy skills?

There was a situation comedy in England in the 1970s called Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em with Frank Spencer. Which had been by Michael Crawford, who you may know from Phantom of the Opera and I was a huge fan of his, growing up as a child. And there were other things like Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers and these people were all kind of… I think it’s a very, sort of, innocent comedy.

I mean when you think about comedy when it started, as far back as people like Laurel and Hardy before talking was even in, and it was physical comedy. And of course clowning, as well, often dialogue isn’t used in clowning. I think that it’s an age old technique of comedy and I think that… I just love the innocence of it and I think that there’s something very funny about seeing someone who is poised and who looks great falling from grace a little bit or behaving in an undignified fashion.

So it’s something you’ve appreciated since you were a kid, essentially?

Yes, it is. I mean, this has been a real opportunity for me to explore that, really.

You’re very expressive and you get lots of laughs just via a look sometimes. Was something you could do when you were a kid?

No, I think it is to be honest, maybe just the shape of my face as well. [Laughs] I think it’s, I don’t know, I think that comedy, for me, always comes from sort of inside and it comes from a place of truth rather than an imposed comedy, which maybe slightly contradicts the physical comedy.

But for something like Extras, it was very much, it wasn’t…it was a very different kind of comedy. It was a lot to do with almost like the air in between the lines, rather than the actual dialogue itself sometimes. And it was to do with the pause and allowing it to breathe and again, a deadpan look is always very funny. And you know a blank expression is always, that again, is another classic comedic moment. If someone is ranting at you and you’re just looking at them with a blank expression then that again, is funny.

So I think over the years, I’ve just sort of absorbed a lot of that and watched a lot of it and found my way of working comedy as well. I think that… somebody was talking to me earlier on about whether it’s easier to do comedy in your own accent or whether it’s easier to do comedy in another accent. And for me, I think I, personally, find it funnier, easier, for me to do it in my own accent. I think because I know the nuances of my own accent and I’ve been told that the Scottish accent is quite a funny accent anyway. I think that we almost have our own vocabulary, we have funny words and it’s quite a sort of guttural sound, so that in itself is quite funny and unusual in the ear.

I like how you said that “I’ve been told my voice sounds funny.” You’re probably like, “My voice sounds completely normal, what are you talking about?”

When I was on Ugly Betty, it was originally an American character. Then I rolled into the room and they were like “Oh, you can roll your r’s and you’ve got that funny bell-like voice that does completely different intonations and sounds than an American voice. Do that! Use your own voice! Why are we making you be American? Do that! This show is about individuality and embracing yourself.” So, you know, and I think that was absolutely right for that show.

How’d that experience help you, like, doing an American show, twenty-two episodes a year, American brand of comedy, how’d that kind of expand your knowledge of show business and different brands of comedy?

Well, it was interesting to go from Extras to Ugly Betty, it just takes down the point of what I was saying earlier on about Extras. You know, it was always kind of the air between the lines, whereas Ugly Betty was very quick and very sharp and very much about the wit of a line and then the retort to the line. And then it was like funny lines, funny lines, this can’t possibly be another funny line, and yet there was.

But, there are so many different kind of aspects of comedy, aren’t there? I mean I’m involved in another show called Catastrophe which is on Amazon in America. But, again, that’s again a different sort of format of comedy quite shocking in its story line and its quite kind of, “Oh, God, I can’t believe that person said that or did that.” And yet it’s still all based in truth and I think that that’s a fundamental thing.

Ugly Betty, even though it was heightened and it was bright and it was funny and Agatha Raisin is bold and camp and silly, it’s still based in a truth. I think that’s what’s important in a comedy show, really no matter what kind of comedy it is. I think there’s a place for all kinds of comedy, really. There’s not just one kind of comedy, comedy can appeal to different people.

Speaking of Catastrophe, any word on a new season? Is Sharon Horgan working on something?

Yes, we’ve just done another one, which will be the final season. My character nips in and out of a few episodes of that. I also hooked up with Ricky [Gervais] again this summer and he’s got a new show coming out. So that was interesting, to be working with him again after all these years. Although we’ve kept in touch as friends, we haven’t actually worked together, which I think of people found quite surreal. Because they go, “It’s Maggie and Andy just walking along a corridor.”

What is it that people continue to like about the type of show that Agatha Raisin is? A lighthearted mystery show, where people get murdered, but it’s very, kind of, nonviolent murder. Like Miss Marple movies or Murder, She Wrote.

It’s gentle, isn’t it? I think that it’s one of these tried and tested things that’s still going after all these years, isn’t it? People like a mystery! I think they like to sit and try and work it out with no pressure. And I think that what we do is that we make it fun. I think that it’s almost like a cross between [the board game] Cloodle and Scooby Doo a little bit. [Laughs]

It’s a gentle comedy with a little bit of drama that kind of runs through it. I think we are in our dramatic moment throughout this show as well. It’s family viewing. It’s weird to say yes, it’s a murder mystery and it’s family viewing. I think people just like to sit in the comfort of their own home and maybe work it out and be right. [Laughs] “Brownie points to me! I worked it out!”

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Agatha Raisin on Acorn TV