We spoke to Sarah Hadland about The Job Lot, giggles, Miranda, and returning to the role of Trish for a third series.

What's coming up in Series 3; it looks like there might be a story arc for Trish?

Yeah, we were all a lot happier with Series 2 - the writers certainly seemed to feel they had a lot more freedom and I think they've taken that a step further in Series 3. For me this feels like the best series we've had so far. There's some really exciting stuff happening and there's an episode where we actually go out of the job centre, which is quite exciting! We don't often do that, we tend to stay inside the job centre, so it was quite exciting to have a location episode.

For Trish, there's an awful lot going on. I think she seems to be embracing life more and more, and going for stuff; there's romance situations going on - she's got potentially two or three new love interests throughout the series! It's really lovely that, I think, Trish is really blossoming. As a viewer you're cringing a bit like "Oh no, she's a very optimistic, chipper person" because she really goes for it, even when it doesn't go particularly well for her. I really like that element; in the first series it was quite a bit darker, but now she's going for things, even though as a viewer you can see it's a bit misguided, which I really like.

The Job Lot has definitely come a long way from Series 1. It's tonally almost a completely different show. How do you feel as a performer?

Yeah. Well, it's a combination of things. As an actor, your job is to be truthful and to do what you think the character would do in those situations, and the situations have got much more extreme and varied. She's being pushed into much more extreme situations and I just have to be truthful to what I think Trish would do. As I say, she's gone from being very low in Series 1 - doubting herself and going through a bad divorce - and now she's just gone "right, I'm going to get myself out there and be much more positive about everything". She's become a bit more extrovert, I think. That happens in life, we don't stay the same. I think it's nice and it plays to a lot of her strengths as a character.

Comedically, it's always nice to play somebody who's getting a bit out there, who's not been like that before. It's really nice to play because you have to find ways to make that believable and make it work.

So Trish is less reliant on Karl this series?

Yes, I think that's true. As she blossoms and becomes more confident, she's accepting much more of the Natalie-Karl situation, but I think there's always going to be a special relationship between Trish and Karl. They've been through a lot together and there's just that thing that they'll never be able to get away from each other because that dynamic just works.

I think Trish will always slightly hold a bit of a candle for Karl; I think that will probably never go away so that's always there in the background.

Did Trish actually love him or was he just an emotional crutch after her divorce?

I think probably a bit of both. She was so vulnerable at that time and he was a constant. She realises the inappropriateness of it, but, yeah, it's a complicated web of emotions there that she was part of her recovering from that divorce and I think they were probably co-dependent: he also liked the fact that he always felt Trish praised him, and made him feel confident. His self-esteem was quite low and I think they really needed each other. But Trish probably expected more; although nothing is likely to happen, if she was being really honest she still wouldn't mind it if it did... And she lived out a bit of that fantasy through Tom, Karl's flatmate and best friend, in Series 2.

It looks like you must have an awful lot of fun filming the series. It's a great cast.

Oh yeah, we do. We're so lucky. Particularly to have come from Miranda, where we're such a close cast, I was very aware that that doesn't happen on every job and that I'd come from such a unique set-up. So I was very lucky that Russell Tovey and I in particular got on so well right from the start.

That's something you're never going to be able to predict. You hear about other actors and you might think "oh I'd get on really well with them", but you just don't know and then when you work together, actors can work so differently... but we just clicked, and we have this dynamic that just really works. We get on brilliantly, I adore him, we have a really good laugh. And lovely little Sophie McShera, she's gorgeous. Everybody's lovely, and we've got Nick Mohammed joining us this series too. I've always been a fan of his work, I think he's brilliant, and he just fitted in perfectly. It was one of those things where we couldn't believe he'd not been there before. His character fits in really well, but he as a person too.

I have a bad reputation when filming; we're all in little dressing room cabins, and I'm known for not knocking, just kicking the door open and going "what're you doing, what's going on?" - which, generally, people don't like but I still do it! But Nick became quickly quite accepting that any moment his dressing room door might be kicked open and I'd be standing there going "what you doing, what's happening?". Laura Aikman is just lovely too, and Jo Enright, Angela Curran, Martin Marquez[/z]... The group of people, the dynamic, is just perfect. Nobody seems to clash, everybody fits in so well. I personally think that's so important in comedy. You need to respect people being good at what they do, and if you actually like them as well, that's a dream scenario. Nodboy's a diva, everybody just works. I'm probably - well, not probably, I am - the bossiest, so when Russell gets too naughty I'm like "That's enough now, Russell! Let's get on with it please! Don't pull faces when it's my go."

I feel very, very lucky to be on a show where everyone gets on so well. And our new director this series, Sasha Ransome, she's amazing and again fitted in really well. I feel really lucky.

Who's most liable to corpsing and playing around on the set?

Laura Aikman is terrible. And Russell. Those two are dire! I'm pretty good at not corpsing, it takes a lot to make me go. But those two, I'm just there tutting and rolling my eyes. Normally it's me that makes Russell laugh though. Not because I'm being particularly funny, I'll just do something and he'll go "Oh my GOD!" and start laughing: "Look at your face! You look like a donut!" and that'll be him giggling for a few minutes. I'm going "Oh good grief! Pull yourself together!" And Laura is a very bad giggler. The two of them in a scene together, you may as well pour yourself a cup of tea and get your Heat magazine, because nothing's going to get done for the next 20 minutes!

Sounds like there might be some good potentially DVD extras in out-takes, then!

Well we had a showreel of bloopers at the wrap party, and most of it's Russell giggling and me turning to camera saying "Oh here we go again..."

Ooh, Nick Mohammed is actually a bit of a giggler! Yeah, I suppose there are a few gigglers. But I think it's nice if you're making a comedy, you need to atmosphere to be quite light and you want to feel relaxed. It's nice to be making a comedy and get to have a laugh yourself as well.

Does Jo Enright break out of character and start laughing as well, or does she just become Angela?

Jo is just the nicest person. She's the kindest, most thoughtful, loveliest, gentlest person ever. She's nothing like her character. So much so that my mum came to the set, I introduced her to Jo but she had NO idea who Jo was! Jo in real life is so smiley and lovely. I adore Jo.

It was so funny though. Obviously you never see Jo smile as Angela, she's just this sour, horrible expression on her face the whole time, so my mum was just like "Oh my God. Oh my GOD I didn't realise, because I've never seen you smile!" But no, Jo's not a bad giggler. Only very occasionally. I love having scenes with her though, I love our two characters together. That's probably one of my favourite things to do on the series, scenes with Jo. She's such a good character actress, I think she's amazing. What she does and how she plays that character is just perfect. I love it.

Is Trish going to get a few more up on Angela in Series 3 or is their rivalry still at a stalemate?

Trish is definitely getting more confident with Angela, but you just can't win against her. She's relentless, she'll stop at nothing. She's got no boundaries at all. No conscience, no boundaries. She's just vile.

It's interesting how many people have said to me "Oh we've got an Angela in our office" or "Everybody knows an Angela". She's just horrible. Horrible. Hideous. Jo does it so well, and as I say, it's even more brilliant when you know what she's like in real life, one of the nicest people I've ever met.

You'd jump at further series if ITV want more then?

Oh yeah. I absolutely love playing Trish. I remember reading the first script for the first time and thinking "I really, really, really want to do this." I loved Trish from the first moment I read it, and it doesn't happen that often, that you read something and think "Oh my God I HAVE to do this!" and I was just desperate, I love it. I love playing the part and I love the rest of the cast. The whole thing is fantastic.

When you find a character that you love playing, you just want it to keep going.

Wikipedia claims you used to do a bit of beat-boxing. Is that true?

No! It's not true! I've tried to get it off, I tried to change it, but - I don't know who writes Wikipedia stuff, but if you start tampering with it... David Mitchell gave me this bit of advice. I first noticed things going a bit weird there when I was working with David and [Robert Webb], I was doing That Mitchell And Webb Look, and they were having stuff changed on their pages. Apparently if you get into a battle of changing it, and then the someone changes it back and it can get worse... I think I got away quite lightly with being a beat-boxer!

Perhaps I should take it one step further, because actually, there could be an amazing part and they're looking for a beat-boxer. So I'm just going to leave it on there and see what offers roll in!

We thought it'd be really good to see Trish rolling out her skills on the mic!

Oh my gosh that's a really good idea! Oh my God imagine Trish beat-boxing. I'll pass that on to the writers!

Obviously you're still best known for Miranda, but Trish and Stevie are really very different characters, even if Trish is now increasing in confidence - who are you most like?

Ooh, that's a really good question. I feel like I'm a bit of both. I think with characters that you feel you can play or feel you could contribute something to, you're tapping into something you've got there yourself, perhaps something other people don't see so much in you but you're aware is there. I think with Stevie she's a much more immature character who's just bold and says and does whatever she thinks, and with Trish you've this very under-confident side. So I identify with both. It's a really tricky one though ... I'd say I'm half and half really.

Being able to identify with part of the character must make it easier to play?

Yeah, it's great when you feel, or when there's something you've seen a lot in other people that you're aware of; or, with Trish, a primary school teacher who taught me, people come to your mind when you first read a character. They're a combination of things you've seen and things you're feeling yourself. But I think you do have to tap into something in yourself. A combination of both influences.

Between the big, studio audience comedy of Miranda, the closed-set environment of The Job Lot, then Radges and the studio audience for Brotherhood, not to mention the highly topical Ballot Monkeys, you must really enjoy the variety of work you're getting?

For me, I think that's what I always wanted to do, different types of characters, what I always wanted to be; a character actress. I feel so lucky I've had the opportunity to do that. Ballot Monkeys, you know, playing this really horrible woman who's just racist and vile, it was a great opportunity to do something different. A very different dynamic again to both Stevie and Trish, so that was wonderful.

I think for me, that's the dream really of what I wanted to do, playing different things. I feel really lucky to have had three such different characters.

A very different style of production on Ballot Monkeys as well?

Yeah! My agent describing it to me hadn't even got to the end of the sentence, she began saying who was making it: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin, Jimmy Mulville, Paul Schlesinger, and I just said yes. She said "I haven't even told you what it is yet." But I was so keen to work with them all.

I love the concept of the show. All the actors they got involved with that production, it really appealed to everybody. They liked the fact they were going to get the scripts at the last minute, that it was on the edge, it was going to go out that night and you couldn't say "I can't remember my lines", you just had to do it and had to make decisions quickly.

And the crews. The people they got working on it were brilliant. Everyone was superb, all the directors were amazing. Andy and Guy I think are known for being very very laid back, and I loved it. Everybody, all the actors involved, liked the fact that it was quite edgy and you had to do it and it was exciting. I know I've spoken to actors who've said it would be their idea of hell but I really enjoyed it, so I think they somehow knew which actors were in which camp as to who would like it and who wouldn't.

If they wanted to do more, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I loved it.

What's next for you?

I've just done something called Galavant, which is an ABC (Disney) comedy in the US. It's set in mediaeval times with song and dance. Sally Phillips and I play wicked ugly sisters and it's really fun. People like Ricky Gervais have done cameos on it.

I'm also working very hard on my own comedy project about a dance school based on my own experiences as a dancer. I'm doing it with Richard Laxton; he directed The Job Lot pilot and we're thrilled to be creating this together.

But I'm really excited to see The Job Lot when it goes out. Comparative to some shows it goes out quite quickly after filming, and this series, there's that one episode out of the job centre I mentioned, there's some really exciting stunts and things that I want to see how they come out. We were filming on top of a building and that was great. I can't wait to see that. We did feel a bit like we were filming Die Hard; well, in my head anyway!

The Job Lot Series 3 begins on ITV on Tuesday 6th October 2015 at 10:30pm.