Life after Extras: Ashley Jensen takes on Hollywood

Now a leading light, Ashley Jensen talks to Metro about a Tinseltown career that sprang from a comedy about bit parts.

Video: Rob Brydon makes West End debut

Rob Brydon has made his West End stage debut in Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval.

The comedian and actor stars opposite former EastEnders star Nigel Harman/p] and Ugly Betty's Ashley Jensen in the revival of the 1984 comedy under the direction of Trevor Nunn at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

He grew a beard for the part of Dafydd, the director of an amateur operatic society production.

Brydon told BBC Wales Today reporter Matt Murray it was the "perfect opening night" while opera star Bryn Terfel and comedian Jimmy Carr gave their views on the first night.

Ashley Jensen interview

Ashley Jensen found fame opposite Ricky Gervais in Extras and then in America in Ugly Betty. She talks about her return to the stage in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy A Chorus of Disapproval.

Video: Ashley Jensen talks about finding her inner elf

The actress Ashley Jensen is the voice behind an elf in the festive film, Arthur Christmas.

She said that her son may have been an inspiration for the voice.

She also told the BBC's Tim Masters that she would like to work with Ricky Gervais again.

Interview: Ashley Jensen, actress

There are Scottish actors, and then there's Ashley Jensen. The 41-year-old from Annan flashes her perfect teeth in a posh London hotel, all bouncy blonde hair, 21-carat confidence and the kind of dentistry you don't find in Dumfries.

Extras Ashley Jensen: It was easy to play animated frog

They used to feature heavily on the field of battle - and for Scottish city centre shoppers they remain an instrument of torture. But if you want to make Extras star Ashley Jensen cry, bring out the bagpipes.

Tis the season to be jolly. But not even the ­prospect of wallowing in a bath of mince pies and brandy could make me feel charitable about Accidental Farmer.

Ashley Jensen, so excellent in Ricky Gervais's Extras and Ugly Betty, has hit the buffers hard with this pitiful affair, which has no ­original DNA and not much in the way of comedy, drama or believability.

Jensen - playing Erin the high-flying ad executive who decides she wants a family only to find a naked woman in her ­boyfriend's wardrobe - exerts revenge by buying a farm with her ex's credit card. As you do. Less likely still, she decides she wants to be a farmer.

Cue scriptwriter cliche hell. There was just one good line. When discussing what to name a pig, a child pipes up with: 'Peter Andre?' That elicited a snort. From me, not the pig.

Accidental Farmer review

Ashley Jensen is a very likeable actress. She has a knack for comedy, plays the awkward, clumsy roles brilliantly and is a lady in demand on both sides of the Atlantic. Which makes her decision to sign up for this plodding, predictable and tedious guff a very odd one indeed...

Thanks to her winning, albeit subsidiary, turns in Extras and Ugly Betty, Ashley Jensen has a lot of goodwill on her side. There's something intrinsically endearing about that warm Scottish burr and mildly dappy demeanour, something that can lend a patina of believability to the flimsiest of material.

And flimsy is where we certainly were with Accidental Farmer (BBC1), a barn conversion of a bucolic frolic that wouldn't have got planning permission from even the most corrupt of councils, such was the stockpile of stereotypes from which it was constructed. Horsey types, Hooray Henrys and flat-capped whippet chasers - we were in Yorkshire - galloped across the paddock with shameless disregard for anything resembling credible characterisation.

The set-up has Jensen playing London high-flyer Erin, a wronged woman who, rather than go down the traditional shirt-ripping route, takes vengeance on her cheating, charm-free ex by snapping up a farm on the internet using his credit card. As you do. What follows is pretty much your standard culture-clash trash, the sophisticated but shallow city butting heads with the off-trend but curiously comforting country. All about as subtle as the whiff of cow dung in a summer heatwave.

Yet, thanks to Jensen's engaging air of perpetual bafflement, there's something about Erin that lifts her out of the rut she's been ploughed into. There's a hint that this could be the start of a journey to belated self-awareness. Then again, it could be just another rubbish comedy drama pilot, a turkey sneaked in ahead of Christmas that will never trouble us again. I'm sitting on the pointy fence on this one and enjoying it rather more than necessary.

Accidental Farmer harvests 4.5m viewers

Comedy drama pilot starring Ashley Jensen wins slot, beating ITV1 docusoap The Savoy.