Sitcom veteran Frances de la Tour is back as Violet for another series of Vicious...

What is it like to perform in front of a live studio audience?

It's a bit of a cross between theatre and television, really, but it's lovely to do it in front of an audience. I think some of the audience members have been before, because they seem to know the show very well which is wonderful.

But we do have to remind ourselves that it's not the audience we're actually going out to, they're just providing the laughter that's being taped, and we are actually going out to viewers at home.

The audience are complicit in getting that atmosphere right. We feed from them, and so they are part of the show like they would be in real life theatre.

Was it an easy decision for you to come back for a second series?

Certainly it was for me, yes.

I had a very affirmative reaction from friends and family, and people would stop me in the street to talk about it.

In a way, it's not surprising with millions of people watching television, for someone to come up to you and say they liked it. It's so lovely.

People obviously don't often come up to you when you've done theatre, because fewer people go to the theatre.

I haven't had anything like the career Ian has had, but there are times I've done films when people said, "I liked you in the Harry Potter movies" and that's just lovely.

So Vicious has been very nice from that point of view. And it's very nice to know that you can get sitcoms even this late in life! People probably think you can't do it in middle age or later but this is proof you can.

How would you describe the tone of Vicious?

Well, ironically, it's very warm hearted. A lot of other comedy on television has become quite vicious now, generally speaking. There's things that I find actually quite shocking in their viciousness. This is not like that. This is warm and it's about love, amongst other things. We're laughing affectionately with these characters, we're not laughing at them in a nasty way.

Do you think it's still unusual to portray woman as strong, confident characters on television?

I think you still have the role of the 'magician's assistant' on television a lot, yes, being the foil to the man.

I'm not against woman looking attractive, when I was young, all I wanted to do was wear a mini skirt. But I think there's still a lot of pandering to the idea of what a woman is. It's a form of prejudice, whether conscious or unconscious.