Game Of Thrones star 'moved' by crew's response to her breastfeeding on The Tower set

ok.co.uk:

The Tower was a ratings and critical success in 2021, leaving fans hungry for a second instalment. With the crime drama based on a trilogy of hit novels by Kate London, there was even a future all mapped out.

But as star Gemma Whelan, who plays DS Sarah Collins, approached the second series, she admits she was very much in the dark about what would happen next. “I haven’t read the books!” the Game Of Thrones star confesses with a laugh. “I started reading and got very confused as to what was in the script, and what was in the book, as there are differences.

So, I decided that as I’ve got two children, including a very young baby, my priority had to be to learn my lines!” Indeed, filming the second series – in which Sarah works with PC Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif), the young officer she was pursuing in the last series – was a very different experience for Gemma for that very reason.

Having filmed series one pregnant (her bump hidden under the orange duffle coat, which quickly became iconic among fans) this year she was breastfeeding young son Freddy on set, with producers going all out to make things go as smoothly as possible. “I was a bit moved by how kind they were to me as a working mother – it is an extra thing to deal with having a breastfeeding mother on set,” she says. “Obviously, you should be as welcome as you are in every other workplace, but it requires more thought. “Also, the travelling band is big now, because my husband and daughter are also up here for filming,” adds Gemma, who lives in the South-East, while The Tower was mostly filmed in Manchester. “So, we’ve made it into a summer holiday experience.