'Downton Abbey’ star Samantha Bond has revealed she wishes she’d been able to help her mother die.
Pierce Brosnan’s former big screen Miss Moneypenny explains that her mother died in 2000 from bowel cancer, and was relatively lucky to endure only a short illness.
Samantha tells the Daily Mail why this experience has inspired her to support the assisted dying campaign: "At that point I would have liked to be able to give her peace and lack of pain.
"If I could've said, 'Would you like an injection and we'll all be here?' She'd have said, 'Yes, please.' I don't understand that I can give that to my cat, but not my mum. It's the ultimate cruelty."
Samantha appears in the second series of ITV drama ‘Home Fires’ where she plays WI leader Frances Barden. The new series takes up in 1940, with what the actress calls a sense of loss and anxiety as World War II takes its hold on the country.
But with that, she points out the opportunity for strong female roles on the show, mirroring the wartime rising role of women in society, forced to stretch themselves with many husbands and fathers away.
"We wouldn't be where we are today had that generation not been through what they'd been through," she says. "It changed society. Once you've given power to people, you can't take it back."
'Home Fires' continues on Sunday at 9pm on ITV.
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