Natalie Cassidy: ‘June Brown and I would fly to Malaga to drink and smoke fags’

‘I’m sort of on the periphery of the comedy world. It’s like I’m holding onto a window ledge but can’t quite get in the window’ - (Supplied)

Natalie Cassidy, one of Britain’s most recognisable stars, is sunning herself in her garden in Hertfordshire. I, as is about to be proven, am sitting in a house of lies. “Whereabouts are you calling from, darling?” Cassidy asks. Islington, I tell her. “Ooh, I’m from Islington – tell me the road.” Um, I stutter, more near the Holloway Road end.

“Nope!” Cassidy exclaims. “See you’re saying you’re in Islington, but you’re not, are you? Because you’re N7.” I may as well have just rocked up wearing a suit made of old Gail’s receipts. “Don’t worry, I understand why you do it. But, listen, if you’re not off Upper Street or Essex Road, you’re not Islington.”