Olivia Colman: What the nation’s favourite actress is REALLY like off screen

Rarely has the title of a film ­described its star so well as The Favourite and Olivia Colman.

Her stellar performance as the frail and unpredictable Queen Anne has ­won the hugely versatile actress even more fans.

And the pitch-perfect portrayal of the 18th century monarch has already netted Olivia her second Golden Globe.

Tonight the lavish, comical period drama may land the star her fourth Bafta.

But the icing on the cake could come in a fortnight if she wins the best actress Oscar for the regal role.

And next month the star joins the ranks of Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench when she is presented with a fellowship of the BFI.

With national treasure status beckoning and all those awards, many actors would be full of themselves.

But Olivia, 45, is not many actors.

She wears her well-earned fame with the same kind, warm humility that has ­characterised her amazing career.

Friends of the star, who first pinged the nation’s radar in the 2003 cult sitcom Peep Show, say she is unchanged by fame.

Actor and writer Jonathan Dryden Taylor, who met her in 1994, said: “She’s the same person now as she was back then, the warmest, most delightful human being.

“I don’t think you can find anyone in the industry with a bad word about her.”

He recalled Olivia, nicknamed Collie, taking him to one side and thanking him for the jokes he penned for her in That Michell and Webb Sound sketch show.

Jonathan said: “It’s a measure of what kind of a person she is.

“She thanked me for writing her jokes even though she was the actual star.”

He also remembered a story she told him about filming Broadchurch, for which she won 2014’s best leading actress Bafta.

The plot pitted her character, cop Ellie Miller, against Jodie Whittaker’s in some really intense and angry scenes.

Taylor said: “Collie told me the moment ‘cut’ was called they fell into each other’s arms and hugged because they couldn’t bear being horrible to one another. That epitomises everything about her.”

Hardworking and modest Olivia wanted to perform from the age of 16. She said: “Being able to put ‘Actor’ on my passport was all I wanted in the world.”

The daughter of a nurse and a chartered surveyor, Norwich-born Olivia – real name Sarah – caught the acting bug after landing the lead part in a school play ­having auditioned on a whim.

But ­instead of ­drama school, she began a teacher ­training course at Homerton college in Cambridge, where she joined the university’s legendary drama society – Footlights.

There she met her future husband Ed Sinclair, with whom she has three children.

She also met fellow students David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who she would work with for many years, most memorably for 12 years from 2003 on Peep Show.

Her on/off relationship as Sophie with Mark, played by Mitchell, was central to the hilariously dark Channel 4 comedy.

Olivia and David starred in the 1993 Footlights pantomime together, a production of Cinderella.

In the second term she also took part in the Footlights spring ­revue sketch show.

David wrote in his autobiography Backstory: “Suddenly she was shining with talent – working the audience, timing her lines, drawing out new laughs without ever seeming hammy.

“There were many talented actors at Cambridge while I was there, very few were as good as Collie – certainly no one better.”

From Cambridge she went to Bristol’s Old Vic theatre school but often visited David and his comedy partner Robert Webb at their flat above a Blockbuster shop in Swiss Cottage, North London.

She and David worked on a ­production of French playwright’s Moliere’s comedy The Miser, which they toured around UK schools.

Mitchell and Webb’s then flatmate Ellis Sareen, now a 44-year-old ­barrister, said: “It was impossible to go to bed if there was any alcohol in the flat still undrunk. Collie was always around. She was absolutely delightful.”

After graduating from Bristol in 1999, Olivia struggled to find acting work and took a typing course as well as doing a cleaning job. But in 2003 Mitchell and Webb cast her as Sophie.

Her talent led to roles in Channel 4’s offbeat comedy Green Wing and Simon Pegg’s 2007 rural cop comedy Hot Fuzz.

In 2011 she played Carol Thatcher to Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

This marked her move into more serious roles, such as Miller in the smash-hit detective drama Broadchurch.

She was heavily pregnant with her third child when she played Angela Burr ­opposite Tom Hiddleston and Tom Hollander in the adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager.

Colman was so good as the heroine determined to bring down an evil arms dealer that she won a Golden Globe.

She was highly acclaimed for her performances on stage in Hay Fever at the Noël Coward Theatre and in Mosquitoes at the National Theatre.

Most recently Olivia has played the deplorable, money-grabbing Madame Thenardier in Andrew Davies’ gripping version of Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Misérables.

This year she is taking over the role of the Queen from Claire Foy in the latest series of The Crown.

But despite her success, Colman’s friends insist she is keeping her feet firmly on the ground.

Jonathan said: “She’s not someone who’d let the fame go to her head. You wouldn’t see her demanding blue M&Ms or room temperature water or any of that. She just turns up and does the job.”

Her down to earth attitude was perfectly illustrated when she was invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace ­after the ­announcement of her role in The Crown.

She asked her husband to take home a keepsake from one the ­palace’s 78 bathrooms – two squares of loo roll.

It is a trophy that would look very strange next to an Oscar.

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