Asha wears: top by Zimmermann; and jewellery by Tilly Sveaas and Skomer Studio

After discovering she had been given her role in the BBC’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder last year, Asha Banks spent the next three days sitting in the sunshine in the garden devouring the books by Holly Jackson on which the series is based. “I’d heard so much about the books from different people, telling me that they’re literally their favourite book series ever, but I hadn’t read them. When I got the audition through, I decided not to read them beforehand, because I think internally, I knew that if I read them, I would love them, and then I’d be so heartbroken if I didn’t get the part!” she explains.

“I did this Zoom meeting with the casting associate, who was wonderful, and I was sent, I think, the first three episodes maybe,” she recalls. “I read them straight away, and was gripped, and just desperately wanted to have the next set of episodes through. And I got a recall and went into the room with the amazing Dolly Wells, who’s our director of the first block, and Florence Walker who’s the producer, and the casting team who are just wonderful. It was so nice walking into this room full of women, who were all the core members of the team; I felt so safe. It was wonderful – I walked out and just had my fingers crossed until I found out that I got it. As soon as I did, I had the book ready to read…”

Asha wears: dress by Balmain

The six-part BBC series is based on Holly Jackson’s smash hit novels and also stars Emma Myers (Wednesday), Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland), Mathew Baynton (Ghosts, Wonka) and newcomer Zain Iqbal. “It’s a crime thriller, a murder mystery at heart,” Asha tells me. “It revolves around Pip, who’s played by the beautiful Emma Myers, and it follows her kind of deciding to reinvestigate a murder that happened in the small town of Littleton five years prior. I think it’s wonderful, I think that the script is just stunning, the writing is so brilliant. It was such a pleasure bringing my character to life.”

That character is Cara Ward: “She is Pip’s best friend,” Asha explains, “and in a lot of ways Cara is Pip’s sounding board throughout the investigation. She’s such an important person in Pip’s life, and I think she’s wonderful. She’s loyal, she’s smart, she’s funny, she’s witty, and like I said, I think she was written so beautifully. I just think she’s a wonderful character, and brings a lot of sarcasm to ironic moments, which is always fun to play.” Indeed, everything about the job was fun. “Literally the most fun ever,” Asha exclaims, happily. “It was last summer; we were all in Bristol. And it was just a dream, the whole cast is so amazing, the whole team – everybody is amazing. It was just absolutely amazing. I mean, it was chaos – everybody is so full of energy, I feel like that says a lot. So many of us seemed to kind of morph into our characters, either that was just incredible casting and we are all quite similar to our characters anyway, or we just started to become them because the group dynamic was so good.”

Of course, with the lockdown restrictions in place, the curtains came down for arts venues not just in London, but throughout the world, and Spring Awakening, along with every other show, was put on hold. While it was a disastrous time for many in the industry, Asha very much appreciates the silver lining it presented her with. “I just was so lucky, and kind of ended up being able to get all my results for my GCSEs and to be able to do the show a couple of years after. So that was very lucky,” she says, with a smile. As well as giving Asha time to complete her GCSEs, the delay also meant she was able to accept a film role, her first, as Princess Pamina in the German musical film The Magic Flute. She tells me that going back to the stage afterwards felt like “working a different muscle” but she is grateful for the opportunities she has been given in both worlds. “They are completely different beasts, but both equally amazing. Most of my career so far, it’s been in theatre, so that was my initial love, and that’s where my love for acting came from. But having stepped more into the screen universe recently, I love it just as much, and I’m just so thankful that I can do them both. It feels like I’m always on my toes,” she says. “I feel like I’m at a point in my career where I just desperately want to do everything. I want to try loads of different things, and loads of different genres, and work with loads of different people. I’d love to work in theatre again, I’d love to do more film, basically just everything possible would be great!”

Amongst that desire to do everything is an ambition to make music. “It has been a massive passion of mine since I was young,” she tells me. “I had this tiny pink guitar that I used to play when I was really young, and I’d write songs for my mum and my grandma and all my friends when I was little. Back then, musical theatre was the perfect place to sync my love for singing and music, and my love for acting – I love it, I think it’s beautiful, and silly, and wonderful. And it’s kind of just developed from there; I have this amazing music manager now, who reached out to me a few years ago, and I’ve kind of started doing music properly, and been able to meet loads of people through that, and go into sessions, and write songs and just express myself. I love how it’s a different way of creating, so it goes hand in hand with acting because they’re both creative outlets for me. And I love being able to do both, but music just feels like something that I kind of have more control over. If something goes wrong in my life, I can write a song about it, and then it feels like a positive outcome, which is really lovely. I’m making loads of music at the moment, kind of finding my sound and finding the people that I love working with. And I mean, the dream is hopefully to release music in the near future, that’s what I’m kind of ploughing towards.”