Nicola Walker in love with Marriage co star Sean Bean

Nicola Walker in love with Marriage co-star Sean Bean

A bucket of cold water, please, for actress Nicola Walker, who seems smitten with the masculine charms of Sean Bean – her on-screen husband in upcoming BBC One drama Marriage.

When asked what her best moment was during filming, the 52-year-old Spooks and Unforgotten actress (pictured with Bean) told the Chron’s Richard Eden: “Putting cream on Sean Bean’s thigh area. Jan [his screen character] has a nasty rash and it’s a beautiful moment. That was a great day in my professional career.”

Let’s hope Nicola’s real-life husband, actor Barnaby Kay, 53, agrees…

A bucket of cold water, please, for actress Nicola Walker, who seems smitten with the masculine charms of Sean Bean - her on-screen husband in upcoming BBC One drama Marriage

A bucket of cold water, please, for actress Nicola Walker, who seems smitten with the masculine charms of Sean Bean – her on-screen husband in upcoming BBC One drama Marriage

Funnily enough, Nicola recently said she’s not an advocate for tying the knot before starring in the new drama starring Bean, 63.

The actress opened up about her marriage to Barnaby, who she married in 2006 after 20 years of dating, in a new interview promoting the series.

The Spooks star told the Radio Times: “Me and my husband because we both lost a parent young we thought after we had a child we should get married in case one of us dies so the legalities are clear .

“It’s not the most romantic reason to get married, but probably the only reason that would have made me sign a piece of paper.

“I’m not a big proponent of marriage in real life.”

Husband: The actress, 52, noted her marriage to Barnaby Kay, 53, who she married in 2006 after a 20-year relationship, while promoting the series in a new interview (pictured in 2016)

Husband: The actress, 52, noted her marriage to Barnaby Kay, 53, who she married in 2006 after a 20-year relationship, while promoting the series in a new interview (pictured in 2016)

So happy: Sean has finally settled down with his fifth wife, former actress Ashley Moore (pictured together in 2017)

So happy: Sean has finally settled down with his fifth wife, former actress Ashley Moore (pictured together in 2017)

As she prepares for her role in the BBC drama alongside veteran actor Sean Bean, she reflects on her co-star’s five marriages.

“I only have one, so Sean mentions the average [between the duo]’ said the faithful of the screen.

Nicola added that she thought it was rude to ask Game of Thrones star Sean what it’s like to get married so often.

Sean is currently married to former actress Ashley Moore.

The acclaimed actor tied the knot with Moore, who at 33 is 26 years his junior, in 2017 after a five-year relationship that began with “a chance meeting” at his favorite north London pub.

For the full interview with Nicola Walker, see this week's Radio Times

For the full interview with Nicola Walker, see this week’s Radio Times

Bean’s first marriage to school friend Debra James, a hairdresser, came in 1981 when he was just 21 years old.

However, things soon crumbled after he moved to London shortly afterwards to study at RADA, where he fell in love with fellow student Melanie Hill.

The actress, who starred in the classic sitcom Bread, became his second wife in 1990. The couple have two daughters together, Lorna and Molly.

Their marriage lasted seven years and shortly after their split, the star confirmed that he was dating actress Abigail Cruttenden, whom he met on the set of the ITV series Sharpe.

The couple married in November 1997 and their daughter Evie was born the following year; However, they separated when their baby was only a few months old.

He married actress Georgina Sutcliffe for the fourth time at Marylebone Register Office in February 2008 but their marriage lasted only two years.

In the BBC drama, which will air on Sunday August 14, Walker and Bean consider the pitfalls of a long relationship between characters Emma and Ian – who are linked by a horrific event to which they are seldom related.

Walked mused, “Your daughter keeps saying, ‘We need to talk,’ and they just won’t. Because most people don’t.

“We don’t carry the past around in the present because we couldn’t get up and make our breakfast if we were thinking about it all the time. Emma can’t talk about this thing that happened because it’s too big.

Career building: Nicola got her start on the popular long-running BBC drama Spooks

Career building: Nicola got her start on the popular long-running BBC drama Spooks

“If she manages even a squeak, a complete emotional breakdown ensues. It’s embedded in their relationship, but they can’t talk about it.

Referring to the loss of her parents, which prompted her to marry her 27-year-old partner, Nicola added: “I feel this with sadness. When I lost my mother a long time ago, for a month or six weeks I felt like someone had pulled the curtain on The Wizard of Oz and I really felt like I was seeing the world as it was : a very scary place.

“Then the curtain slowly rises again, because at the end of the grief you can’t live. And that’s what Ian and Emma had to achieve.”

During filming, Nicola found an old piece of advice particularly helpful.

After being told by director Ivo van Hove to act what she would do in her kitchen, Nicola shot many scenes for Marriage in a kitchen.

But that naturalistic backdrop came with the notoriously meticulous director Stefan Golazewski.

Nicola says: “Stefan had to reassure me very early on because he said he was doing a lot of takes and assumed I wasn’t used to it.

“In all the TV shows I’ve done, you know that if you don’t get to the scene in three takes, you’re doing it wrong and wasting time.

She added, “With Stefan, 12, 13, 14, 16 takes isn’t uncommon.”

Referring to her most famous role in Spooks, she revealed that the BBC drama is still what she is known for, saying: “In terms of the public, Spooks was and still is as it gets a lot of streaming. But the spooks audience is so funny.

“When I first noticed this, I was at my local supermarket and someone snuck up and said, ‘The condor has landed; the geese are flying tonight’, and wandered through frozen food. It was never just an ordinary ‘I love the show’.”

“Will people come to her fresh fruit after the wedding and tell her how awful her spouse is? “I hope they do.” However, she is sure that there will be no sequel called Divorce. “Ian and Emma would never break up. That is the point.’

Marriage is a four part drama on the BBC airing this Sunday.

For the full interview with Nicola Walker, see this week’s Radio Times

SEAN BEAN’S EARLIER WIVES

DEBRA JAMES (1981-88)

DEBRA JAMES (1981-88)

Bean married James, his high school sweetheart, on April 11, 1981. However, the marriage was strained after the couple moved to London, where Bean hoped to continue his acting career. They divorced in 1988 after seven years of marriage

MELANIE HILL (1990-97)

MELANIE HILL (1990-97)

Two years later, Bean married actress Melanie Hill, best known for her role in Liverpool-based comedy Bread, after they met while students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The marriage lasted seven years during which they welcomed daughters Lorna and Molly

ABIGAIL CRUTTENDEN (1997 - 2000)

ABIGAIL CRUTTENDEN (1997 – 2000)

Shortly after, the Lord of the Rings star confirmed he was dating actress Abigail Cruttenden, who he met on the set of the ITV series Sharpe. The couple married in November 1997 and their daughter Evie was born the following year; However, they separated when their baby was only a few months old.

GEORGINA SUTCLIFFE (2008 - 2010)

GEORGINA SUTCLIFFE (2008 – 2010)

He married actress Georgina Sutcliffe for the fourth time at Marylebone Register Office in February 2008 but their marriage lasted only two years. The couple met five years ago in 2003 when she ran the bar at a West End theater where Bean Macbeth was playing.

They shared a home in Belsize Park, north London, but are said to have split in the first year of their marriage before reuniting. Two years later, they divorced, citing “irreconcilable differences.”