Bancroft star Sarah Parish has opened up about the shocking sex scene that left viewers disgusted as the ITV drama returned for a second series on Wednesday night.
One of the scenes in episode 1 saw shady Detective Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft spot her estranged son Joe's girlfriend Annabelle in the swimming pool before watching on intently from the shadows as Joe joined her and the couple ended up , with Elizabeth and Annabelle even locking eyes during the encounter.
The weird liaison left a number of ITV viewers shaken. One remarked on Twitter: "Who stands watching their son have sex? #ElizabethBancroft does! Disgusting #Bancroft #SarahParish."
Another shocked viewer tweeted: "OMFG watching your son doing that, wrong, just wrong," and a third reacted "Woah woah woah woah woah. Did she just watch her son have sex? Did the girl he was having sex with see her watching? Wtf?"
And now leading actress Sarah Pariah has herself admitted it was "unusual."
She told Digital Spy: "There's so much going on inside her. With her son, Joe, I think she owned him. Do you know what I mean? She controlled him. So it almost felt slightly incestuous, although it wasn't. There was that unhealthy love that she had for him.
"So when he is gone in season two, you know, it's her life – she's devastated by it."
