IT’S pretty difficult to avoid Bolton-born actress and comedian Diane Morgan at the moment.

With a starring role in new Sky comedy Frayed and the reappearance of Motherland, which begins its second series on BBC Two next Monday (October 7), the 43-year-old, who grew up in Farnworth and Kearsley and first hit our screens playing Dawn in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, is enjoying something of a career purple patch.

Before all that though, she returned home to appear at Bolton Film Festival, an event which she believes is incredibly important for the town’s budding creative talent.

“It’s lovely to be back,” she said. “My friend Maxine Peake is the patron of the film festival and she told me all about it. When Adrian (Barber, festival director) got in touch I thought it was a brilliant idea because I would have loved something like this when I was here. There was no one doing anything like this and I didn’t know how to get into the industry and had there been a film festival I would have been really inspired. I hope the event will really generate something.”

The daughter of a physiotherapist and a full-time mother, she decided she wanted a career in comedy at the age of 15, while at George Tomlinson School, now Kearsley Academy, but struggled at first to gain a place at acting school before years of dead end jobs as she looked for suitable roles.

“I did everything,” she said. “I did so many s*** jobs you wouldn’t believe and I tried everything from drama school to doing stand up. Every conceivable angle I tried it.”

Frayed sees Diane join up with comedian Robert Webb (Peep Show) and award-winning Australian actresses Kerry Armstrong in the comedy which is about a fabulously wealthy London housewife forced to return to her Australian hometown.

“It’s written by the Australian stand up Sarah Kendall who I met on the stand up circuit,” she said. “I read the script and thought ‘this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read’ and she offered me a part in it. She flew me out for six weeks in Australia and it was lovely - I didn’t want to come back!

“It’s a slow-burner and it’s quite dark so I hope that doesn’t put people off because it is really funny.”

Motherland meanwhile sees Diane return as parenting hero Liz in the brilliant BBC comedy which revels in the unromantic side of having children, whether it’s navigating the trials and traumas of juggling careers and childcare, being caught in your pyjamas ‘working from home’ or dealing with non-competitive sports days. Starring alongside her are Anna Maxwell-Martin, Philippa Dunne, Lucy Punch and Paul Ready with the BBC recently confirming it will return for a third series following its successful pilot in September 2016 when it was watched by 2 million viewers.

“I get so many mothers running up to me saying ‘thank god for Liz’,” she laughed. “There are some good tips in it and it’s even good for non-parents like me because it’s just a funny show.

“She’s a great character and just so laid back - I think it is how people should be as a parent. You can’t take it too seriously because parenting does ruin your life but you’ve got to make the best of it.”

Another of Diane’s recent hits has been Ricky Gervais’ black comedy After Life in which she plays a work colleague of Gervais’ character Tony, whose life is turned upside down after his wife dies from breast cancer.

“At the moment I’m filming the second series which is great because you ever know how something is going to be received,” she said. “Especially a sitcom about grief. I’ve not known anyone to write a comedy about grief because it’s obviously quite a hard thing to do but I think a lot of people responded to it. It can make you laugh one second and then make you cry the next and the cast is incredible. Having Peter Egan and Penelope Wilton back together after Ever Decreasing Circles was so exciting .”

Most popular of all Diane’s roles however, is her brilliant portrayal of dim-witted and ill-informed interviewer, Philomena Cunk, who first appeared on Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe TV series. A fantastic comic creation, Cunk’s ill informed meetings with experts, historians, politicians and journalists have become a thing of legend (“Charles Darwin was one of the most famous men of his age. Like Paddy McGuinness is now” is a personal favourite quote). So popular did the character become that last year Diane played her in the five-part historical mockumentary Cunk on Britain which aired on BBC Two.

“There will be more Cunk,” said Diane. “Possibly at the end of the and then maybe next year as well but I’m not really allowed to say anything about it.

“I love playing her. It’s like wearing a bullet proof vest and people keep saying to me that we need Cunk on Brexit but what else is there to say?”

Motherland series two begins on BBC Two on Monday October 7 at 10pm. The full series will be available to watch on immediately afterwards BBC iPlayer.

Frayed airs on Sky One and NOW TV from September 26 at 10pm, with new episodes weekly.