Emily Atack has joked that her childhood was "destroyed" by her TV star relatives, as she recalled spending time behind the scenes on shows including Teletubbies and Spitting Image. The 35-year-old actress told Radio Times that her late uncle Simon Shelton, who played Tinky Winky in the BBC children's series, and her mother Kate Robbins, a voice artist on the satirical puppet show, inadvertently spoiled the magic of television for her.
"My mum has always been on TV," she said. "My late uncle Simon played Tinky Winky in Teletubbies, so my childhood was spent going to Teletubbyland and to the studios where my mum was working, seeing behind-the-scenes, but it kind of destroyed my childhood."
Ms Atack, best known for The Inbetweeners, also recalled how her mother punished her and her siblings with a puppet of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Kate Robbins, who voiced Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana on Spitting Image, kept several puppets after the show ended in 1996, including one of the late Conservative leader. "If my siblings and I were naughty, she'd say, 'You have to sit in the room with the Margaret Thatcher puppet,' which I was really scared of," Emily said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Atack revealed she has been sexually assaulted on TV sets at various points during her career. She said she wants to make a documentary about intimacy coordinators, having worked with them on the Disney+ series Rivals. "I've seen people roll their eyes about them and say, 'I don't need one,'" she explained. "Intimacy coordinators are there for support if you feel uncomfortable, whether you're a man or a woman."
She added: "I've been sexually assaulted at work throughout my career, where it's on the actual set, or at a wrap party – and since the #MeToo movement, it shows that people are listening and that there has to be a shift in behaviour on sets."
