Katherine Parkinson, the star of Rivals and The IT Crowd, has revealed that she was once knocked unconscious in a random attack while walking home from a play. The 48-year-old actress shared the shocking experience for the first time on Elizabeth Day's How to Fail podcast, confessing that she felt a deep sense of shame over the incident.
The Attack
Parkinson recalled that she was performing in a play in a town outside of London and had booked the cheapest accommodation she could find to save money. One night, while walking home from the theatre with a colleague, they were approached by a man with a criminal record who got into a disagreement with her co-worker.
“I said, ‘Leave her alone,’ and he knocked me out cold, broke my nose and everything else,” Parkinson said. The man was arrested and sentenced for actual bodily harm.
Emotional Aftermath
Becoming emotional, Parkinson recounted overhearing a nurse in the hospital that night commenting that she was “a nice girl” and being asked what she had been doing before the attack. “The sense of shame I felt…there was a sense that I’d brought it on myself,” she said, highlighting the disparity in treatment from friends who would let her walk home alone.
“I felt like I was a cheaper commodity when I was just as vulnerable,” she added. “So I think it’s good with hindsight to acknowledge it, and to acknowledge the legacy of something like that.”
Impact on Parenting
Parkinson said the attack made her “really neurotic” about her daughters walking anywhere, but she only made the connection when a fellow parent asked her about it. “I think my generation, there was a sense of ‘getting on with it’,” she noted. “But I also think, although I haven’t had therapy, the wisdom of therapy has bled into our culture in a way I find very helpful.”
She praised Michaela Coel’s drama I May Destroy You, which deals with sexual assault, saying it helped her acknowledge the seriousness of her own assault. “Basically, I’m not going to be cross with myself for being a really neurotic mum. I’m giving myself a bit more licence to realise that your experience informs who you are. Unfortunately, a literal smack in the face… it changes you.”
Current Work
Parkinson currently stars in the second season of Disney’s hit series Rivals, reprising her Bafta-nominated role as Lizzie Vereker alongside Danny Dyer, Alex Hassell, David Tennant, Nafessa Williams, and Emily Atack.
