Keeley Hawes has said while it is nice to be recognised in public she is always “slightly horrified” when it is for her Line Of Duty role.
The actress, 43, played Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton in two series of the BBC police procedural series.
Talking about being spotted when she is out, Hawes told Radio Times magazine: “I look different to how I look on television.
“I simply don’t go out looking like this, so people are often unsure. They think they knew you at school, sometimes, and they’re always very nice.
“I get it a lot with The Durrells. People bring their children up to me and say, ‘Oh my God!’
“That’s really lovely, people appreciating your work. They’re not rude.
“Though if people recognise me and say, ‘Are you Lindsay Denton?’
“I’m always slightly horrified that I look that bad walking around the supermarket.”
The actress has become a major fixture on the small screen, with roles in hit programmes such as The Missing, The Durrells and Bodyguard.
Her latest part is in new BBC drama Summer Of Rockets, which was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff.
However, Hawes said she does not think her time in the limelight will last.
“These are only very brief moments in our lives,” she said.
“I don’t live in the bubble.
“I live in a world with three children and paying the mortgage, worrying about the world, my family, my friends. That’s the real bubble, your life.
This week’s Radio Times magazine is out on Tuesday.