How Emilia Fox morphs into ‘Signora Volpe’ in new series

nypost.com:

Emilia Fox stars in the new Acorn TV series “Signora Volpe” as a disillusioned British intelligence officer who finds herself solving crimes in the picturesque Italian countryside. “When does it ever happen that you get sent on a great job with an amazing story with such a great character to the most beautiful place?” Fox, 47, told The Post.

Fox took her real surname into the three-part series, premiering May 2 and shot on location. Her onscreen alter-ego, Sylvia Fox, is a disgruntled MI6 officer who’s now a high-level desk jockey but misses her thrill-packed espionage days, which took her around the world.“I think she’s been defined by her job in the first part of her life and she’s given her all to her professional life,” Fox said. “She’s clearly had a great relationship with her agents in the field.”Sylvia still sleeps with her ex-husband, Adam (Jamie Bamber), but after feeling betrayed over a risky intelligence operation, she heads to Italy (Umbria) for the wedding of her niece, Alice (Issy Knopfler), the daughter of her older sister Isabel (Tara Fitzgerald) — who lives in Italy with her doctor-husband Matteo (Matteo Carlomagno). “Sylvia feels so betrayed when MI6 cut [her operatives] off and she feels like she’s put them in danger and let them down,” Fox said. “She feels wronged by her ex-husband … and she’s deciding whether to let all that go for the new life she discovers in Italy.“She’s used to operating alone and clearly she’s very good at her job — she’s brave, intelligent, insistent and physical,” Fox said. “I think that her going to Italy and exposing herself to the complications of family life … she can’t help but start to feel the emotions you do with family and maybe that opens up a whole new side of.