Peaky Blinders actress Sophie Rundle has said the upcoming nude scenes in her latest role were not “gratuitous”.

Rundle, 31, stars alongside Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones in BBC period drama Gentleman Jack.

The series, written by Sally Wainwright, sees Jones play Anne Lister, regarded as the “first modern lesbian”, with Rundle taking on the role of her lover, the wealthy heiress Ann Walker.

Sophie and Suranne in Gentleman Jack (Lookout Point/HBO/Jay Brooks/PA)

She told The Sun on Sunday: “Whenever you read sex scenes in a script, your heart does sink. You think, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to shoot that’.

“But it felt different on this show because there was so much reason for it. It wasn’t just gratuitous, it wasn’t added in and you weren’t there to be a bit of titillation.

“It felt like by the end of the sex scene, you have taken the story somewhere else.”

The cast also worked with Ita O’Brien, an “intimacy co-ordinator” hired to assist with the choreographing of the sex scenes.

Rundle also starred in last year’s hit BBC series Bodyguard alongside Richard Madden, playing his estranged wife, Vicky Budd.

Gentleman Jack starts on BBC One on May 19.