10fuckingstars: Vicky McClure

McClure, who plays Lol in the This Is England franchise, found herself inundated with supportive messages following her dramatic scenes in the final of This Is England '88, which aired yesterday.

She and cast mates Thomas Thurgoose (who plays Shaun), Johnny Harris (Lol's dad Mick) and Rosamund Hanson (Smell) tweeted to congratulate each other on the fantastic reception the series received, after hard-hitting themes including incest, rape and suicide were tackled in This Is England '88.

Vicky wrote: 'Don't know what to tweet u guys!I'm stuck for words at everyones incredibly kind & thoughtful messages.Your making me smile in a big way! Xx'.

But special praise went to Shane Meadows himself, as the actors in his ensemble cast waxed lyrical about the director.

Johnny Harris wrote that Meadows is: 'an artist...he is one of the most beautiful souls I've ever met..and the greatest director an actor could ever dream of working with!...'

He then tweeted about his co-star McClure, telling his followers that hers was: 'the finest work I have ever seen! She is astonishing and has become the greatest friend..'

Vicky replied; 'that is the most beautiful tweet I will ever read. This journey is truly unique. Come on! Xxx'.

McClure and Meadows have previously spoken about the difficult scenes in which Harris' character raped his daughter Lol, with Meadows admitting that he felt guilty about putting his actors through what he had to in order to achieve the desired results.

'One of my techniques was to do things that were… within the realms of legality obviously, but there was some really quite scary stuff that went on in the rehearsals,' the director told The Daily Telegraph.

'I put them in a room together,' he continued, talking about Vicky and Johnny.

'And Vicky would come out sometimes in tears, and I’d say, look if any of this is too much… And she said, "No, I’m comfortable with it, but it’s between me and Johnny".'

'I’ve never spoken about it since,' McClure added.

The next part of the franchise, This Is England '90, is due to air in autumn 2012.