Ruth Wilson wants viewers to be "triggered" by her work.

Ruth Wilson stars in the new BBC thriller

Ruth Wilson stars in the new BBC thriller

The 41-year-old actress stars in the new mystery drama 'The Woman in the Wall' - which explores the issue of trauma-based sleepwalking - and Ruth has revealed that she relished her latest role.

The actress - who previously starred alongside Idris Elba in 'Luther' - told Sky News: "It wouldn't be as interesting for me to just take on pure entertainment.

"I kind of want people to be triggered. I mean, everyone is like 'don't trigger people'. No, no, no, just let them be triggered. That's the point of art to me, you know, feel something, be made to think, be made to feel."

Ruth describes her on-screen character as being "deeply human".

She explained: "This character is so brilliantly unusual but deeply human. She is someone that is a survivor but she has these deep repressed memories that come out in sleepwalking.

"It was a great device … a way of dealing with trauma in a creative, unusual way. She's treated as an outsider by the community because of what she's gone through … but that gives her power in some ways."

The show centres on the abuse suffered by thousands of Irish women and girls in church-run homes, and Ruth feels it's an important story to tell.

She said: "Hopefully it never happens again. That's the only way you stop it from happening again, telling these stories in the first place."

Ruth was actually educated at a Catholic school for girls. But she remembers her own experience very fondly.

She shared: "It was a great education."

Ruth jokingly added: "I left because I missed boys!"