Natalie Dormer reveals how the BBC persuaded her to act in The Scandalous Lady W

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Natalie Dormer, 33, says Colin Firth inspired her acting career
He famously played Mr Darcy in a BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
Dormer stars in racy new drama, The Scandalous Lady W later this month

Published: 04:25 EST, 7 August 2015 | Updated: 05:28 EST, 7 August 2015

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She's no stranger to the costume drama, having played femmes fatales in The Tudors and Game Of Thrones, but Natalie Dormer had vowed she would never wear a corset again.

With Hollywood beating a path to her door and a plum role in the upcoming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, she could easily have stuck to her word.

Now, the 33-year-old Reading-born actress has revealed how she came to don the stays once more - and says it's all down to Colin Firth.

Back in action: Natalie Dormer, pictured as Lady Seymour Worsley, was inspired to act by Colin Firth

Racy: Dormer, pictured with co-star Aneurin Barnard, plays a woman who had 27 lovers in the BBC drama

Trussed up: Her latest role in The Scandalous Lady W (pictured with co-star Aneurin Barnard) sees her don a corset once more

'I grew up on BBC costume drama,' she explained in an exclusive interview with MailOnline. 'One of the reasons I wanted to become an actress was Colin Firth getting out of that pond [in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice].'

Dormer's new corseted role is considerably more racy - that of Lady Seymour Worsley in the 90 minute film The Scandalous Lady W which will be shown on BBC2 later this month.

Her character, the eponymous Lady W, was a spirited heiress who shocked Georgian society when she eloped with her lover Captain George Bisset (played by Welshman Aneurin Barnard in the drama) in 1742.

Although her husband, politician Sir Richard Worsley, gave the couple's illegitimate daughter his name, he later sued the captain £20,000 for committing adultery with his wife - opening up the vigorous love life of his wife to scrutiny in court in the process.

During the trial, it emerged that she had as many as 27 lovers - many of them under the voyeuristic gaze of her husband.

The scandal proved a dream for the UK's fledgling newspaper industry and as a result, the story, although largely forgotten now, became the talk of the town.

It has been revived by author and historian Hallie Rubenhold, who was intrigued by Lady Worsley after seeing a painting of her in red riding clothes hanging at Harewood House in Leeds.

Delving into historical records, she uncovered verbatim accounts of how the drama and subsequent court case unfolded.

All were included it in her book, Lady Worsley's Whim, which was adapted into the BBC screenplay by David Eldridge.

According to Dormer, the part was just too good to turn down. 'I read Hallie's book and I found Lady Worsley extraordinary,' she said.

The Scandalous Lady W trailer featuring Natalie Dormer

Inspiration: The iconic scene in which Firth emerges from a lake in Pride and Prejudice inspired Dormer

Costume: Dormer is no stranger to period costume and wears a a medieval-style get-up in Game of Thrones

Racy: Dormer shot to fame when she played Anne Boleyn in The Tudors (pictured with Jonathan Rhys Meyers)

'I had sworn I wasn't going to get back into a corset for a while. Now I am "Natalie Dormer with a machine gun" [in the Hunger Games] but 20 months ago I was "Natalie Dormer always in a corset".

'It had to be a really strong story to warrant me getting back into a corset but I read the book and it was so incredible and engaging and intoxicating, I thought: "I don't want anyone else to play this woman".'

Dormer got her wish, with schedules were rearranged to enable her to film the part around her role as Cressida in final installments of the Hunger Games franchise.

Playing Lady Wolsey marks the first time Dormer has taken the lead role in a TV show but she said she didn't feel under any pressure as a result.

'I was ready to be the leading lady,' she said. 'I had carried a lead on stage but playing Anne Boleyn in The Tudors is probably as close as I got to carrying a lead before in a TV show.

'I knew I could do it and I was ready, I just needed someone to champion me and give me that opportunity.'

Tough girl: She is also appearing in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 as journalist Cressida

Looking good: Dormer, pictured during a TV appearance last year (left) and at the GQ Awards in London (right), has become increasingly popular with casting directors and has Hollywood beating a path to her door

The resulting drama, The Scandalous Lady W, is set to be the BBC's most racy costume drama yet - even more than Life in Squares, which made headlines for having six sex scenes in the first hour alone.

Unsurprisingly, the new drama isn't short on bedroom scenes, including a series of creepy tableaux showing her husband, played by Shaun Evans, peeping through keyholes at his wife and her lovers.

According to Dormer, playing the promiscuous part proved 'exhausting' as all the sex scenes had to be shot in a single day.

'We were shooting on a tight budget and tight schedule so the director filmed all the sex scenes in one day - by the end of the day I was a mess!'

The final sex scene she did was with Barnard, 28, who plays Captain George Bisset - the man Lady Worsley eventually eloped with.

'Sheree Folkson [the director] wanted to make a distinction between the sex Seymour has with the other men and show that with George, it's love-making,' explained Dormer.

'I had a very heavy day that day! When Aneurin and I got to our sex scene he was like, "Are you alright?"

'I was just grateful to be doing it with someone I knew really well as supposed to a day player.'