EVERY workplace has a ‘Kathy’.

That employee who has been in the job so long that they feel like part of the furniture, knows all the gossip and is the glue that holds everything together.

In Ordinary Lies that person is Sally Lindsay.

The former Coronation Street actor said: “My character is called Kathy and she’s just approaching 40.

“She’s very happily married to Ralph and they have two grown- up children as they married pretty young.

“They’ve got a lovely house and she’s happy with her life.

She’s worked at JS Motors since she was 17, so she doesn’t know anything else, but absolutely loves it.

“She’s in charge of everything and knows everybody’s business and is the office gossip.

“She knows where the skeletons are buried and her boss Mike, played by Max Beesley, literally can’t function without her.”

At first glance Kathy does not seem to fit into the world of secrets and lies at the fictional version of JS Motors in Warrington.

The BBC One show is about the lies that the salesmen, mechanics and admin team tell that spiral out of control – so what is Kathy’s story?

Sally, who created ITV detective series Scott & Bailey with Suranne Jones, added: “Kathy is a very moral person.

“She’s always done the right things in life.

“She’s very happy in her life, but decides there’s something missing and therein the lie occurs.

“When she’s harbouring this lie, she sees something quite horrific that she shouldn’t which affects her greatly and the moral is what should she do about it?

“She feels she has to do the right thing, but there’s the dilemma.

“Kathy is very relatable on a human level.

Ordinary Lies celebrates the normality of the British public, which is the beauty of it.

“We all have regular lives but sometimes things happen that make them irregular.

“I think the more normal Kathy is, the more brilliant the story is, as you don’t see it coming.”

Ordinary Lies presented the first opportunity for Sally to work with the show’s creator Danny Brocklehurst.

She said: “I haven’t worked with Danny before, but I have known Danny for years as we’re both from Manchester and live round the corner from each other.

“It’s such a privilege to be chosen to tell this story of his as it’s a cracker.

“He manages to bring out that banter which is so hard to write but very easy for people in the workplace to do and relate to.”

It was the same for the cast – it was Sally’s first time working with each of them although she did seem to have a lot in common.

The mum-of-four added: “Michelle Keegan was on Coronation Street like me and Jo Joyner has twins like me.

“Max Beesley is a drummer and my husband has known him for years as he’s a drummer too.

“I’ve known Jason Manford since he was 17, I remember him doing stand-up but that was a long, long time ago.

“So I’ve known all these people but we’ve never actually physically worked together.

“Juliet May who I did my episode with was phenomenal.

I’d work with her tomorrow if I could – and she’s got twins as well. There were five people who had twins on set!”

There is an old showbiz saying about never working with animals but Sally was willing to break that rule for Ordinary Lies – despite having an allergy.

Her character Kathy is a dog lover.

She said: “When I got the part I was told that I’d be working with a dog quite a lot so I got allergy tablets.

“It wasn’t a small dog either – it was like a grown man in a dog outfit, it was huge!

“We used to joke that he unzipped his costume and had a fag at lunchtime...”