Julie Hesmondhalgh is an English actress who portrayed Cleo Whitaker in both drama series Cucumber and Banana, and was interviewed throughout Tofu.
As a friend of the show’s writer, Russell T Davies, and a self-confessed fan of his ground-breaking 90s series Queer as Folk, Hesmondhalgh said his involvement in Cucumber was a huge draw for her. [1]
Julie Hesmondhalgh turned down two projects to work on Cucumber and received the first two scripts in advance. In Episode Four, her character Cleo has a "sex scene of sorts which was a bit terrifying but turned out to be more than fine actually."[1]