Sarah Lancashire, 58, says she is having ‘the most terrible menopause’ and found herself in Sainsbury’s with no idea what she was meant to be buying

She is known to millions of fans as the clever Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the hit TV drama Happy Valley.

But Sarah Lancashire has revealed in real life that she is struggling with menopause-induced brain fog, even forgetting she was there to do some shopping during a recent visit to Sainsbury’s.

The actress, who spoke to The Mail on Sunday after winning best drama performance for her role in Happy Valley at last week’s National Television Awards, also admitted she used two fans to keep cool during the ceremony due to hot flushes.

“I’m having the worst menopause,” the 58-year-old said.

“I have brain fog. I was in Sainsbury’s recently and I was just standing there in the aisle and couldn’t remember what I was there for. It just suddenly comes over you.

“I can’t remember things from thirty years ago either.” Ms Lancashire, who beat off competition from her Happy Valley co-star James Norton to also scoop a Special Recognition Award, said she had to use the two fans ‘pretty much on my face the whole time’ because that’s what it’s called was at London’s O2 where the awards ceremony took place.

The actress added: ‘I brought one of my best friends with me and his job was to watch the cameras and if it looked like they were going to come to us he would let me know so I could do it. hide them.’

Ms Lancashire – who has two adult sons from her marriage to music teacher Gary Hargreaves, and a teenage boy with current husband, former BBC chef Peter Salmon – said she has turned to HRT to help with the symptoms of menopause. “I’ve been using the gel, but it’s not that good for me, so I might try the patches next,” she said.

The star, who found fame as Rovers Return barmaid Raquel Watts in Coronation Street in the early 1990s, is currently producing a television program and has called for a ‘catch-up’ in the number of older women appearing on television.

She said: “I think things are changing, and they’ve needed to for a long time. Evolution is slow and we have to catch up.’

She also said there needs to be a push to bring in talent from more diverse backgrounds.

Happy Valley broke records when 7.5 million people watched the dramatic finale in February. But Ms Lancashire confirmed it will not be returning and said she was happy it had ended after three series. She said: ‘The story was complete… there is a danger that you keep pushing and it loses its power. This is how we get on top of it.’

Having previously been open about her mental health struggles, the actress revealed she was diagnosed with clinical depression at the age of 18. She said: ‘I have my good places and my bad places… In my early days, depression held me back because I was too weak and terrified to tell anyone why I couldn’t get on the train from Manchester for auditions in London. I firmly believed that if I admitted it, I would lose my job.

‘Tranquilizers were the worst and I ended up in a horrible mess. My twenties were a write-off.”