For eight years, Channel 4 viewers saw Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) use torture and psychological manipulation to teach "her girls" strict religious doctrine of Gilead in The Handsmaid's Tale.

From issuing the removal of Janine's eye, shocking the Handmaids with a cattle prod and making the group take part in brutal executions, her character became one of the most heinous of the series.

In an unexpected turn of events, when the show came to an end last year, viewers saw a change of heart when Aunt Lydia ended up helping to free the Handmaids, realising the wrongful ways of the Gilead's commanders.

While Ann's character earned her great recognition, even winning an Emmy in 2017, she didn't begin her acting career until her 50s.

Speaking to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on This Morning, the actress opened up about struggling to break into the industry.

Cat commented: "You were studying acting for a very long time, success came later to you in life. So, does it make it all the sweeter and all the more enjoyable?"

She said: "Well, that's a very good way to look at it. I remember being young and wondering when is it going to happen? What's going to happen? I was leaving to go to work one day as a waitress.

"I went by the theatre when it was the premiere of a huge film, About Last Night, with Elizabeth Perkins, who was my classmate. I fell apart, I walked off thinking, 'What in the world is wrong with me?'

"Got home that night from work, sitting on the porch and I was raging and rocking, saying, ' When is something going to happen? Please!' A very deep, peaceful voice came to me, this is no kidding, it said, 'You will be alright, you will be 56'

"Which is what I was when Compliance came out years later and that's when the career shifted."

Now, viewers will see Ann reprise her role once again in the upcoming spin-off series, The Testaments, which takes place 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale.

A synopsis for The Testaments reads: "The series follows young teens Agnes, dutiful and pious, and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead's borders.

"As they navigate the gilded halls of Aunt Lydia's (Ann Dowd) elite preparatory school for future wives, a place where obedience is instilled brutally and always with divine justification, their bond becomes the catalyst that will upend their past, their present, and their future."

The Testaments premieres on April 8 on Disney+ and This Morning is available to watch on ITVX