IT is with some relish, admits Phyllis Logan, that she is returning to dark comedy thriller Guilt to play the ruthless matriarch of a deeply unpleasant crime family.

“Who wouldn’t want to play Maggie Lynch?” she says, with a laugh.

“I love being part of Guilt. It is pretty twisted, isn’t it? You have to be on your mettle to keep up. Which is good, of course – you don’t want everything handed to you on a plate.”

She adds, warmly: “I cannot praise Neil Forsyth enough, he is a wonderful writer. He has given us such a gift with these characters.”

Guilt returns to BBC Scotland on Tuesday (April 25) for its third and final outing. At the end of the last series, brothers Max (Mark Bonnar) and Jake (Jamie Sives) had made it to Chicago, where they are running a pub.

Glasgow Times: Jamie Sives, left, and Mark BonnarJamie Sives, left, and Mark Bonnar (Image: BBC)

However, after their money worries take an unexpected turn, they find themselves deported back to Edinburgh where enemies old and new cause them to seek ever more desperate solutions to their problems.

Maggie, explains Phyllis, is uncharacteristically rattled in the new series.

“She has her back against the wall, and we haven’t really seen her like that so far,” she says. “Things have not gone as well as she wanted. Her main problem is the two brothers, who have become an absolute thorn in her side.

“She perceives them as not very bright, not as street smart as her, but yet they still manage to foil her at every turn, and that infuriates her.”

Johnstone-born, Glasgow-trained Phyllis is one of British television’s most recognisable faces, having starred as Lady Jane Felsham for eight years in antiques comedy drama, Lovejoy, and as housekeeper Mrs Carson, nee Hughes, in universally loved period classic, Downton Abbey.

Glasgow Times: Phyllis Logan on the set of GuiltPhyllis Logan on the set of Guilt (Image: BBC)

She won a BAFTA for most promising newcomer in 1983, for her role in the emotional drama Another Time, Another Place, and she has numerous other film credits to her name, including Nativity! and the Mike Leigh classic Secrets and Lies.

In 1983, our sister newspaper The Herald hailed Phyllis as “the new Vanessa Redgrave”.

“Oh goodness,” she says, in surprise. “I think I was in a bit of denial about all that, at the time. It seemed too bizarre: the BAFTA, the film festivals...

“My roots were in theatre, and never in a million years did I think I’d be doing a movie so soon. It's everybody’s dream, I suppose. I wasn’t prepared for it, really, and I don’t know that I handled it very well. I just thought 'this cannae be happening to a wee Scottish lassie'.”

She adds, with a laugh: “Things didn’t change that much though – it wasn’t like Hollywood was calling me every five minutes after that. I didn’t go stratospheric, in the way it seems to happen nowadays. Not a lot changed after the big buzz and things went back to normal.

“However I’m very, VERY lucky to have had a sustainable career for too many years than I care to think about.”

Had Hollywood come knocking, she says, she would have been tempted.

“I mean, it never really appealed to me, but I probably would have said ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’, who knows?” she says, adding wryly: “They didn’t, though, so I never had that dilemma.

“Today, there is a lot more pressure on young actors but they also have a lot more back up. There are plenty of people around them helping them on this, that and the other. There is a big machine which seems to get behind them, and I had nothing like that.”

Glasgow Times: Jim Carter and Phyllis Logan in Downton AbbeyJim Carter and Phyllis Logan in Downton Abbey (Image: ITV/PA)

Phyllis is an ambassador for Dementia UK, helping to promote its Admiral Nurse Helpline. She is a passionate supporter of the Edinburgh-based dementia charity Hearts and Minds too, having witnessed her mother’s struggles with a cognitive impairment and her mother-in-law’s difficulty following a diagnosis of dementia.

“Because Downton Abbey fans come from all over, there are people out in places like Kansas, who fundraise for this wee Scottish charity Hearts and Minds,” she marvels. “That’s just because I was in Downton? That's a great gift.”

As for whether there will be any more Downton Abbey on screens, Phyllis says: “Well I could say absolutely not and then the next day they announce we’re doing another film."

She adds, with a laugh: "So what do I know? I am not saying yes, but I am not saying no.”

All four episodes of Guilt are available to view on BBC iPlayer from Tuesday, April 25.