The Times Published: February 10, 2010 Author: Lucy Powell Source Anna Maxwell Martin strides into the office of the Almeida Theatre and stops short, her expressive face momentarily frozen. “Ahhhhh!” she exclaims, one long, comically plaintive note. “I’m going to have a nervous breakdown in this interview. How embarrassing.” She’s staring at the Almeida’s array of theatre awards, which decorate every available inch of wall in the office. But the 31-year-old actress, fizzing with energy, lollipop thin in her black and white stripy top and outsize baggy jeans, has little reason to be daunted. While still at Lamda she was cast in a renowned production of The Little Foxes at the Donmar. Then she spearheaded Nicholas Hytner’s brave new National, playing the 12-year-old Lyra in a landmark 2004 production of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials . But to most, Maxwell Martin remains Esther Summerson, the sad, secretive soul at the heart of the BBC’s lavish series ...