January Jones finds joy away from Mad Men's Betty Draper

But the 37-year-old actress, who played Don Draper’s ex-wife in the hit period drama, said she has enjoyed shaking off Betty’s doom and gloom for her new show, The Last Man On Earth.

“Well, I mean I have a huge attachment to Betty. I have played her for longer than any other character in my life,” she said.

“As an actor, you try to do different kinds of thing. I think Melissa is the closest I’ve ever come to playing someone close to myself.

“It has been fun to go to work and laugh,” she added.

January said her Mad Men role taught her a lot.

“I mean every job that you have you hope that it is something that is going to educate you and further your learning experience in this job that we do,” she explained.

“So yeah, I think I have grown a lot. That is hard for me to say… if I have grown in the last year. I don’t feel that different, maybe I look different.”

The post-apocalyptic comedy The Last Man On Earth, which also stars Will Forte and Flight Of The Conchords’ Kristen Schaal, is set in 2020 after a deadly virus sweeps the planet.

Will plays Phil, who is alone and roaming the United States in search of other survivors, who soon agrees to start a life with Carol (Kristen). But when Melissa (January) appears, he begins to regret his rash decision.

“We didn’t know I was going to be such a s***head until we got to it, and it just seemed like just an appropriate thing to do,” Will said.

“The plan at first was not to go to such a deceitful place with it, but then it felt like the right thing to do.”

The comedian continued: “It was a challenge to see if we could pull it off, and for some people we did and for some people we didn’t. But that was what we wanted to do, to try it out. It’s a crazy scenario, which would very likely never happen.”

The first series of The Last Man On Earth begins with a double-­bill on August 10 from 9pm, exclusively on Dave.