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Tamzin Outhwaite plays Caz

If Tamzin Outhwaite and her co-star Jason Flemyng look comfortable playing brother and sister it is because they've had a lot of experience playing the role: When I'm 64 will mark the third time the pair have played siblings.

"Jason and I have known one another for years," says Ilford-born Tamzin laughing, "so we're very relaxed with one another.

"We both starred in a commercial when we were much younger and we've played brother and sister on a couple of occasions, including Bollywood movie Backwaters - due for release next year - so it's very easy to slip into the role."

Tamzin plays Caz in Tony Grounds' drama, the thirty-something working class daughter of cabbie Ray (Paul Freeman).

Less affluent than her older brother, Little Ray (Jason Flemyng), Caz has created a secure and loving family with her husband, Lynval.

The mixed-race marriage has produced three wonderful children and when the drama opens, we learn that a fourth is on its way.

"Caz is a suburban girl at heart who met Lynval at a school disco and has been with him ever since.

"Contraception is not an issue for the couple, which is why they find themselves with three children and another on the way," explains Tamzin.

"In many ways she's a lot like my mum, who was married with three children by the time she was my age."

She continues: "Career isn't an option for Caz. She is stuck in her ways but tries to copy her more affluent sister-in-law.

"As the only girl in the family, Caz falls into the role of matriarch since the death of her own mother. She feels a strong sense of duty for her father's well-being, and she naturally worries when she discovers that her father has been neglecting what she sees are his family duties to spend time with a secret friend."

Caz and her brother are concerned that their father has a new girlfriend, a younger woman, who is playing him for his money, so they follow their father one night to find out what he's up to and who is potentially doing them out of their inheritance.

What they discover horrifies them as they realise who the secret friend is.

"Caz has a narrow-minded, working class view not untypical of the majority of people's reaction out there," says Tamzin.

"The kids just can't cope with this change in their father, who has gone from a 'bruiser' to friendly with another man."

Unlike her character, Tamzin is more accepting of the central story: "There's a sense that Ray is 'undernourished' and his friendship with Jim provides him with the spiritual nourishment he needs and helps him to find comfort.

"When I'm 64 is very delicate," she smiles. "It's about how children deal with parents growing older and how the younger generation have a certain way of pigeon-holing those who are older in terms of their usefulness to society and their sexuality.

"It's a well written, well-explored, thought-provoking drama that says, 'We're all individuals!'"

Individuality is something that Tamzin knows all about. Following her departure from EastEnders in a role that brought her to the attention of a mass audience, Tamzin has played a military policewoman (Red Cap), a telecoms clerk who thinks up a fraudulent scam (Final Demand) and the caring mother of a teenage offender in the award-winning Out of Control.

"Out of Control was poignant, powerful and had a resonance - it was very now," comments the Essex actress.

"I've even heard rumours that it may become a part of the national curriculum.

"That's what I love about my job - the variety. I can do very challenging roles one minute and lighter ones the next."

The actress recently spent four months in Los Angeles during which she was, "relaxing, travelling and looking for an American agent out there."

So could this mean Tamzin's next role with be in the States?

"I've no plans to move over there at this point," she reassures us, "and I'm not looking to Hollywood yet. There's lots of stuff that I want to do over here in the UK, but having an American agent does give me the opportunity to do stuff on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The lifestyle over there is the same as here - it's just the climate that's different."

The drama has taught Tamzin at least one thing though: "When I'm 64 is all about it never being too late to change and that you can do so without prejudice and without being an outcast," says the actress.

"I hope When I'm 64 will make people think and hopefully change their perceptions."