91Èȱ¬

Streetwise Shoo is a young woman with more front than Blackpool. Having spent her early life in uncaring care homes, the one thing she yearns for is a family.

"She's one of those birds you might encounter on a late bus sicking up over herself after a boozy night out," grins Christine Bottomley who plays the mouthy character. "She's not exactly a classy bird!

"She's someone who has been through the mill and is now trying to sort her life out. She's quite childlike really – she just opens her gob and says what she thinks and the other women almost have to gag her to get her to shut up a lot of the time.

"Considering the situation they are in, you don't really want a loudmouth like Shoo drawing attention to herself all the time. She's like the baby of the group and I suppose Ellie is like the stern mother with her. But all the girls look out for Shoo and I'd guess that it's probably the first time she's felt that kind of care and love.

"Another way that Shoo ends up drawing attention to herself is her look. She'll wear anything and everything and her clothes have a very flamboyant and brightly coloured feel. She wears a lot of short skirts which meant I was quite chilly when we were out on location [in Wanlockhead, Scotland], so I had to wear little snippets of thermals everywhere and anywhere I could.

"She also has this horrible itchy jacket which I hate but it's perfect for Shoo. It's all sorts of different wool colours – if you can imagine that – and it's like a big skanky sheep, really fluffy and utterly vile. So just to cheer things up I got every member of the crew to wear it, took a picture of them in it and did a big collage which we put up on the wall by the main set. The boys got really into it – I have to say their poses are much better than the girls!"

In the other women, Shoo has found her much longed for family: motherly Ellie (Alex Kingston), bossy big sister Hannah (Sian Reeves), protective sister Josie (Vinette Robinson) and even a grandma in Sadie (Annette Crosbie).

But the resilience Shoo needed to survive her emotionally-deprived upbringing has also made her selfishly protective – except when it comes to men. Shoo not only has a penchant for bad blokes and losers, she also uses sex as a way to feel loved. Put the two together and you've got a dangerous mix.

Jailed for repeatedly shoplifting and the possession of drugs, Shoo's low self-esteem means that she is easily manipulated by men out to use her for their own means. However, when Dean McKenzie (played by Richard Madden) arrives on the scene, she at last meets – and falls for – a boy who really likes her for herself. He may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he's got a good heart in a sexy body – a combo Shoo's always craved.

"Everyone likes a bad boy to an extent don't they? Especially Shoo," muses Christine. "But then she comes to the village and meets Dean and he's completely different to the blokes she used to go for. He's a nice Scottish boy and a gentleman.

"At first she's really gutted when the Barbados plan falls through. She really doesn't want to be stuck in this pokey village, but as the series develops you'll see that Shoo goes a bit out of her way to keep them there.

"Slowly but surely she starts to get her head around being in this funny little place. She'd like to stay there with Dean and have a nice straightforward life – but of course, their whole relationship is a lie because he doesn't know who she really is."

So, could the Rochdale-born actress ever imagine doing a Shoo and running away to start a new life? She laughs: "No way. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Plus I'd be a rubbish criminal because everyone knows when I'm lying. Weirdly, I'm an actress but I can't lie to save my life!"