91Èȱ¬

PA to... Rock van Gelder (Robert Gant)
Take Note... The outsider trying to fit in
Most likely to... Tell you where to stick your filing
Strengths... So intelligent it hurts
Weaknesses... Her mind is most definitely not on the job

A shell-shocked Sid can't believe she's working as a PA. in an office where, gallingly, she knows she's the most intelligent person by a mile. She should be running her own company, not making tea for someone else and, gasp, photocopying.

A repressed intellectual snob, gothic Sid is damaged goods and her own worst enemy.

A super achiever throughout school and university, she's an uptight genius who doesn't know how to communicate with people. For Sid, simple things like chatting about the weather are far harder than solving The Times crossword.

But her arrival at Hartmann Payne might not be quite what it seems...

"She's a complete snob and can't bear the fact she's temping for these people, it almost pains her to say the word," explains Dublin-born Ruth.

"Sid thinks it's below her and isn't afraid to let them know it, which is great fun for me to play.

"She's quite bumbling as well and not very good at forming sentences out loud because she's had her head stuck in books for years. Writing reams and reams for a thesis would be easy for her, interacting with other human beings isn't."

A child prodigy destined for greatness, Sid's life has gone horribly wrong. Having suffered from severe depression and attempted suicide, she spent a short spell in an institution but now, hopefully, she's on the road to recovery.

Emotionally damaged, she met her boyfriend Crawford (Al Weaver) when they were both institutionalised. It's not a match made in heaven – he's impotent and bipolar for starters.

"Sid credits Crawford with her rehabilitation, but as time goes on she becomes less sure of that and suddenly it's like a spell has been broken. She'd been looking for a sense of belonging with Crawford because she's always felt like an outsider, but I think the kind of belonging she eventually finds with the girls is much more sane and healthy," says Ruth.

Much to her surprise, she finds a connection with her boss Rock Van Gelder (Robert Gant) through their mutual interest in astronomy: "They are both nerdy and he's quite bemused that someone like her would be working as a temp. He doesn't dislike her, but he's not sure how much he likes her either."

She also develops an unlikely friendship with Midge (Annabel Scholey). Even though personality-wise they are poles apart, the pair are connected by their shared fantasist approach to life.

In contrast, Sid dislikes Lucy (Laura Aikman) – dismissing her as nothing more than a chavvy moron.

"At first she doesn't get on with anyone and says categorically that she isn't there to make friends. So when friendship is extended from Midge it takes her a while to get her head around it because it's totally strange to her," explains Ruth, who starred in the critically-acclaimed Criminal Justice.

"I don't think Sid is ever going to be like one of the Sex And The City girls and start talking about shoes or who she took home last night. But it's a start in the right direction.

"In the beginning the girls don't know what to make of her with her gruff manner, big black boots and goth outfits. But when Sid finds herself in big trouble they all rally together to help and she appreciates that."

Despite Sid's top-notch education, she can't see that her arrogance and total lack of social skills deter people and have prevented her succeeding her whole life.

But, inside, there's a romantic, darkly funny, sexy, virgin struggling to get out and desperate to connect.

She comes into the Hartmann Payne environment complete with chips on her shoulder and unexpectedly finds them being knocked off one at a time as she's included and made to feel like part of the gang.

For Sid, Hartmann Payne and the relationships she forges there allow her to start her life anew. She may always be the geeky freaky girl but at least she belongs.

"She's exceptional intellectually, but she's one of those people who are super-intelligent but have absolutely no common sense or people skills. I've been to school with people like that and I probably was a little bit like that myself at one point," admits Ruth, who graduated from the Samuel Beckett Centre drama school at Trinity College, Dublin and was chosen as the 2006 Irish Shooting Star at the Berlin International Film Festival, for her work in Neil Jordan's Breakfast On Pluto.

"Like Sid, I don't think I'd cope especially well in an office situation because I hated school and that's the nearest experience I've had to an office I can imagine. I think I'd find it difficult to be with the same people everyday.

"I'm not particularly girly so I suppose that's a similarity too. But other than that I'm not snobby, intellectually nerdy or socially inept – I hope not anyway!"