EDW Interview Links

[libbitom]

For those of you on twitter, who understand what I'm talking about. Listed below are the links for the interviews:

www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110683418.html
www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60390841.html
www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24597883.html

Let me know what to do next!!

[bec2010]

Finding her own space...
Daily Mail (London)
January 14, 1998


NIGEL DEMPSTER

ALTHOUGH tipped for major success as an actress this year she is starring in two forthcoming BBC shows - former deb Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, daughter of Fifties Rank film star Dermot Walsh, is homeless.

'I've nowhere to live,' wails Elisabeth, 22. 'I'm flat-hunting without any luck.

I sleep in friends' spare rooms, on their floors or in my dad's home in Kent while I look for somewhere.' Elisabeth was given permission to leave RADA early to star in the BBC1 comedy Unfinished Business, with Art Malik, to be screened this month, and she also plays the lead in the drama Falling For A Dancer.

After West Heath, Princess Diana's old school, Elisabeth was almost talked out of acting. 'My father begged me not to do it. He was concerned that the business is so difficult,' she says.

'I didn't tell him I'd got into RADA until a month before I started. Now he's delighted with my success but he still worries.'

[bec2010]

Interview: Elisabeth Dermot Walsh - My mum died when I was 17 but she is still with me every day. I try to live up to her; THE CHRISTINE SMITH INTERVIEW: LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE'S LIZ ON HER DRIVING FORCE.(Features)
The Mirror (London, England)
February 3, 2001
CHRISTINE SMITH

I AM rather nervous when I turn up at a hotel bar to meet the BBC's new period-drama queen, Elisabeth Dermot Walsh.

She is 24 and incredibly attractive - white porcelain features, big, crystal-blue eyes (accentuated by her black mascara), and a slender, size-10 physique shown off today by her black sleeveless T-shirt, black French Connection trousers and trendy trainers.

But the main reason why I'm not quite sure if we are going to bond is that Elisabeth is frightfully posh.

Indeed, her accent is so la-di-da she wouldn't seem out of a place in Buckingham Palace. The pair of us are like chalk and cheese and, quite bluntly, I've never met such a well-to-do lady.

So I settle down nervously to talk about her leading role in BBC1's adaptation of Nancy Mitford's Love In A Cold Climate.

Maybe it's her joke that I am "playing mum" as I pour out our coffees, or perhaps it's her purple, sparkling Whistles bag that I am desperate to have - but Elisabeth and I hit it off instantly .

"I had to have dialect lessons," she confesses as we chat about her part as Linda, the hopeless romantic desperate to find true love, in the lavish Beeb two-parter. "Linda's accent is so extreme, I really wanted to sound like she did."

But you already have a Queen's English accent, I say to myself. Not so.

"Even the Queen doesn't speak like she used to," she continues (now sounding like the Queen).

"It was very difficult but I hope we managed it. A lot of the jokes sound a lot better anyway if you do that really posh voice."

Elisabeth, who has curled her legs up on the chair, fiddles with her long, brown hair as she goes on to talk excitedly about Love In A Cold Climate.

"Linda's whole raison d'etre is the pursuit of love," she gushes, almost 19 to the dozen. "She is such a heroine but also flawed, real, selfish. Do we share any similarities? Actually I think she rubbed off on me! I became a bit more daffy.

"I am funny sometimes but I became more scatty, witty and passionate. She stayed with me for a long time afterwards.

THAT said, I am more realistic than her when it comes to love. I do, however, think you have a right to happiness."

It's all very "thrilling", "exciting" and "lovely". But Elisabeth isn't a luvvie. She has too many doubts about her talent to be that, even though she shouldn't.I'd say she is more of a perfectionist - passionate about her work. Obsessed, even.

Born in Kent, Elisabeth - eldest daughter of Fifties film star Dermot Walsh and the late stage actress Elisabeth Scott - wanted to be an actress from the age of three and recalls how she would re-enact "terribly long drama routines" with sister Olivia, now a ceramic artist, in the family's 15th-Century country home.

"We were all terribly close. But my parents did their best to dissuade me from acting."

"How do you mean?" I ask, a little confused as Elisabeth's father starred in more than 100 films with legends such as Lawrence Olivier, playing TV's Richard The Lionheart along the way.

"They said: 'Please don't do it because we are. It is not easy.' They were worried if it all went wrong. When I was young, they would take me with them to work.

"But I think they realised I thought it was brilliant, saw the danger and so decided that I should stay at home from then on! But I am very strong-willed. Very." She squeals with laughter. It transpires that Elisabeth begged her parents to enrol her at the exclusive West Heath School (other famous pupils include Princess Diana) just so she could take an active role in the college dramas.

"I realised I was missing out on all the fun. They put on lots of plays after school. My father doesn't really approve of boarding schools but in the face of me saying 'I really want to', what could he do?"

I'm not really into the St Trinian's stuff but I'd say Elisabeth's boarding- school life sounds extraordinarily like the stories you read in novels. She nods.

"We used to knot sheets and climb down from the windows and eat sweets on the lawn! Not drugs - just chocolate and pot noodles.

"We thought we were incredibly naughty," she adds, giggling.

"We were very closeted and I am not surprised the school has been closed down now. We were sheltered from the real world."

But at 17, Elisabeth's world came crashing down when her beloved mother died of cancer. I probe gently. The glow in her blue eyes has disappeared. She's close to tears. "You must have been devastated," I say. "She was hard to live up to," she says quietly. "Mum was impeccable, beautiful. She died when I was in my last term. Terrible."

Silence.

"It was the most awful thing in my life and I still find it too awful to talk about it."

I don't say anything.

SHE eventually continues: "You don't get over it. But I definitely believe you go on somewhere. She would be so thrilled with what is happening now. I'm a bit more groomed than when she knew me.

"I try to live up to her. Wherever she is, she is with me every day. Not in a spooky sense. She just is. She gives me tremendous strength even though she is not here."

Her voice trails off and I ask softly if she is close to her dad. "Oh, tremendously. He is 77 but so young at heart. I can talk to him about everything. He is so calming.

"I know he has starred in lots of films but it was before my time, and so he is just this silver-haired man to me. I am shy but I do like talking to people. With dad, we cut the rubbish. I'd never have a conversation about the weather. We talk about real stuff, politics, religion."

I'm quite surprised to discover, however, that despite this close relationship, Elisabeth didn't tell her dad she had won a place at London's prestigious RADA until afterwards.

"I didn't want the humiliation if I didn't get in. So I secretly auditioned for it. He didn't mind that I hadn't told him. He was so excited."

Shortly before taking up the place, Elisabeth saved up some money by working for a spell as a receptionist at film director Michael Winner's company. "What was Michael like?" I ask, telling her that he thinks she is "quite the most beautiful thing". She laughs.

"Michael is the only showbizzy person dad has kept in touch with. He lives in the country and never goes to any showbiz parties. Michael is a very demanding boss, famous for being so strict. Shouts a lot. If I did something stupid, he would shout!"

RADA, she adds, was "hard work". "I kept thinking I was a mistake and there was a mix-up. But eventually I realised that I had earned a place. It was beyond my wildest dreams."

The waiter brings more mineral water and coffee. I've got so used to Elisabeth's accent that I am now even finding myself replacing some of my familiar Northern dulcet tones with soft Southern pronunciations.

Elisabeth, whose legs are still curled up on her seat, is outlining her career to date. After she left RADA (fellow pupils include Ioan Gruffudd) she won a part in the BBC sitcom Unfinished Business playing Rachel, who stole her mother's boyfriend.

This was followed by a role as a middle-class mum in BBC1's Falling For A Dancer, some theatre work and now Love In A Cold Climate.

She doesn't think she's changed but concedes she enjoys the salary that comes with the job. Does she like clothes shopping?

"Yeah, but I prefer food shopping. I can spend two hours wandering down the aisles. I am totally hypnotised by it. My cupboards at home are filled up." Mine are the exact opposite, I say, very bemused. "Oh dear," she exclaims. "I have ridiculous things - green peppers in jars. I suppose I like nesting things, building a home. I think this stems from my boarding school days."

What is her speciality, then? She loves improvising with any ingredients in her "magic cupboard". We move back to the subject of acting as Elisabeth reveals her second love is going to the theatre, often by herself.

"You don't talk, anyway," she says. "Cinema I'm not so sure about, because it looks as though you have been stood up!"

ELISABETH, who rents a flat in Wandsworth, South London, doesn't want to tell me if she has a boyfriend. I respect her privacy and decide to find out what the future has in store.

She hasn't got anything in the pipeline yet but says she would love to star in lots of different dramas.

I wonder if she has a role model.

"My mum probably. She wasn't someone really famous but she was brilliant." She bursts out laughing.

"But everyone thinks their parents are brilliant, don't they?" I tell her I have to agree. "My dad, gosh he is so wonderful," she says. "He is ever so proud but such a gloom-monger. He always thinks everything is going to come to an end.

"So I want to prove to him that it's not. There is no pressure from him, oh no. I'd love to work with him."

Her wonderful parents, Elisabeth adds, make her doubt whether she could ever be as good.

"They sacrificed a lot for me. I can't see myself getting married or having a child at the moment. But I reserve the right to do so.

"I am far too selfish. I am completely focused on my work and to bring a child into the equation, give it my undivided attention... I just could not do that at the moment."

My time is up. Posh she may sound but Elisabeth is a real gem.

It's why I decide to join her later in the bar. I won't spill the beans but suffice to say we get through our fair share of Champagne...

Love In A Cold Climate is screened tomorrow night on BBC1 at 8.45pm

[bec2010]

Curtains call ; Since co-starring in Falling for a Dancer, Elisabeth Dermot Walsh has built a glowing stage career. Now rehearsing for Neil LaBute's the shape of things at The Gate, she says she will never trade the immediacy of theatre for Hollywood stardom.

The Irish Times
February 2, 2002

There's something about actors who've trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, something you detect almost as soon as you meet them. There's the melodious sound of their softly spoken received pronunciation - that intonation that suggests the British establishment. There's their precise, polite manner - they'd be as comfortable meeting the Queen as a common journalist. And there's their ability to charm an inter-viewer with these qualifies.

Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, who plays Jenny in the upcoming Gate production, the shape of things, has this last quality in abundance, but her Irish heritage adds something more to the mix.

"The fact that I have an Irish heritage probably helped me get my first big break in Falling for a Dancer. For me it was wonderful coming here; to begin and understand where my father was from," she says. Her father; Dermot , was a Gate actor of the 1940s, who emigrated to England in 1946 to pursue his career over there, where he still works at the age of 80.

For those that didn't see it, Falling for a Dancer was an epic melodrama, shot in Cork and broadcast on RTE to mixed reviews, in 1998. Set in 1930s Ireland, it followed the fortunes of Elizabeth, played by Walsh, and launched her international career, as well as that of Colin Farrell (of Tigerland fame).

"Falling for a Dancer was a big thing in my life. It took three months to shoot - in Cork for most of it. It was unashamedly melodramatic, and endlessly tragic and romantic and lush. It was unapologetically so - of course not to everyone's taste." She speaks enthusiastically of Colin Farrell's success: "I think ifs fantastic. We had to do quite a lot of scenes together - shivering, cold and wet in the middle of the night. We'd stand there doing tragic love scenes, saying, 'isn't this great, it's our first break'. Everyone else would be miserable in the rain and cold, people with more experience and less starry-eyed."

Since then, Farrell has hit the mega-time, Walsh's career has also gone from strength to strength. Her theatre credits have mounted since she graduated from RADA four years ago, but it is from her television work that most Irish audiences will know her.

Love in a Cold Climate and Unfinished Business may have beamed her into thousands of homes all over Britain and Ireland, but she says it is for the role of Elizabeth In Falling for a Dancer that people still stop her on the street.

But what about LA? Will she follow in Farrell's footsteps and relocate, to hunt that elusive Hollywood fame that every actor dreams of?

"I would never move over there on spec and get in line, as they say. I'd wait for a project to take me over there."

But, in fact, she has already done a high-profile role for US television, playing Octavia alongside Timothy Dalton's Julius Caesar in an ABC production of Cleopatra, shot in the Sahara desert. "I enjoyed it very much," says Walsh. "It was a taste of what I think it would be like working in Hollywood."

Yet, despite such television roles, Walsh remains primarily a theatre actor. While she does express the ambition to do film work, she lights up when she speaks of the stage. "If I had to choose, I'd choose theatre every time. That's what I trained for. I love its immediacy."

Her dedication to her craft is evident in the care she takes in constructing a role, creating a history for whatever character she is playing in her mind, both during and after rehearsals.

'As an actor; you are always looking for the truth of your character," she says. "That's what acting is, I think."

She describes Jenny, the character she's playing in Neil La Bute's the shape of things, as "just a WASP. She belongs to WASP college America." All she will tell me of the play beyond that is that it concerns the relationship between four young college students in a conservative mid-west US campus. Because of a twist in the plot, she refuses to reveal any more.

"It's such a good play I couldn't bear to spoil it for you," she says. "I think people are going to leave arguing with each other. They're going to want to come and ask questions. I really think that it's going to be contentious."

She does add, however; that it is quite a dark piece of work, portraying the harsh, unforgiving world that audiences have come to associate with LaBute, whose bash was presented at The Gate last year.

It sounds like the world of the play is a far cry from the world where Walsh grew up. A place, she says, of "innocence". A Kent of all-girl boarding schools and midnight feasts - stuff straight out of an Enid Blyton novel. This was where Walsh LaBute' first trod the boards in school plays, Shakespeare productions she had to put on herself to get the of opportunity to act.

There's no fear of her lacking such an opportunity now As her list of credits swells, it's clear that her star is rising. the shape of things by Neil LaBute opens at The Gate on February 5th, with previews tonight and Monday.

[bec2010]

Elisabeth wins US drama role; DAUGHTERS OF FAMOUS SHOWBIZ IRISH FAMILIES WOW AMERICA.(News)
The Mirror (London, England)
February 16, 1999
Michael, Neil

0ShareUS studio bosses seem to have fallen for one of Ireland's leading actresses.

Falling For A Dancer star Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh has been snapped up to appear alongside Timothy Dalton in a pounds 20 million drama series.

The 23-year-old actress is just 18 months out of drama school - but acting is definitely in her blood.

She is the daughter of Irish fifties matinee idol Dermot Walsh and actress Elisabeth Scott.

Now Elisabeth Jnr has been signed up to star opposite Dalton in the costume drama Cleopatra, playing Octavia, the betrayed wife of Julius Caesar.

She first burst onto the screen when she starred in the TV comedy Unfinished Business.

But it was her role in Falling For A Dancer that earned her instant fame.

Last night the Irish Mirror's Mr TV, Charlie Catchpole, said: "It just shows you that you don't need to be the most qualified actor or actress to land the plum roles."

[bec2010]

Television; YOUR ESSENTIAL TV & SATELLITE GUIDE FOR THE WEEK AHEAD Walsh frozen in time LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE BBC1, Sunday, 8.45pm.(Features)

Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)
February 3, 2001
ROB DRISCOLL

WITH her porcelain skin and English rose features, actress Elisabeth Dermot Walsh is fast becoming the young queen of period drama on stage and television.

But little could prepare her for the far-removed and somewhat bizarre rules of '30s social etiquette at the core of Love In A Cold Climate, BBC1's costume drama based on the semi autobiographical books by Nancy Mitford.

"It's a whole different world away from how we all behave now," says 23-year-old Elisabeth, who fills the role of obsessively romantic aristocrat Linda Radlett in the two-part adaptation co-starring Alan Bates, Anthony Andrews, Celia Imrie and Frances Barber.

"In the Mitford world, all the girls had around them were their parents and servants. Looking forward to dances was all they thought about.

"They invested their entire hopes for lifelong happiness on meeting Mr Right at these dances, and it must have been such a crushing disappointment most of the time."

Elisabeth herself went to an all-girls' boarding school in Kent, so she can slightly relate to the idea of boys being something of a mystery in her adolescence - but not to quite the same extent as in the Mitfords' era.

"At my school, the lack of any boys around did mean any boy you met, you became slightly fixated on," she admits with a laugh. "But I like to think I was more clued up about boys than Linda. Let's just say I had quite an active time in the holidays."

If Elisabeth felt somewhat distanced from the rigid courtship rituals of Love In A Cold Climate, she had little trouble once the production started shooting - especially as she was filming, living and sleeping in the same grand country house where the family on whom the characters were based grew up.

The production indeed pulled off a remarkable coup - which all the cast appreciated - when permission was granted to film at Batsford Park in the Cotswolds, where Nancy and her five younger sisters spent part of their childhood between 1916 and 1919.

"Filming on the actual location of the Mitfords' childhood was wonderful and rather surreal," says Elisabeth, who first came to prominence in the BBC period drama serial Falling For A Dancer.

"The amazing thing about the set was that because it is now an empty house, owned by a family trust, the design team had dressed it just like the Radletts' house. So when you flung yourself on your bed in character, that was the bed they'd been sleeping in.

"There was something really helpful about that, looking out from a window knowing that was the view they would have seen. It was quite inspiring."

For an actress fresh from drama school - she left RADA three years ago - playing Linda proved a real challenge. "I know so many people who adore the two books on which the serial is based - Love In A Cold Climate, and The Pursuit Of Love," says Elisabeth.

"And I've spoken to a lot of friends who say, 'Oh God, Linda is my absolute dream role, my favourite heroine...' So I know I've got a lot to live up to."

Acting, however, is quite literally in Elisabeth's blood. Her father, Dermot Walsh, and her late mother, Elisabeth Scott, were both actors.

"They both did their best to dissuade me from the professions, but to be honest I've wanted to act since I was about three," reveals Elisabeth.

And she admits that although her dad tried to talk her out of acting she would love to star beside him one day.

"I think he'd make a wonderful King Lear - and there are a few good parts in that for me too," she smiles.

"I'm trying to persuade him. He says he's too old - he's 77 - and acting roles need a younger man with more energy. But I think that's nonsense, Dad has tremendous energy. I'm going to keep working on him..."

[bec2010]

'THIS could be my last lead role," admits Dermot Walsh of touring drama The Holly & The Ivy which arrives at Darlington Civic Theatre next week. The former mainstay of the British film industry and 1960s TV feels that at 75 he may not have too many more opportunities ahead to see his name at the top of a cast list. It is a charming and disarming admission from the Irish-born actor who has spent the past 30 years as a "leading man" on stage all over the world.

"At my age I'm no longer playing romantic leads and I may not have the energy to take on another part like this. But one of the great joys of getting older is that the industry still needs these character parts. When they were looking around for a stupid old bugger to play the Rev Martin Gregory I was the obvious candidate," he jokes.

Wynyard Browne's play, which Walsh describes as Rattigan or Coward-like, is an old-fashioned, well-crafted battle of wills within a family reunion during the Christmas of 1947.

"This is a superb play because it deals with the generation gap, which we have always had and always will. This is about a father, who is quite elderly, born about 1880, finding that his moral values and his children's moral values are now fundamentally different. I've heard this work described as a two-hankie play, which is about right," adds Walsh.

His character's relationship with his children inevitably supplies Walsh with the ammunition to discuss his own off-spring. Best-known is middle daughter Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh who found fame in BBC1's hit drama series Falling For a Dancer.

"My youngest, Olivia, went all through the process of gaining a BA in ceramics and is now an ASM (assistant stage manager) in Plymouth where she was in panto with Danny La Rue," he explains.

Son, Michael, is a journalist - just like Walsh's own father - while oldest daughter Sally runs an art gallery in California.

This is not quite as exotic as Walsh's own experiences. He's been married three times, played Richard the Lionheart on ITV for two years, joined the RSC, was in the first Whitehall farce with Brian Rix and launched his own theatre production company with third wife Elisabeth Scott. Sadly she became terminally ill when the pair were in the process of negotiating TV deals. The actor never recaptured the silver screen days of his early career when he made around 37 films for the Rank studios.

He says frankly: "I have starred in about 12 West End runs and really enjoyed the days when we were launching plays from Harrogate Theatre. A few years ago the run of the production Mary, Mary allowed me to visit Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, California and New York. Now that's a lot different to taking a play out on tour to Hull, Swansea and Inverness," he laughs.

[bec2010]

Ice-cool customers; Newcomers making their names in TV Mitford saga The beauties who will raise the temperature in Love In A Cold Climate.
Publication:Daily Mail (London) Publish date:January 30, 2001More results for:elisabeth dermot walsh

0ShareByline: ALISON BOSHOFF

AS rebellious beauties trying to break free of the constraints of society, their characters are loosely based on the scandalous Mitford sisters.

But the young actresses starring in BBC TV's adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate have rather colourful backgrounds themselves.

Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, who plays Linda, was a favoured dining companion of film director Michael Winner at 19 while Megan Dodds, who plays Polly, began her career with a sensational strip act as part of a West End play.

Rosamund Pike, who brings the character of Fanny to life, 'did a runner' from her studies at Oxford to pursue her acting career.

This trio of newcomers - who grace the cover of the latest Radio Times - appear with Alan Bates, Sheila Gish, Frances Barber and Anthony Andrews in the two-part [pounds sterling]3million drama, which starts on Sunday.

The adaptation, by novelist Deborah Moggach, follows the attempts of three upper-class girls to find love in the period between the world wars.

Linda, played by Miss Dermot-Walsh, is the favourite child of Lord Alconleigh. She flees with her communist lover to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War in a plot which mirrors the life of Nancy Mitford's sister Jessica.

The 25-year-old actress comes closest to sharing the Mitfords' social standing. She 'came out' as a 17-year-old debutante and attended West Heath school, where Princess Diana was a pupil.

Her father is the actor Dermot Walsh - TV's Richard the Lionheart - while her late mother, Elisabeth Scott, was also an actress.

In 1994, she worked as Michael Winner's receptionist and became something of a star in his described as 'excruciatingly beautiful' and 'lovely'.

She went to RADA for three years and since then has appeared in the Irish drama Falling For A Dancer and the sitcom Unfinished Business.

Megan Dodds plays heiress Polly, the daughter of Lord Merlin and Lady Mountdore, and one of the most eligible women in England. She embarks on an liaison with Boy, played by Anthony Andrews.

Highly strung and emotionally cold, the character bears some resemblance to Diana Mitford, famed for her beauty and marriage to Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

Miss Dodds, 30, who was born in California, made her name with her performance as a centrefold turned actress in Ben Elton's play Popcorn. She recently played society hostess Virginia Troy in Channel Four's adaptation of Waugh's Sword of Honour.

Rosamund Pike, at 20, is the youngest of the stars. She plays Fanny, who as narrator of the story, is a Nancy Mit-ford figure, observing the alliances made around her.

Miss Pike interrupted her studies at Oxford to play Lady Harriet in the BBC's Wives and Daughters, and dropped out again to start rehearsals for Love In A Cold Climate.

'I actually did a runner,' she said. 'I kept meaning to mention it when I went to tutorials, but it never seemed like the right moment.'

[bec2010]

Everyone's talking about : Hot star...(Features)
Publication:The Mirror (London, England) Publish date:February 10, 2001More results for:elisabeth dermot walsh

0ShareByline: TRICIA PHILLIPS and JILL FOSTER

A new face making a big impact on TV is 24-year-old Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, currently playing Linda in BBC1's Love In A Cold Climate. Elisabeth has acting in her blood - dad is actor Dermot Walsh and her late mum, Elisabeth Scott, was a stage actress. She is the fifth generation of her family to tread the boards.

Originally, she planned to become a politician and spent three months in the USA as an intern to a senator, but ultimately couldn't fight the lure of the stage and began auditioning for drama school.

Since leaving RADA three years ago, she has appeared on screen in Unfinished Business, Falling For A Dancer and Cleopatra, and on stage in Wuthering Heights and Easy Virtue.

[bec2010]

STANDING in the middle of The Mill - named after their old studios at Pebble Mill - it certainly looks like a real doctors' surgery.

So much so that, even now, people drop in looking for medical help or to register.

The posters on the wall urge patients to stop smoking, have cervical smear tests and flu jabs. The magazines are suitably out of date.

The only signs that this isn't a real health centre are the cables running over the floor and the holes in the ceiling for huge lights.

And the fact that the doctors get their make-up touched up regularly.

"The interesting stuff comes when we replicate injuries and illnesses. A recent one involved a man trying to slice his own skin off," says make-up artist Monya Burdon.

"We get excited about fake blood, which is quite strange. We all have our favourite types, from fresh to congealed. I love deep red, running blood."

In a consulting room, doctors Daniel Granger (played by Matthew Chambers) and Zara Carmichael (played by Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh) are having a row, which is nothing new.

Since Zara joined the practice nine months ago, they have a love/hate relationship. They slept together once then Zara broke it off, moving on to a series of men including the teenage son of receptionist Karen.

Elisabeth laughs: "I'm a female version of Daniel! I think they do love each other but would never admit it. I've blackmailed and bribed him but he still comes back.

Snogged "I've treated him very badly but he deserves to get the runaround after all the hearts he's broken.

"The other day I slapped him and he snogged me! We spend our time fighting and kissing. I think it might ruin it if they did get together."

With her abrupt manner, Zara isn't the most popular doctor in the practice, but Elisabeth is quick to defend her.

"I'd like her as my GP," she insists. "She doesn't have the best bedside manner but she tells it like it is and I'd rather have a straight-talking doctor.

"And although she does use men, she's never had it away with a patient... yet!

"I've had to kiss quite a few people and I have to reassure them that I'm not a man-eater. With Zara's high shoes, short skirt and cleavage, I suppose I do look a bit frightening."

Both doctors have experienced more drama during their short time at The Mill than in most GP's lifetimes.

Daniel ran up a pounds 200,000 gambling debt, took drugs and was held captive by a mentally-ill receptionist. Zara is suffering from early onset menopause and is injecting herself with testosterone, and spent months planning revenge on the man who put her father in prison.

There are lighter moments, though, amid all the tension.

"I once had to deliver the line 'there's a zombie on campus'," chuckles Elisabeth.

"The man had rotting flesh because he had necrotising fasciitis. Then there was the boy who was hallucinating and imagined he saw talking chickens."

Matthew agrees: "I do look at some scripts and think 'what is going on here?' but everything comes together.

"We're lucky to be working on this show. It's a little jewel in the BBC's crown."