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The idea of a gay man falling in love with a straight woman is a less than obvious one - do you worry that the viewers will have trouble with Bob and Rose's relationship?

No, to be honest. The thing about falling in love with someone, feeling that connection with another human being, is that - when it's at its best - it's an ineluctable force. I mean, why does someone choose to pursue someone they know is married? It's because they actually can't help themselves. Anyone who's been in love will be able to understand that.

Nicola Shindler (Bob And Rose producer) described this as a breakthrough role for you. Fair comment?

Well, yes. Rose is quite different to the roles I've previously played. A Northern girl with a great love of life, and a great spirit - it was fantastic to play someone who has a funny take on life, rather than sitting in a corner crying. Because I have done rather a lot of crying in my career.

Alan Davies (Bob) says you make him corpse.

Really? Oh, I wish he'd told me - he withheld that information! How very annoying - I could have exploited that. There's one scene where Rose's mother comes out as a lesbian, and we just couldn't stop laughing on that one.

How did you and him get on?

He was great to work with. He blamed me for giving him a cold. There's a scene in episode two where I throw a drink in his face - it's just tonic water - and we had to do this scene about five times. And in one take, the tonic water went up his nose. Two weeks later, he's got this cold from hell, and says [affects deeply-pathetic Woe-Is-Me voice] "You know, I think it started that day you threw that tonic water at me..."

We were very surprised when we got this interview - you never do press normally.

I know. The thing is, You've got the job that you do, which is what you enjoy doing, what you really care about. And then there's the whole other side, which has kind of turned into an industry itself, which is about self-promotion and publicity and profile. Which is something I'm not very good at.

So you won't be showing Hello! around your beautiful home, then.

Er, no. Largely because I don't have a beautiful home - I really don't think they'd want to come to my place. Seriously, though, I want people to watch Bob And Rose, and I thought that if I refused to speak to journalists about it, it might look like I was in some way ashamed of the show. And I didn't want there to be any misunderstanding about that. Plus, I'm a huge fan of heat. And Boyd Hilton. [grins]

Everyone involved in the show seems very proud of it.

Oh we are. I trust everyone involved in the production, and no matter what the response to the show is, I'll still be proud. We worked very hard on it, and I think we were very true to Russell (T Davies)'s script. That's what really makes me proud - that Russell's happy with it. I'd do anything for him, anything.

How comfortable are you with seeing yourself onscreen?

I've gotten better with that as I've become older. Sometimes you sit there going "Oh Christ, my fucking nose... Why was I given a nose like that?" or "My GOD, horrible double chin" etc etc. I'm not some object of beauty, my face is what it is.

As far as Bob and Rose goes, was the gay thing ever an issue for you?

No, of course not. Does anyone really care about that anymore? People quite happily vote in gay MPs, there were two gay men in Big Brother.. Everyone know's that it exists - it's not like Victorian times, you know, pretending that lesbians don't even exist. Homosexuality has been with civilisation since the year dot. The people who make a song and dance about it, I think, are hopefully in the minority.

You seem to have a knack of getting involved in some of the best television dramas going.

I love TV. It gets shoved in the corner as this poor relation to film and theatre, and actually I think television is fantastic. It's a medium that's wide open. It's beginning to change now, but there used to be a misconception about what the public want to see, I think. You know, it's not all neat and tidy, it doesn't have to be sewn up, people don't necessarily live happily ever after.

We saw the proof of that in Clocking Off...

Exactly. I mean in the first episode of Clocking Off II, a paedophile gets away with what he's doing. And knowing what that character has done, you then pick him up in later episodes, going into work, being a normal colleague and workmate. To say that the public wants to watch stuff that is easy and gets neatly tied up is not true. There's a huge appetite out there for complciated, complex, involving drama. And it's incredibly satisfying to be involved in it.

Links:

• Heat - http://www.emapmagazines.co.uk/