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There's something not quite right about the Bold And The Beautiful set. When a cast and crew are working six days a week to produce five episodes of a daytime soap-opera that airs in (brace yourself) over 100 countries, well, you'd expect a hive of frenzied activity, pulling out of hair and general deadline hell. But turning the corner into the vast studio complex, we're greeted with quiet calm and a relaxed atmosphere, as the two pivotal characters from the show Stephanie and Eric Forrester (respectively Susan Flannery and John McCook) rehearse a phone-call scene.

And there's something not quite right about that either. As we enter, Susan is shouting "Fuck you!" down the phone to Eric who - as is only polite - is replying with "No, Fuck you." This little bit of improvisation won't - it goes without saying - make it to the final cut, especially given B&B's stringent daytime principles (no nudity, no swearing), but it's a fair example of how much fun the cast manage to have at work.

With its outrageously intertwined 'Who's doing who' cast-list, its fondness for replacing actors overnight with people barely resembling the character they've just taken on, B&B lays itself wide-open to all manner of mickey-taking. The real surprise being that the cast indulge in this as much as we do. "Oh, this is daytime television, it's not the theatre," grins McCook. "The dialogue is hardly the most important part. We have great stories, great characters, but we don't have very good dialogue. But," he adds, "we make excellent money."

This view is confirmed by a recent addition to the cast, Sarah Buxton, who UK viewers still fondly recall as Sunset Beach's nutso-bitch Annie. Now portraying the mysterious and universally distrusted Morgan DeWitt, she's become accustomed to playing the token bitch. "I don't know why I keep getting cast that way," laughs Buxton. "Probably because I'm a little bit psychotic. I like playing a bad girl. I mean sure, it'd be nice to play the apple-pie role once in a role, but people like a ballsy woman, and I think I let people down by not being like that in real life. They'd really like me to be a bitch, calling everyone 'asshole' and so on."

In the tortuous story-lines of B&B, Buxton's character was thrown into the series straight into the arms of the show's resident hunk, Ridge Forrester, a man whose jaw would be too big for the rest of his body, if it weren't for the fact that the rest of his body is just as oversized. Not fat, we hasten to add - just incredibly broad. It's like he's been steam-rollered, then re-assembled by IKEA. The man loves his job, though, and who can blame him? Week in week out, he never appears short of a beautiful woman throwing herself at him. "Well yes," he smirks, "the people I get to work with are fantastic. And yes, women seem to walk onset and their clothes fall off. Just like in real life!"

It's a view shared by the male cast-members in general, it seems. Dan McVicar (who plays Clark Garrison) sums it up thus: "You come in, you're working with beautiful women, and yes, you sometimes have to kiss them. Hey, it's a job. We don't apologise for the show - it's popular entertainment and there's nothing wrong with that." His co-star, Sean Kanan (the 'villain with a heart' Deacon Sharp) puts it in more basic terms: "Dan's had more ass than a toilet-seat," he quips. Which is a bit rich, frankly, coming from the character who certainly doesn't go without in the laydees department, and who was awarded a "Steamiest Soap Scene" award when his character deflowered relative newcomer, Bridget Forrester (played by Jennifer Deacon), shortly before impregnating her mother. Nothing like keeping it in the family then.

Jennifer for her part is pleased with the accolade, although one suspects that she's going to be a lot more interested in the forthcoming daytime Emmy awards, in which she's nominated for best female newcomer. "I'm so grateful for this show," she admits. "I mean, there are times when I'd like to take my character to a bar, get her drunk and knock some sense into her… she's so naïve. And losing her virginity to the sleaziest character in the show? She needs some good advice that girl," she laughs.

All the cast, though, are united in one unsual respect. None of them can travel to mainland Europe without being mobbed in the streets. "It's crazy," explains McCook, "We can't walk on the streets in Athens, Rome, Paris… Children start following you - it's like you're in the Bible or something!" The adulation even follows them home, says Kanan. "This past weekend I was with my parents in Phoenix, when this woman came up and started speaking to me in Polish, and the only word I could make out was 'Deacon'."

Moss, who's just launched a music album (David Hasselhof look out) in Holland and Australia confirms the global B&B phenomenon. "I don't understand the international appeal," he shrugs. "I can't say I'm 100% comfortable with it, but at the same time it's not abhorrent. I think there are more important things in life than going out and making sure that everyone idolises you. It's all to be taken with a grain of salt - it could all be over like that. I tell you, I never expected this show to go for 15 years."

The Cast In Their Own Words

John McCook [Eric Forrester]

Sort of the Blake Carrington of the show. Rich, grey, and a good sort. "Eric is wonderful. He's a good guy, but he steps in shit all the time. We have to be careful with our show, because everyone's incredibly wealthy, and the viewers would hate it if we were happy as well!"

Sally Spectra [Darlene Conley]

A larger-than-life Diva, as befits an actress whose film debut was in Hitchcock's The Birds. "My character's very unique. She's naughty - and capable of great rage and anger if you push her. She's a fashion thief. Which is fine. I mean, poor people need to look nice too!"

Massimo Marone [Joseph Mascolo]

Soon to arrive on UK screens, Massimo is the newest combination of wealth and power to threaten the wholesome Forrester dynasty. "He has a ship on every ocean at every minute of the day and has the power to be manipulative. He was going to be called Zorba to start with - I said you can't do that, I'll be dancing on restaurant tables.

Ronn Moss [Ridge Forrester]

The Good Guy. Born into huge wealth, but managed to also get a conscience to go with it. Most of the time. "I love playing Ridge. When you get a little spark going with someone, it's fantastic. And I've had a great rapport with Sarah Buxton [Morgan] - she was fun, totally fun."

Sarah Buxton [Morgan DeWitt]

Sunset Beach Survivor, now an unwelcome intruder in the Forrester's inner family sanctum. "With Morgan, what you get is the decline of a woman on the verge of a slowly brewing, nervous breakdown. But she's a victim of circumstance - it's all been done to her. And Susan Forrester really hates her, sees right through her."

Jennifer Finnigan [Bridget Forrester]

Poor wee gullible child, prey to the less salubrious elements circling her. "She's very naïve, very innocent. That's actually the only thing I've complained to the writers about. I was like 'Couldn't she get a clue for once?'"

Sean Kanan [Deacon Sharp]

Also familiar from Sunset Beach, of which he had this to say: "Sunset Beach was a piece of shit. I was on it for the last six weeks before the ship went down. This is so much better. You can call B&B 'Beautiful people with big problems' but it's all about family, really."

• CBS
• Living TV
• Daily Star - http://www.dailystar.co.uk/