大象传媒

Dawn Steele plays Justine McManus

New girl Justine McManus is the emotional heart of the parapsychology unit. Empathetic and considerate, she has a knack with people and can gain the confidence of even the most troubled individuals.

Likewise, Sea Of Souls new recruit Dawn Steele is also very much in touch with her emotional side, but unlike Justine she can't always control it.

"Thankfully Justine's not a big baby like I am. She's much more grown up and I don't think she'd want to be seen in a predominately male environment crying.

"I'm just a very emotional person and can get all teary eyed at the drop of a hat," laughs Dawn, shaking her head.

"When I left Monarch Of The Glen I couldn't say goodbye to anyone and was in floods of tears at my leaving do - I just wish I'd held it together a bit more.

"Sometimes my weepiness can be annoying but it can come in quite handy when you do what I do for a living. I cried very easily in my Monarch leaving scene as I was actually genuinely upset to be leaving those people behind but then it can all get a bit much.

"I was watching it on TV with all my friends and family and they got really teary because they could see how upset I genuinely was on screen, which then made me even more emotional. It was ridiculous."

Luckily for Dawn on her first day on the Sea Of Souls set there were no tears, but there were a few scary filming moments - making the gentle pace of Glenbogle seem but a distant memory.

"We shot the second episode in an old disused ironworks at night, which was just horrible. That was a really spooky place," recalls Dawn.

"When you're filming the kinds of scenes where the subject matter is quite disturbing and you're somewhere as vast and eerie as that, you can't help but get a shiver down your spine.

"There were a few times at the ironworks when I felt really spooked out, you know weird noises and tricks of the light - I was like, 'I want my mum - now!'"

In Sea Of Souls Dawn plays single mum Justine who joins the parapsychology unit as a postgraduate psychology student.

She originally studied nursing but was forced to delay her career when she fell pregnant at 21 with her son Billy (played by Robbie MacLellan).

A newcomer to the field of parapsychology she is constantly playing catch up.

"Justine's quite nervous to start with and there's an important poltergeist investigation that is her first case. It's quite a big thing for her to start off on, but she's totally up for it and wants to prove herself to Monaghan," explains 29-year-old Dawn.

However what she lacks in specific knowledge she more than makes up for in emotional intelligence. For Justine the most important component of a case is the human aspect.

"She trained to be a nurse and I think that's where the caring side of her comes from.

"Plus she has a young child as well so I think she can empathise with people a lot more than someone like Craig who is much more socially inept. And that's what's nice about Justine and what makes the team work as a whole, because they are all so different.

"Monaghan is the father figure, I'm the more caring one and Craig is the whizz kid," explains Dawn.

"At the beginning Justine feels she has to keep up with the others and immediately there's a wee competitive spark between her and Craig when he tries to get one over on her.

"However she manages to hold her own, she's very, 'No I'm going to prove you wrong'. If she gets a feeling about something she goes for it. She relies much more on intuition than any of the others."

In fact, Justine's connection to the paranormal is, at times, personal - she has her own psychic ability.

Having not always been aware of it, Justine is suddenly immersed in the world of the paranormal and forced to accept the reality of her gift.

"She has visions which she never mentions to anyone else and I love that aspect of her character," says Dawn.

"I think it gives her a bit more mystery - there are so many dimensions to her.

"After six series of Monarch it's great for me to have a new character to play with, although I have to try my hardest not to slip into any Lexie mannerisms, because Justine is very different. She's a single mum, she's much more subtle, she's passionate about what she does and very bright," reveals the chatty Glaswegian actress, who has also appeared in The Key and Tinsel Town.

And Justine isn't he only one with paranormal gifts - as Dawn reveals, she may also have some clairvoyant tendencies.

"There have been loads of wee things that have happened to me on this job where I've had a funny feeling about something," says Dawn, who regularly visits a tarot reader.

"I don't know whether it's because I'm playing a character who is psychic, but I definitely feel more aware of things like that at the moment.

"Like I completely guessed that a friend of mine was pregnant. We were out somewhere chatting and suddenly I knew she was expecting. When I said this she insisted she wasn't and did a brilliant acting job on me. Then ten minutes later she grabbed me in the loos going, 'I can't believe you said that because I am, but we're not telling anyone yet!'

"I'm not saying I'm psychic like Justine, but I do feel I have an intuition. Maybe that's because I believe in the paranormal myself and it enables me to feel things that other people can't," muses Dawn.