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How does Rita's death impact on Sarah?

She's devastated. She's lost her best friend and you really do believe my character, Sarah, loves Rita.

She's very sad that the children have lost their mother and – because she also works at the school – she sees the impact on the children there.

Sarah just wants to be there for Dave and really that's all it is. It's not about any attraction – not in the beginning, anyway.

How does Sarah feel when she realises her feelings for Dave are stronger than she first realised?

She tries to convince herself that it's fine and it happened just through closeness, through grief and was what they both needed.

Basically, it's to be forgotten about. But, without her knowing, she then is drawn to Dave simply because there's a spark – there's magic.

But, at first, she is absolutely convinced that it was just a one moment thing.

Your character Sarah has a partner

She has a partner called Matt, played by the lovely, and gorgeous, Warren Brown.

They're both teachers. She [Sarah] got a teaching position in Glasgow and Matt moved with her. They've got a nice stable relationship but he doesn't want children. So there's an element at the beginning, even though they are happy together, that they're probably going in different directions.

How does her blossoming relationship with Dave make her feel about Matt?

In the beginning, there's no attraction between Sarah and Dave because, to Sarah, Dave is just Rita's husband.

Sarah loves Matt to bits but this happening makes her grow up by realising what she actually does want out of life – she opens her eyes to their relationship.

If this hadn't happened they probably would have gone on for many years but split up because of the children 'thing' in the end.

Is Single Father a weepy drama, funny drama or a bit of both?

I think because Mick Ford, the writer, was an actor he writes for the actor, he writes with the family in mind, he writes for women. So, when you watch a family, something dreadful can be going on but then you have that dark humour which makes you laugh at the situation otherwise you'd all break up.

What were your thoughts when you read the script at first?

I loved the fact it was complicated and that it's a woman who is like a cuckoo going into the nest of someone else's family. Or you can look at her as someone who is desperately in love and can't help herself – the pull of that attraction overrides everything else.

Do emotional scenes come to you quite naturally?

I'm an emotional person anyway – it doesn't take a lot to make me cry, to be honest. So, if the scene has emotion in it or someone as brilliant as David Tennant is saying something emotional to me, I can quite easily just go 'waaah!.'

What was it like working with David?

He's professional, on the ball all the time, brilliant on every take, never moans – he's just a true professional.

It looks like a lot of fun was had on the set with the children

The kids were so excited to be on set, they just want to talk to you about what they've been doing each day. The little one (Millie Innes, who plays Evie) was decorating her trailer pink and then she sent out invitations to everyone to come see it – that sort of thing happened on set every day.

The kids wanted to play with the dog, then tell David about it, ask him questions about television, ask me stuff about what I'd done, tell us about their work, tell us about making volcanoes out of household things… so, in-between everything, those were noisy days – fun, lovely, noisy days!

Are there any memorable moments from filming?

Oh yes, there was one time where I just couldn't get myself together. It was a scene at the school where David and I were sat on baby seats and, because we're both really tall, we just looked ridiculous.

Every time we started shooting it made me cry with laughter until the point where I had to apologise to the director. It was the situation – there we were sat on baby seats and, to make matters worse, David had his back to the camera so he just sat was just smiling at me, making me laugh.

What research did you do for the part?

Nicola [Shindler], the producer, has two small girls so I went for the day to Nicola's kids' school and I met a teacher. I sat in on a lesson, spoke to the kids, watched their PE class so I got a few tricks of how to speak to children.

Are you a bit of a perfectionist?

Well, I'm a Virgo and, if you know anything about Virgos, they're list-makers, perfectionists – all the things that you really don't want to be as an actress. I go to bed at night and I have to get up and write a list of these thoughts in my mind – it's terrible.

As a drama, did Single Father make you cry?

Yes, absolutely. I showed it to my friend who bawled his eyes out, so I don't know what the girls are going to think!

I also showed my dad two episodes of Single Father, because I always like to get his opinion. Afterwards, he rang and said: 'It's ever so sad'. I then got a text from him, saying: 'I'm very proud of you.' It's still a big thing to hear that from my family.