Last updated 09:22, Saturday, 02 August 2008

A veteran of hospital and police dramas, Claire Goose is donning a uniform yet again as she joins The Bill this week.

Responsibility: Claire Goose as new recruit Sergeant Rachel Weston in The Bill

The actress became a household name and lads’ mag pin-up following her roles as Tina Seabrook in Casualty and Mel Silver in Waking The Dead. Now, four years on, she’s back on our screens as Sergeant Rachel Weston.

For Claire it’s not the first time she’s been involved with Sun Hill. As a child she watched it avidly, then in 1995, before she was walking the wards of Holby General, she featured in one episode as character Stacey Abbot.

Needless to say, when the opportunity arose to become a regular cast member she jumped at the chance. As Claire explains: “I think it’s really changed, certainly since Johnathan Young’s come in as executive producer. It’s more about police issues and I think it’s very reflective of what’s happening on the London streets at the moment.

“The story lines are really quite beefy and they don’t just cover a single episode like they used to. So they can get really in-depth stories going over a month or two, which I think the audience loves as it means they can really invest in the story.”

Claire’s enthusiasm for the programme doesn’t end there, as she excitedly describes her new character: “For Rachel, joining the police force wasn’t something she always dreamed of. She went away travelling for a year and was a bit of an adventure and thrill-seeker.

“She came back looking for a job which had an edge to it and became interested in the police, in particular the uniformed police as they are very much on the front line.”

Having made the decision to join the force Rachel finds she was right to trust her instincts.

Claire says: “She realised not only did she really love it but she was actually really good at it and a natural leader. So she progressed up the ranks quickly. When a place came up at Sun Hill she was actually being poached but was unaware the character John Heaton had an eye on her for quite a while.”

Viewers will have recently seen other new cast members join the long-running drama, something that helped Claire with her first day nerves. “There were five new characters which came in within two months. With Dominic Power [PC Leon Taylor] in particular, it was really nice to have a friendly face. While I didn’t know him that well I’d done all of my screen testing with him.”

Together with the other new recruits, Claire set about learning the practicalities of being a cop – how to use police handcuffs was a top priority. She explains: “They’re quite tricky to do and if you don’t know what you’re doing you could actually hurt someone.”

The 33-year-old has been warned that she will be getting more public attention than ever before, as The Bill reaches so many people, but she’s not worried: “I’ve always been so lucky as the feedback from the public has always been so positive. It’s never been intrusive and I’m not the kind of person who goes out clubbing until four in the morning,” she says.

“I’ve never had that sort of press attention which is great, because that way I still get to live my day-to-day life.”

Some of her previous media coverage included a slot in FHM’s Sexiest Women list for three years running, something that Claire laughs at now. She says: “The older you get the more you look back at those things and think, ‘Oh that was nice’. It was very flattering.”

Between gracing the pages of lads’ mags and starting work on the force, Claire has been keeping busy, both in her professional and personal life. She married her partner Craig at Christmas and afterwards jetted off to New Zealand for six weeks.

As well as displaying her acting prowess on the Channel Five trilogy Perfect Day and in radio plays, she’s found the time to learn a new skill. She says: “I’ve just finished a diploma in interior design after taking myself off to evening school. It’s something I’ve always been very interested in but I never knew much about, so this has given me the skills to do all the drawings and model-making to scale.”

A future occupation then? Not just yet, although she is hoping to develop it. “It will be lovely to do things for my friends but that’s about it.

“One of my friends has already asked me to design her extension which she’s having done.

For now though, you can expect to see Claire sticking with acting as she’s committed to The Bill for the next year.

“I just hope they continue to do really good stories so I feel challenged.

“That’s the biggest thing. because you want to come home from a day and feel you’ve really enjoyed it and really worked hard.”

n Claire Goose stars in The Bill on ITV1 from Wednesday.