Actress Denise Van Outen talks to Steve Pratt of her nervousness about switching from Roxie Hart, in Chicago, to Where The Heart Is on TV. She appears as new nurse Kim Blakeney later in the series which starts on Sunday.

DENISE Van Outen was very much the new girl when she began filming ITV1 series Where The Heart Is. Arriving on the Yorkshire set was like her first day at school. She was more nervous joining the cast of the hit Sunday night drama than she was on opening night of the musical Tell Me On A Sunday in London's West End.

It wasn't that the cast - which includes regulars Lesley Dunlop, Samantha Giles and Philip Middlemiss - was unfriendly. Quite the opposite. All the same, Van Outen was nervous at joining such a high profile popular show because she hadn't done anything like it before. She made her name presenting C4's The Big Breakfast, then hosted risque shows like Something For The Weekend and Prickly Heat. She showed off her singing and dancing skills on stage as murderess Roxie Hart in the London revival of Chicago, before composer Andrew Lloyd Webber chose her to star in a revised version of the one-woman show Tell Me On A Sunday.

Where The Heart Is offers her a proper acting role, as feisty nurse and single mum Kim Blakeney. She joins the community nurses at Skelthwaite's health centre after quitting home in the South for rural Yorkshire and what she sees as a better life for young son Callum.

She says: "I was the new kid on the show. It was quite nice because everyone had formed relationships and knew how everything worked, so they could give me advice. But there's no denying that on the first day it was nerve-racking."

She's been told that some crew members expected her to arrive in the series and be very demanding, but the truth was that she was petrified. "When you come into something as big as Where The Heart Is, it is terrifying," she says.

She's not one of those performers who see the media as a hindrance or nuisance, always been open and honest about herself with reporters. So, asked if being a screen mum to young actor Beans Balawi, brought out her maternal instinct, she replies yes. "There's no denying I'm broody, so it's nice to work on something where I have a child," she says.

Whether she's found the man with whom she'd like to have a child is unclear. She says: "I have to wait and see. I'm dating at the moment, so it's early days. I don't know whether I've met the right person. He's not involved in this business. He's in the music industry. It's very early days. We've been having dinner dates."

She points out that she's been away from her Hampstead garden flat for five months filming in and around Huddersfield. That must put the damper on your love life. The move was worth it for the role and the chance to show off her acting, as opposed to musical and presenting, talent. Van Outen isn't the first actress you'd think about putting in a homely, feelgood series as Where The Heart Is.

She certainly looks different to the glamorous Denise that we're accustomed to seeing. "Everyone knows I love a nice glam frock and high heels. However, with this role I'm in Doc Martens and barely any make-up. We've stripped away the exterior, leaving me to concentrate on the person that she is," she says.

She was keen to do something that was a challenge as an actress. "I was offered a couple of things last year but they weren't the right characters for me to play. They were too predictable.".

Among the offers appears to have been one from EastEnders, presumably to fill the role of Johnny's girlfriend. All she'll say is that it wasn't the right part at this stage in her career.

For the moment, she's happy to concentrate on Kim and Skelthwaite. She does find romance with her neighbour, lovable rogue Danny Flint (played by Richard Mylan, last seen in BBC comedy Coupling and ITV's prison drama Bad Girls). "There's an on-screen chemistry. We got on very well. It helps if you really like each other," says Van Outen. "Our storyline is very romantic. I walk into the health centre in a nurse's outfit and he describes me as fit."

She had nursing training for the role and feels capable of dealing with limited medical duties. "I can take your blood pressure," she says. "As part of the job we have to do some medical training. As I've got older, I can deal with it more. Having nieces and nephews, I can deal with it if they fall."

Filming in Yorkshire was "good fun and cold. That's the nice thing, when you're away, you don't have any distractions, apart from Harvey Nicks in Leeds. We didn't really have much time to go out. You're up so early and tired by the end of the day so all you want is to go home and have a nice bath."

She put on a bit of weight - "telly belly" as she calls it - because of the location catering. She says: "When you're doing theatre, you're so fit. But the catering was good and we had regular meals. I wasn't drinking during the week. I saved that for weekends when I saw friends socially. You can't afford to wake up with a hangover if you're working."

Van Outen has no idea if she'll be asked to continue as Kim in the next series, but would be happy to do so. "We'll have to see how well received I am and whether people like the character," she says.

* Where The Heart Is returns to ITV1 on Sunday at 8pm.

Published: ??/??/2004