Victoria Bush has been behind bars ever since she left drama school. Steve Pratt talks to the actress about continuing her stint in ITV1's Bad Girls and how she felt about her character being determined to go back to Larkhill Prison.

FOLLOWERS of ITV's women's prison drama Bad Girls might be surprised to see Victoria Bush back in the new series as her character Tina was released from Larkhall at the end of the last one. But here she is again behind bars.

The actress had "a little idea" that she'd be back. "I was really interested in the storyline the writers wanted to do. They wanted to highlight how some people get stuck in the system and can't exist outside. I was very keen to explore that," she says.

"There are a lot of people who get caught and, especially if they don't have anyone on the outside and because it's such a closed community on the inside, feel the need to go back again."

Tina goes shoplifting in a bid to get caught and sent down again. When the shop decides not to report the theft, she resorts to setting fire to the clothes in order to be charged.

Bush has never been inside a prison in real life, although filming took place in a derelict prison in Oxford when she joined the series in 2001. Now Bad Girls is filmed at a studio in London on the biggest free-standing set in Europe - a three-storey recreation of a prison interior.

"When I first got here I couldn't get over how small it is compared to on TV," she says. "I can touch the ceiling in some places and I'm only 5ft 2ins. But it's a full working set. The best bit about the scenery is the big doors. They look like these big, heavy doors and yet I can pick one up."

The new series marks the first time Bush has filmed outside the prison set, for the scenes in which Tina attempts to break the law again. "I'd never been outside filming before, so that was brilliant. We filmed down some quite busy roads and crowds built up," she says. She joined the cast of Bad Girls directly from three years at Mountview drama school. She'd been performing since she was tiny. "I think I'm just a show-off," she says.

"My mum and dad are very outgoing. My dad is an Elvis impersonator which takes a bit of guts. So they have always encouraged me 150 per cent. My sister used to be a dancer, but is more interested in the other side of the camera now."

She was a Bad Girls fan even before joining the cast. "It's a brilliant programme. It's actually my first job and has been brilliant for me. I'm still learning, it's been great to work with so many good actors and actresses," she says.

When Tina first arrived at Larkhall she was one of the infamous Peckham Boot Gang, a trio of female thugs who attempted to rule the roost. But Tina broke away from Maxi and Al, who've both died behind bars.

That led to one of Bush's favourite stories when she was "made a Julie" and became close friends with the two Julies, a pair of inseparable inmates. "She really became somebody. She has a tremendous amount of love for the Julies because they've been like mums to her," she says.

Outside of Bad Girls, Bush used her love of singing and dancing to appear on a celebrity edition of Stars In Their Eyes as Mama Cass. She jumped at the chance when producers asked if any of the Bad Girls cast would like to take part in the soundalike show.

"I'd always wanted to do it," she says. "There were a million people I wanted to be, but no-one had done Mama Cass before. I did a couple of sessions with the choreographer and the build-up to the show was fun. When I got to the studio it was so nerve-wracking. I didn't expect it to be so bad but I'd do it again in a minute."

She also joined other Bad Girls actresses in BBC1's Children In Need show last year. They performed a number for the musical Chicago which was scary because it was live.

She also appeared on a cops and robbers edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, partnering Roberta Taylor, who plays Inspector Gina Gold in ITV1's The Bill. "I thought as it was a celebrity one they might bend the rules and help you, but they didn't," says Bush, who won £32,000 with Taylor.

She has another month's filming to go on the current Bad Girls series. After that, she'll be looking for work. She's never had any particular ambitions saying: "I really don't mind what I do as long as I'm getting to do the job I love and learning new skills and working with new people."

But six months solid filming of Bad Girls is a bit like being locked up. "It can get a bit strange in here because we are inside all the time and don't know what's going on outside. It's like being in a real prison," she says.

* Bad Girls: Tuesday, ITV1, 9pm

Published: 12/05/2005