Hew factor

Three cities in one day, followed by a 6.30am start to catch a train to Scotland for the next leg of the trip. Who said being an actor was glamorous? Still, they're young and fit. It probably seems a holiday after nine months in front of the camera shooting Hex.

Both have experience of long runs in other series - Rooper in C4's teen drama, As If and Davis as Harley Lawson in Footballers' Wives. They have something else in common through roles in movies, Black Dahlia (her) and Colour Me Kubrick (him). "We both take off our clothes and dance in scenes," explains Rooper.

Davis is well used to what he calls "skin scenes", a reference to the amount of time he spends without his shirt in both Footballers' Wives and Hex. Rooper has another girl-on-girl scene in Black Dahlia following her role as Thelma, lesbian ghost and love interest of leading character Cassie (played by Christina Cole) in Hex. "My family don't quite understand, although my mum thinks it's great now," she says.

The first series of Hex was such a hit on Sky that a second was more or less inevitable, especially as US finance was available. The format, though, was dictated by who was available for the series. "It was weird because initially Christina Cole and I were approached together and talked to the producers about the possibility of a second series," explains Rooper. "There were no scripts, no story development, but because we were the two core characters, they needed an answer so they could progress.

"Christina wanted to move on and I thought at first that my character doesn't exist without her. I said if Christine didn't do it, I didn't want to do it either.

"Eventually, she did two and a bit episodes which gives time to establish Thelma on her own. The producers said to commit to seven episodes and see how I felt."

She stayed for all 13 episodes over the nine months' filming, finishing a week ago. Since then, she and Davis have been on the road plugging the show.

Thelma suffers because she's only visible to a few people and can't touch anyone. "The poor girl is lonely," says the actress. "This parallel world opens up but they're not always good people who can communicate with her. She's stuck in limbo."

Both of them know that people - step forward TV writers - are keen to stick a label saying "the British Buffy" on Hex although they reject that, feeling the series is more story-driven and the characters more credible. "Witches, ghosts, human beings. There's something for everyone to look at," says Davis.

It was the first time in Newcastle for the Pontefract-born actor, but Rooper is all too familiar with the city from her time starring in the Famous Five on TV. She was one of the youthful cast in the Tyne Tees/HTV ITV revival a decade or so ago.

'I was 13 and it was my first professional job," she recalls. "I'd done a few semi-professional jobs with the Children's Film Unit and used to do Saturday classes at Sylvia Young's stage school. They auditioned all over the country for the Famous Five, going to every drama workshop."

She was cast as George. "They cut all my hair off which is not a good look for a teenage girl," she says. "But it was a fabulous start in acting - four kids running amok around the Copthorne Hotel in Newcastle. I was very bored at school and it meant I had three months off doing what I adored."

The first series of the Famous Five was filmed mainly in Newcastle, with a week on location by the sea in Devon. But the second series was shot entirely in and around Bristol.

Young Jemima worked as an actress as much as she could around her school exams, gaining an impressive array of GCSEs and A-levels. She played the daughter in the pilot for hit BBC1 comedy My Family but school ruled out doing the series.

At 17, she won a role in the BBC costume drama Love In A Cold Climate and carried on working instead of taking time out to go to drama school.

Then came As If. "I got to wear heels and make-up and be attractive," she recalls. "I remember talking to my agent about it being a good transitional role, that it was good to do something more adult and contemporary."

As well as Hex, she can be seen on the big screen in the British comedy drama, Kinky Boots. That marks another step forward as she appears as the leading man's estate agent fiancee - "an adult with a job", she notes.

Both she and Davis enjoy what they do and are determined to do "something we believe in". But they're also aware of the economics of being an actor. "We've been working for nine months on Hex and getting paid well which means you can afford not to work for six months and do a play where you get 20p a week," she says.

l The first three episodes of the second series of Hex are repeated on Sky One tonight at 9pm with the fourth episode shown tomorrow at 9pm.

* The first series of Hex (15) is now available to buy on DVD.