It's a crisp autumn day and I'm in the back of a car with Anna Friel, on the way to the set of her new BBC Drama, Fields of Gold. As we pass through the picturesque village of Hamblesden, Bucks, Anna ask the driver to slow down. "Look", she says, staring out of the window. In the distance, a gorgeous cottage nestles on a hillside. "That" she says wistfully, "is my dream". It's a far cry from the Anna Friel of three years ago. Back then, she was the newest addition to the glamorous Primrose Hill set, presided over by Jude and Sadie. She was one of London's prime party girls, often spotted at glitzy celeb bashes or popping up the Met Bar with NBFs Meg Matthews and Kate Moss.

That was then, this is now. These days, Anna's swapped her west London flat for a secluded house in leafy Windsor, where we met earlier. It's comfy and warm, with a walled garden, antique furniture, piles of CDs and a couple of guitars propped against a big, leather sofa. It feels calm, down to earth, grown-up. And so does Anna. Maybe it's because she recently turned 25. Or maybe it's because she's "outgrown" the Met Bar and drifted apart from her trendy chums. But the most likely reason is love.

Yes, Anna's spent the last year firmly ensconced with her older man: actor, scriptwriter and director David Thewlis. "I first met him three years before and we really got on" she explains. "So when some friends I was going out with phoned and said: 'Do you mind if we bring David Thewlis ?', I changed straight out of my jeans and put a dress on. We talked all night and he ended up coming back to mine. We didn't have sex, but he stayed over. And he never left - in a year, we've only spent three nights apart.

Life After The Met Bar

They now divide their time between her house in Windsor and his place - a converted ballroom in trendy Clerkenwell, east London. The pair made a pact to spend as much time as possible together in the first year and so far it's worked. David's followed Anna to various movie sets and they've just returned from a holiday in Italy at Sting and Trudies. "We planned to stay four days and ended up staying three weeks", laughs Anna.

Trudie Styler plays Anna's mum in her new film Me Without You, a Brit flick about two girls growing up in the 80s. Friends Marina (Anna) and Holly(Michelle Williams - Jen in Dawson's Creek) are the perfect team - one sexy, the other brainy. Anna's performance, playing the sexier of the two, is superb. "I wanted to play quiet Holly" she says. "But the director said 'Er, I was thinking you were more like Marina' I said 'I am not like Marina! She's a bloomin' manipulating cow"' And she said ' You have a fragility hidden under a strong front. I don’t want someone who'll just play it as a hard bitch".

It's a pretty astute appraisal of Anna - tough, yet vulnerable. At times, she seems nervous, inhaling cigarettes like they're an aqualung, at others she's warm and natural, making you feel you've known her for years. I'd guess she's prone to the odd on-set tantrum, then feels guilty about it afterwards - a theory that's borne out at our cover shoot, when she arrives in a strop, but is soon friendly and apologetic.

It sound like there were times during the shooting of Me Without You when tantrums were justified - think bikinis in four-degree temperatures. Conditions on her current project aren't exactly deluxe, either. The set is a working farm, complete with chickens and mud. Anna plays a photographer in the BBC drama about GM foods, starring opposite Max Beesley.

We take refuge in her trailer, where she ticks into a packet of crisps and wolfs down an omelette as we discuss her low profile over the past two years. The main reason was an extended stay in the US, which included a small film role and six months as the toast of New York, starring in the acclaimed play Closer on Broadway.

She made such an impression that even ageing Lothario Jack Nicholson was smitten, famously commenting that he wouldn't rest until he'd slept with her. "He was really flirtatious and I went' Give over - how many women have you said that to? You're old enough to be my granddad".

Her New York triumph was followed by major disappointment in Hollywood. First, she was narrowly beaten to a couple of plum roles by Cameron Diaz and Heather Graham. "It comes down to bankability. The producers and directors may want you, but when the financiers are faced with a choice between Diaz or Friel - let's be realistic". She was also cast in a major movie, but left after a disagreement with the director because of her accent: "He wanted me to talk like Princess Diana!"

In spite of the setbacks, she's adamant it isn’t the case of failing to make it in Hollywood. "I only went to LA to do a play and have some meetings", she says. "I missed the grey skies and the smallness of Britain. I'll probably go back, but only to do chunks of work and then come home".

Anna clearly has mixed feelings about Hollywood. Her most memorable moment was "when some producer grabbed a doughnut out of my hand and said[outs on snidey US accent]: "Anna you really shouldn't be doing that". I swear to God, I was like. "What? Are you having a joke?". They said, "Your tummy's not looking right on screen".If it's just about that, they should've hired a model. I mean, we're not talking about a big fucking tummy here…"

Let's be honest, we're not talking about any tummy at all, by normal standards. In the flesh, she's petite but not skinny, one of those infuriating people who's built slim, with boobs. "I don’t think about it", she says when I ask if she feels pressurised to stay slim. "I'm not big on the whole gym thing. I keep healthy and do a lot of walking, but I have no particular workout routine. At Trudie's, we did yoga every day. By the end, I had quite a bit of muscle definition". She proudly raises an arm, Popeye-style, to demonstrate.

Ah yes, but would she put on weight for a part ? "I put on a stone for Mad Cows", she retorts, "My character was meant to have just had a baby. I went up to eight and a half stone." I resist the urge to spray my coffee… "And for Me Without You, my character was a drinker, so I was a little bigger because when you drink, you put on weight."

She insists the socialite label she got lumbered with back in her Met Bar days didn’t mean she was a big drinker, herself. She wasn’t out more than anyone else - it was just the first chance she'd had to socialise, having worked solidly from the age of 15 when she was cast as Beth Jordache in Brookside. "But that kind of lifestyle can take its toll. You get labelled a party girl, which isn't good. In the end, I didn’t want to go to places where I couldn’t talk to my friends, because everyone was looking over their shoulder. These days, I go to the occasional premiere to support friends but otherwise, we go to the local pub. I've got a good group of friends now, and we do most of our socialising at people's houses, usually ours because David's is really good for entertaining. Or, they come to Windsor and stay over, and we go to the pub for Sunday lunch."

From Darren to David

I'm dying to get some juice on the whole Met Bar scene, but Anna insists there was no fall-out with Kate or Meg, they just lost contact. "I started hanging around with them because they were nice to me", she adds. "I met them just after breaking up with Darren, and they looked after me. I didn’t have many friends as I'd spent all my time with Darren. I hate admitting that, because it makes me sound a right misery, but it's true, I was lonely."

She admits the very public nature of her relationship with Darren was "silly - I won't go down that road again". The couple's break-up was tough, especially as it was followed almost immediately by a tabloid announcement of his engagement to Coronation Street's Tracy Shaw. "I was filming Land Girls and had this scene to do where I was crying in the bath", she recalls. "I was upset because I'd just found out. I felt totally humiliated. I remember the director came in and said: 'Right, you're going to use those feelings'. That's the best advice I've ever been given. When anything terrible happens, save it up and use it".

She still speaks to Darren occasionally. She's not angry anymore, although she finds it hard to believe they were ever an item ("I was just a kid"). And what of her romance with Robbie Williams? "He's a lovely guy", she smiles. "Our paths don't cross now, but I'm sure if they did, it'd be 'Hi babe, how ya doing?'. It was a four-moth relationship and he was going through a lot of troubles. He's really nice. David saw him the other day and they waved. I'm glad they didn't go for a drink or anything, that would've been strange".

Keeping her romance with David out of the limelight has made things easier. But there is the age gap - he's 13 years her senior. "As we get older, it could make things difficult", she says, "And we talk about that. There is quite a difference, but it works fine.I don't mind having an older man - my mum did at first, but she loves him, now". David's great strengths, she says, are that he's natural, modest, smart, funny and a host of other things. "He's very special. He's my best friend. And he's very caring about my work. He let me find things out for myself, even though he;'s been in the business longer".

These days, Anna is happier than ever. "Happiness is more important to me now", she muses. "I'm still ambitious, but you have to be happy to have a good career because that way, you show the best of yourself. For nine years, I did nothing but work and consequently, I didn’t have relationships. I realise now it's possible to have both."

"I have a nice life", she adds. "I love having a garden and neighbours. I worry much less. I used to panic, constantly assessing everything I'd done thinking, 'Was it okay?'. But with age and experience, I realise there's no point worrying about things you can't change".

At this point, we're interrupted by Max Beesley. He lets out a massive fart as he enters the trailer. "Oi", laughs Anna, "Stop gassing out my trailer!". He winks and flashes the comedy fart-noise toy he's hiding in his hand. It's time for Anna to go to work. As we say goodbye, she hugs me like an old friend. Is it all an act? Is she just 'getting things right'? I don't know. But I'd like to think Anna's a genuinely warm person who simply wants people to like her. So, is she serious about the cottage in the country? Would she really swap her Manolos for wellies? "I do miss going out in London", she laughs. "Ideally I'd have a flat there, as well. I know it's naff, but I do have a vision of myself in a dream house, with a family playing in the garden. A boy and girl. It's one of my favourite pastimes, sitting in my trailer, choosing children's names. I go through names and bore David".