Manhunt - Anna Friel's search for Mr Perfect

She burst on to our TV screens in Brookside, now she's bursting out of a corset in a new BBC blockbuster. Anna Friel talks to JANE SIMON about her new role, her old flame, her ideal man and a magical marriage.....

Don't mention corsets to Anna Friel. The former Brookside babe discovered the painful truth about costume dramas while filming the BBC's latest extravaganza, Our Mutual Friend, last summer.

"The corsets were really uncomfortable and I actually fainted wearing mine," she recalls. "I made the mistake of leaving it on while I ate my lunch. We had an hour's break but it takes 15 minutes to take the corset off and then another 15 minutes to get back into it again, so you end up with only half an hour. This time I just couldn't be bothered taking it off. But because it squashes your insides into a tin little space, you can't digest your food properly. It was very hot as well that day and I just passed out. Good job the make-up artist caught me. I can't believe the torture women used to put themselves through by wearing corsets like that. They're brutal things. But you have to say they look brilliant. I had a 22-inch waist with mine on!"

But Anna was very taken with another part of her costume - the petticoat hoop she wore under her wide skirt. She thought it looked so amazing that she happily posed in it for our incredible photos here and on our front page. Apart from the hoop and those corsets Anna wore modern underwear beneath the 1860s crinoline used for the costumes on Our Mutual Friend, which starts on BBC2 a week tomorrow.

It is adapted from Charles Dickens' last completed novel - and contains not one but two passionate love stories. It also stars Paul McGann, Keeley Hawes and Timothy Spall. Anna plays the feisty, funny and wasp-waisted Bella, who's engaged to marry a wealthy man she's never met. But this is no marriage arranged against her will - Bella just can't wait to get her hands on his assets.

"Bella really believes money will make her happy," explains Anna. "She's extremely strong and not afraid to speak her mind. At first I thought she was horrible and calculating but I admire her honesty. She's broke but she's still got class."

But while Bella has two chances at love in the series the real-life Anna was still smarting from her break-up with musical star Darren Day. Throwing herself into her work turned out to be great therapy. She had to be on set six days a week at six each morning and wouldn't leave i=until 8.30 each night. And when she finally got home she had her lines to learn for the next day.

"Work cures all, I think," she smiles. "I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself. It was very good discipline and it also gave me something to channel my emotions and feelings into. But still there were times when  I'd get to work in the morning and be in floods of tears. I wouldn't be human if I hadn't. After all, I'd just come out of a two-and-a-half-year relationship. But I knew I had to get myself together by the time I walked out on to the set."

A year on, Anna has put the heartache behind her. "I don't feel hate and resentment towards Darren, " she says. "Those things aren't in me, life's too short. Someone could hurt me dreadfully and I'd still find it very hard to hate them. I could die tomorrow, so I move on and forgive and forget."

Darren and his new girlfriend, Coronation Street star Tracey Shaw, are said to be thinking of marriage. And Anna's friend Robbie Williams, who helped her get over the break-up, has recently started dating All Saints singer Nicole Appleton.

Anna, meanwhile, remains steadfastly single. "To be honest, in the last 12 months I haven't had enough time for myself, let alone anyone else," she says. "Having a relationship in your life is always wonderful because it's something stable and constant to escape to when there's all this madness going on. When it isn't there any more, you can feel a bit lost. Thankfully my family are always there for me. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for my mum and dad. every single day I thank my lucky stars that I've got them behind me".

At least Anna's had plenty of time to draw up a wish-list for her perfect man. She says: "I want to marry someone who is very sensitive and loving and who will love me as much as I love them. Someone who's got fire inside them and who is passionate about what they do, like I am. Someone who's strong and who's got a sense of humour. Someone who's got a lot to offer me and teach me and who's not afraid to say 'Anna you're wrong'. Very few people will do that because they're scared."

It sounds a lot for any man to live up to but Anna is prepared to wait. she says: "Maybe that's always been my problem, that I'm too much of a perfectionist. If I don't find perfection, I can always settle for second best. But if I don't look for it in the first place, then I'll never know, will I? What I don't want is someone I can't trust".

Anna was just 16 when she joined Brookside and became an overnight star. Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, her school drama teacher had encouraged her to join the Oldham Theatre Workshop when she was 13. That led to a part as Michael Palin's daughter in Alan Bleasdale's acclaimed TV series GBH where she caught the eye of Brookside creator Phil Redmond. As the show's Beth Jordache she made headlines with two of the most ever controversial TV storylines ever.

First Beth helped her mother Mandy kill her violent husband Trevor and bury him under the patio. Then Beth became a gay icon when she shared British soap's first on-screen lesbian kiss. Since leaving Brookside in 1995, Anna's career has proved that there really is life after soap - even if, like Beth Jordache, you make your exit in a coffin. In fact, Anna's career since Brookie has really been a case of four weddings and a funeral. As if to make up for her split with Darren Day, Anna gets married in her next four roles.

As well as Our Mutual Friend, she can be seen later this year on TV in the swashbuckling drama St Ives and in the cinema in the wartime comedy Land Girls. Last month she finished filming Rogue Trader with Ewan McGregor in which they play Mr and Mrs Nick Leeson. With four on-screen weddings under her belt, when it comes to planning her own wedding, Anna has pretty strong views on that as well.

"I'd like to get married in a forest, somewhere quite ethereal," she says. "I won't care about presents or what guests are invited. When I get married it will be for true love. If there's one thing I really do want in my life it's true love but you can't search for that. It'll either happen or it won't. But I'm sure it will"