IN HER FRANKEST-EVER INTERVIEW, BRITAIN'S BRIGHTEST YOUNG STAR ANNA FRIEL TALKS ABOUT LOVE, MAKING MOVIES….AND BEING A SHOWBIZ SURVIVOR.

Exclusive - by Colin Wills

She arrives without warning out of the London storm, a tiny figure with delicate bones, shaking the rain out of her hair like a red setter puppy that's been rolling in a puddle. It's Anna Friel's first day back after a holiday in Bali and the heavens have opened to greet her.

Not that she is whingeing or grumbling. She just flaps her head a little more and says: "Bloody hell." Her Rochdale accent has clearly survived the change in time zones and any problems with jet lag. Then she takes a crumpled cigarette packet with an indecipherable name from her handbag and lights up a duty free, "They're called Yogabogadoko," she says. "A mild little brand." A grin spreads across her face. "Actually, I just made that up."

It's been her first holiday in nearly three years… three years of heartache and public break-ups, of perishable love affairs with Darren Day and Robbie Williams, and now undreamed-of success. The schoolgirl who first appeared on TV as a 16-year-old in Brookside has blossomed into womanhood with such force she is being hailed as Britain's most gifted young star. She has needed to be strong to survive all the world has thrown at her in her 23 years, so it comes as no surprise that the women she most admires in life and in fiction can count resolution among their greatest qualities.

In her latest film, the comedy Mad Cows, soon to be released in Britain, she plays another of that breed, an Australian unmarried mother forced to bring up her baby son alone after being jilted by her wayward boyfriend. Her performance is so realistic that I half expected her to arrive carrying the infant clamped to her bosom in one of those slings.

After her notorious full-frontal appearance in the BBC2 film, The Tribe, and a series of sexy shots in lads' rnagazines, the joke went around the business that Anna Friel would only keep her clothes on if the part really demanded it.

But in Mad Cows she exposes only a single breast — while feeding her baby outside Harrods. "And kindly don't forget that not hint of nipple is seen?" she says, putting on a mock stern tone. "But, bloody 'ell, my boobs were massive, weren't they? "

"They weren't mine, I hasten to add, they were false. They were made out of the same stuff implants are made from. I remember the pain in my back from having to carry them around all the time. They were so good that one of the babies in the film actually tried to suckle from one of them. I had to keep saying to him, 'It's not real darling, I'm not your mum. They also made me put on a stone for the role. I found that quite easy, as a matter of fact. All you do is stuff yourself full of a load of junk, like cakes and biscuits and chocolate. I've never had a baby, obviously, but the real-life mum gave me lots of good advice on how to handle one."

It was almost certainly better than the only bit of advice given by Anna's screen mum in the course of the film, which was: "Don’t put anything in your mouth you cant peel !".

The makers used not one baby but triplets to play Anna's son Jack in the film. If one of them started crying or threw a tantrum, a replacement was shoved into her arms. "It meant that there were always three babies around the set. Oooh, I did get to love them. I used to walk round cuddling them even when we weren't filming. I found them so incredibly calming "(there speaks a woman who has never been woken up at 3am by an infant howling like Hurricane Floyd).

"I got very maternal, it made me absolutely determined to have kids of my own one day. I think I'd make a good mum. But I wouldn't want to do it unless I'd found the right man to be the dad. There don't seem to be that many contenders at the moment ".

Ah yes the M word. It's a bit of a thorny subject. Anna's relationship with men has not been particularly smooth over the years. The most famous example of this was when Day ditched her for Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw after a relationship which had lasted three years. Tracy accused her of acting like a wounded angel, but there's no doubt that Anna was deeply hurt and also humiliated. Soon afterwards she had a three-month romance with singer Robbie Williams. They remain good friends, "He's a smashing bloke, really nice", she says. The bond between them was strengthened by shared experiences. Both had struck out alone after leaving the security of what had become almost national institutions - in Robbie's case Take That, in Anna's Brookside.

Today there is no-one special in her life. She didn’t even have a holiday romance in Bali, "I went there with my friend Becca and just crashed out. I had to be careful in the sun, though. Lots of high-factor creams. "I'm due back in America next week to start work on a film called Boys and Girls and they didn't want me too tanned." She gets up and pirouettes, revealing a backless top and a pair of golden shoulders with blades like razors. "They didn’t want any white lines either " she says with a smile. "Luckily we had a house with a private garden so I could sunbathe nude all day if I wanted to"

It seems such a shame that she has nobody to share moments like these with. Any man would fall for her at the flick of a finger. She has that irresistible mixture of beauty and fun, allied to a softness bordering on vulnerability. For someone so daring, she is unexpectedly old-fashioned. She wants a man to respect the courtesies of courtship, to open doors, to treat her properly. "I like a man who is a gentleman, who makes me feel looked after and safe".

Her London flat is not filled with trendy fripperies. She has an antique French bed and above it a painting of Shakespeare's heroine Ophelia. If it ever came to a straight choice between true love and her career, you have the distinct feeling that love would win.  Being in love, she says, is the best feeling anyone could possibly have. She's not felt that for a long time now.

"Oh, but I want to", she says and in the split second before she goes off on another flight of fancy, you can tell she is deadly serious. "I'm not looking any more", she maintains. "If Mr Right is out there, he'll have to come and get me. Purr-lease. I'm waiting for some dashing, gorgeous chappie to carry me off to his castle on his white charger. "Trouble is, with my luck with men it would probably turn out to be a hovel with a leaking roof and on a donkey. "I'd probably say "Donkey " Where's my limo ? Take me back to the studio immediately'".

For the past nine months Anna has been in New York in the stage play Closer and she's had the opportunity to compare American blokes to the home-grown variety. "There is a difference" she says. "American men are much more up front. They'll come up to you and say 'Hey , you're really sweet, do you want to come out to dinner?"

"You've never met them before and they've no idea who you are, but that doesn't stop them. Arrogant isn't the right word, just call it self-confidence".

In Closer, she played a runaway who becomes a lap dancer. She was so good in it that even big names like Tom Cruise, Al Pacino and Steven Spielberg were captivated. Jack Nicholson, the old goat, was supposed to have said, as he left the theatre "Until I sleep with her, I just can't concentrate". Anna laughs. "I suppose he was having a joke. He didn’t say it to me. Actually, I don’t know if he really said it or not, but if he did, I take it as a compliment. He never sent me roses though".

Appearing in front of 2,000 people in New York was a daunting experience. "I threw up on the first night before I went on", she revealed. "I was just so nervous. It's right what they say, the shock of going on stage is just like having a car crash. It was only in the final six weeks of the un that I began to enjoy it."

Even in the middle of her triumph, sadness was never far away. Her grandfather died suddenly and Anna was so upset that she felt she couldn’t go on that night. Her first experience of the fantasy of showbusiness had been watching her grandparents dance together under the silvery, mirrored ball at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom. The her gran rang up and said "Go on, its what he would have wanted. Do it for him." So, drying her tears, she did just that. Work had been her comfort during all the tribulations of her young life, the unfairness of some of it, the faithless boyfriends.

"Doctor Stage is very good. He's the best therapist I can think of. I've been hurt, of course I have, but you cant wallow in it, not when you’ve got to get up at the crack of dawn the next day and do your job.

"People don’t want to know about your sadness. They just want you to turn up and give your best and that’s what I try to do". She flicks the last raindrop off her toes which protrude from sexy, strappy shoes in what seems a defiant gesture.

Since Anna became a public figure by playing Beth Jordache in Brookside there has been little in the way of a hiding place for her. The frenzy that surrounded her was magnified by the drama of her role. Beth was a lesbian and shocked viewers by kissing her girlfriend on screen. She also murdered her father. The girl who played her suffered the fallout. Curiosity about her private life was insatiable.

"Ever since I was 16 I have lived my life in front of a lens", she says. "But it was my choice. I've no complaints, although I didn’t realise how difficult it was going to be. I was doing five A-levels and left school before taking them, going straight into Brookside. I had no idea what I was taking on."

She spent three years as Beth, then decided to leave before she got typecast. The makers didn’t wait. They told her to go home while they rewrote story lines. Out of the blue, they phoned to say they had killed off her character. Brutal does not begin to cover it. Ironically two years ago, when she auditioned for the British version of Closer, she was turned down for the part. They wanted her to experience more pain. They didn’t think she knew enough about life.

" They said 'You've got to live a little more to be able to feel some of these feelings', which was true". Well nobody can say that about her anymore.

She doesn’t know where her love of acting comes from. Both her parents Des and Julie are teachers. Understanding her parents' characters explains some of the contradictions in her own. "They are not at all alike. Mum is very practical and straightforward. Dad is more of a romantic and a dreamer".

As a child, she would sing along while her father played the guitar. What did you sing, I ask, and Anna doesn't hesitate. Right there in her agent's office in Soho, she begins. The little voice, note-perfect, soars like a bird: An Irish lullaby called The Green Glens of Antrim. She sings the first verse and smiles shyly. "Oh and I did Jerusalem as well. You know 'Bring me my bow of burning gold….'". The voice is so innocent and sweet, yet you know its owner has seen her share of heartbreak.

I ask her if stardom has turned out as she expected. Her answer reveals something dark at the root of it all. "I'm a lot more cynical now. I've learned that people aren't as nice as they often appear to be. I was a bit naïve, but I'm sorting that out". One of her closest friends in showbusiness surprisingly is Madonna. They go out together, have tea together. "One of the things I like about her", Anna says, "is that she won't take any crap from anyone".

The impressions you are left with is somebody who has come through a lot - much more, you suspect than she lets on - and survived just about intact. I'm reminded of a scene in the film Papillon, when the jailed, half-starved and much-battered Steve McQueen looks up at the camera and delivers a line that could well serve as Anna Friel's message to the passing years. It goes "I'm still here, you bastards".