Exclusive: Rachel Shenton reveals all on her chilling new thriller, The Rumour

"I loved the ordinariness of Joanna. You see these shows all the time on TV where a character will be brilliant at something, a brilliant detective, a brilliant doctor, but with Joanna what I found intriguing was there is none of that. She doesn’t have a particularly good job, house, wardrobe or lifestyle. She is just trying to make her life work like everybody else, she’s very relatable."

"You see her feeling anxious trying to fit in now that she’s uprooted her life from London and is in a completely new place. Everyone at some point in their life will have started a new school or job. As an actor, you’re often starting out on new shows, with a brand new cast so I’ve experienced those nerves countless times myself of ‘Will I be alright here? Will they get me?’"

"Helen has got a much stronger sense of self. She knows exactly who she is, what she stands for whereas Joanna is easily swayed and a big overthinker. And of course Helen is from a different time in history. This scenario would never have happened in the All Creatures world. If there were any rumours back then they would probably have started in The Drovers and have spread incredibly slowly!"

"You see her becoming completely obsessed. It’s like an itch that she can’t help but scratch. Her relentless pursuit of the truth becomes a major part of the story. People get hurt and lose their lives because of hearsay. The story shows just how much damage gossip can do."

"It was my first time there and I wish I’d had some more downtime to explore. On the occasional day off I had a wander along the Danube, which was very beautiful. I was pregnant with my son at the time and so was probably a bit more tired than usual but I was lucky that I wasn’t suffering from morning sickness. The cast managed a couple of dinners out together."

"Joanna Whalley who plays my mum is very funny, we have a similar sense of humour. Emily Atack was brilliant. She's hilarious and full of stories and the same with Sam Anderson. I’ve recently watched Amandaland which Sam was in and he was fantastic. We all got on so well, I’m hoping we can all work together again."

"She is instantly drawn to Rachel, played by Lucy Speed, because she recognises that she’s a bit of an outsider too. Rachel isn’t as gossipy as the rest of the clique. She and Joanna have a lovely storyline together but of course, because this is a thriller, that goes off in another direction!"

"We both said we’ve got massive respect for soap actors. It’s such a hard job, everything is so quick and you don’t have the luxury of rehearsals to play around with ideas, you must follow your instinct and move quickly. As a young actor it’s an amazing training ground."

"I’m always looking for something that feels fresh that I’ve not explored before. That’s why you get into this business so that you can have variety. But it all comes down to the character for me and whether I think I can do something interesting with it. I’d love to do more comedy. I had so much fun on White Gold. It got to the point where I’d be thinking, ‘I hope I actually did some decent work today because I seem to have spent most of it laughing!’"

"I’m adapting a play that I’ve written. It’s great because I get to be at home with my little boy and write when he’s asleep. I feel really grateful that my job allows me to do that. It’s a tough industry. When I started out I was doing three jobs just to make it all work so I feel incredibly lucky that I’m able to be at home with him because right now, it’s where I want to be."