Claire Rushbrook was a hit alongside Liza Tarbuck in the comedy drama Linda Green. Her new part as a Mancunian wife with love troubles is only going to add to her appeal.

Rushbrook didn't hesitate for a moment when she read the script for BBC One's new drama, The Stretford Wives. She knew straight away she wanted in. ''It was a really good script,'' she says. ''And when good writing comes along and you are lucky enough to be in with a chance, you go for it.''

Not that she seems to have any problem getting good roles. Her first foray in front of the camera was as sulky teenager Roxanne in Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, and more recently she has been seen as Faith in The Sins and alongside Tarbuck in Linda Green.

In The Stretford Wives she co-stars with Fay Ripley of Cold Feet fame and former EastEnder Lindsey Coulson. The three of them seem to have got on famously. ''It was hilarious. But then I've often found that with actors and actresses who make their name playing seriously strong characters, when they are at liberty to be themselves they are really great fun.''

The Stretford Wives follows the lives of three Manchester sisters, Linda (Coulson), Donna (Ripley) and Elaine (Rushbrook), as they struggle to eke out an existence despite violent or drug-addicted husbands, errant lovers and problem children.

Like Hollywood namesake The Stepford Wives, the women are trapped, struggling to break free from destructive relationships. But writer Daniel Brocklehurst also focuses on the sisters' relationship with each other, which makes for some very funny and moving moments, Rushbrook says.

Her character Elaine is the youngest of the three. With a teenage son and a junkie husband, her life is turned upside down when her married boss begins to take an interest in her.

Rushbrook explains: ''Elaine is finding herself a good few years into a marriage with her childhood sweetheart, and he has had, for many years, a drug problem.

''She has supported him through this and taken a carer's role - she does love him very much - but there is an unexpected opportunity which comes along in the form of her attractive, wealthy, and openly affectionate boss.

''An affair is something Elaine wouldn't look for because she loves her husband, but it comes out of the blue, and she is rather ground down with years of looking after someone. And although she loves her husband, when the opportunity comes to leave him, she does.

''She is essentially a kind person, but also a strong woman. The affair is not something she enters into lightly, she believes she has fallen in love with her boss. She's not a frivolous person, she's a hard working woman, but she does have a good laugh with her sister Donna, who she finds hilarious.''

Rushbrook has no sisters of her own to draw on for experience, only a brother, but has close female friends, which did help. ''But to be honest,'' she says, ''I didn't really need to draw on personal experiences that much because the writing was so good - it was all there for me on the page.''

And how did the 30-year-old actress cope with playing the mother of a teenage son? Did it make her feel old? ''I am old, I'm ancient - I'm 30,'' she laughs. ''Thankfully Elaine isn't a very mumsy person - there are no scenes of me baking fairy cakes or anything. The actor who played my son was wonderful, and the two characters are more like equals than mother and son,'' she explains.

She has, she says, been lucky to work with lots of wonderful people. She has nothing but admiration for director Mike Leigh, who gave her her first major break away from theatre. ''It was a very special time for me personally,'' she remembers.

''There was such a long preparation, I really liked the way Mike worked and, for a novice in front of the camera like me, by the time I got in front of the camera, I knew what I was doing.

''It was also great to play someone as horrible as Roxanne, she was so larger than life, but ultimately she was a good-hearted girl.''

And what of Linda Green? Did they really have as much fun filming it as it seems to the viewers? ''Oh absolutely,'' she says with a giggle. ''There are a lot of out-takes, but I think most of them are too rude to ever find their way onto any television show.''

Not surprisingly she jumped at the chance to play Linda's best friend Michelle again in the second series, currently being filmed. But does it bother her, when there is such a strong cast, that the show is often trailed as the 'Liza Tarbuck show'?

''Not in the slightest,'' she says. ''Liza is such a keen team player, and the cast has always been very much an ensemble. It was clever casting, getting good actors together. But they also put together a batch of people who got on famously.''

For now the actress is enjoying a brief day off at home in south London, before returning to the set before filming ends in September.

And then? ''Who knows,'' she says. ''More good scripts hopefully.''

*The Stretford Wives is on BBC One at 9pm on Wednesday