WHEN they first appeared on the crime scene, it was easy to dub Scott & Bailey as the North-West’s answer to Cagney and Lacey, but they’ve been around long enough now to be considered in their own right as they juggle complicated personal lives with solving crimes.

In the months since we last saw them, Detective Constable Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) has married traffic cop Sean (Sean Maguire). He’s devoted to her, mood swings and all – so why is Rachel even grumpier than usual?

“The one constant in Rachel’s life is her work. But at the end of the last series work was letting her down and she was very disillusioned with the system,”

explains former Corrie star Jones.

“So she hooked on to Sean and made the mistake of marrying her friend. She knew it wasn’t right, but it was too late. She’s quite impulsive and thought that maybe it would work out to be fine.

“I think the audience will go, ‘Why can you not see that he’s a good man and get on with your life?’ But that’s not her.

She has an addictive personality.

She’s addicted to work and danger. Rachel is also clearly damaged by her background, as are her mother and brother.”

The extent of that damage should become even clearer this series, as her mum Sharon (Tracie Bennett) makes an appearance.

Normally, Rachel would be able to turn to her best friend and colleague Detective Constable Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) for help and support, but even that relationship could get a little strained during the course of the series.

“Janet is going through a divorce and then Rachel goes to live with her for a while. They are good friends but end up being really vicious with each other. Some of the things we say to each other are outrageous,” says Jones. Luckily, there are no such problems between the actresses. “Me and Lesley are just so much closer. After three years, she’s like my big sister. To see those big blue eyes every morning makes me smile because she’s just brilliant and I love her.”

The first episode in the new series takes a turn for the grisly when one of Janet’s neighbours alerts her to the strange smell emanating from a house down the road.

When the copper enters the property, she’s finds the decapitated head of an elderly woman, while her bedridden husband Joe (George Costigan) is upstairs, emaciated and barely able to speak.

Rachel eventually tracks down the couple’s daughter Helen (Nicola Walker), whose shaky alibi puts her firmly in the frame.