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At the end of Children Of Earth, both Jack and Gwen went their separate ways. Jack went off somewhere and Gwen moved to a very quiet part of the country into hiding because she was being hunted. She's been wanted because she's the last remaining member of Torchwood. She goes away and has a baby and lives there with her husband, and they've got quite a perfect, chocolate box kind of cottage, and it's idyllic.

But she is so bored. She's in limbo land and she never switches off. She's constantly in Torchwood mode and always on alert. So when this particular event happens and Captain Jack turns up, he couldn't have turned up at a better time for her, because she was lost.

Gwen's house is pretty and idyllic – postcard perfect. But when you start going into the drawers and the cupboards and behind the couches, there are machetes and grenades, the rocket launchers – you name it. She's armed constantly.

About her relationship with Jack Harkness

It's a very unique relationship Gwen has with Jack. It's a very special relationship, because, I mean, come on, the guy is beautiful and he can't die. He's traveled universes and he's done extraordinary things. He's not of this earth – that's attractive, isn't it? He's not your usual chap. So there's obviously a huge attraction between them, but an awful lot of respect for one another. They bounce off one another.

What one can do the other can't and vice versa. So I've started to describe their relationship and their characters as being a part of a jigsaw, and if one part is missing, the jigsaw isn't filled. They fit together perfectly like a jigsaw and they need each other. They have a relationship like a married couple. They have a relationship like a brother and sister. They have a relationship like enemies, but it's all through deep love and respect for one another.

About her fellow cast members

John Barrowman? He's my buddy. We have a lot of fun. We share exactly the same sense of humour. We're like seven year olds being let loose in a playground.

As for the new cast, we've done our very best to make everybody who comes onboard to Torchwood very welcome. And we love new faces and new characters. We're here to do the same project, and hopefully make a few friends on the way.

At the end of the day, it's the quality of the writing of the show that really gets me excited – to come back again for another season. It's Russell T Davies. And whatever happens under the pen of Russell, I will go with and I will never question, because he knows these characters inside out and so do John and I. And Russell has got this endless energy for these characters and for this programme. And as long as he does, I have also. He just keeps surprising you with the character. He dropped in with Children Of Earth that Gwen falls pregnant. So the next season I come back, I'm not just Gwen Cooper, I'm a mum. He keeps challenging me as an actor.

As much heartbreak and sadness that he puts into his characters and into their situations, there's always something that will make it real, and then there's humour. It's like when you go to a funeral, you're not supposed to laugh, but you find yourself doing it.

I think that Russell has done a fantastic mix of domestic drama with a lovely ingredient of sci-fi, and a lovely ingredient of thriller and horror. The production is much bigger. It's on a much larger scale.