Give me a gun, says soap star Carol

SHE'S become pregnant thanks to her gay best mate whom everybody thought was her boyfriend. It could only be soap opera and this particular plotline is one of the ongoing dramas in Family Affairs -- Channel Five's frothy, cappuccino-lite teatime helping of addictive telly.

The character in question is Tanya Woods, played by Blackburn's Carol Starks, and the actress has been pleasantly surprised to find her producers have nominated her in the best actress category at the British Soap Awards to be judged in May.

"It's nice because it shows they're happy with what I'm doing," says Carol, who only joined the cast in September last year.

"But because Family Affairs is such a small show and only gets small viewing figures compared to the bigger soaps, it's unlikely I'll win anything."

Still, it's impressive stuff from the girl who cut her teeth on the Blackburn amateur dramatics scene. Carol started tapping her toes at ballet classes at the Pat Eakets School of Dancing in Blackburn, before moving into musicals like My Fair Lady and The King And I, courtesy of Blackburn Amateurs.

At just 16 she made the brave jump from the edifying confines of Blackburn's Westholme School to a hostel in London as a music student, eventually ending up on a course at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

"Westholme was very nurturing and felt very secure," recalls Carol. "I never realised how lovely it was when I was there, but I recently went back to see the teachers and it all looks beautiful.

"When I was 16 I auditioned for this course in London and I got on it. I look back now and I think, 'How did I do that?'

"But at the time I felt quite grown-up and a career in the theatre was what I wanted. And my parents really looked after me. I wasn't just abandoned."

Carol didn't exactly do badly for herself upon leaving drama school either -- landing a role in the National Theatre's production of Sweeney Todd as the title character's daughter Joanna.

"She's a neurotic, slightly doolally character," said Carol. "It was quite scary playing her because the singing was very high. It was a bit of a stretch!

"But being involved in something like that was a complete removal from the kind of thing I normally do. It was very cushy, playing at the National, and we toured a bit as well. The whole job lasted about 14 months."

Stints on The Bill and military drama Redcap also helped Carol prepare for her current role.

"This spell on Family Affairs is the longest I have worked on something for TV," she said. "It's nice to feel comfortable. When I started I didn't think I'd be in it for very long, but it's a lot of fun."

So what exciting plotlines does Tanya have coming up? Beyond stating the obvious, Carol prefers to be coy.

"We've got the birth coming up, of course," she said. "But it's gone a bit quiet at the moment. I suppose she's been through quite a lot already."

So how would Carol, ideally, like to see her character develop? Well, her time on The Bill seems to have left her with a penchant for playing gun-toting policemen.

"I'd quite like to see Tanya become a cop with a gun and start running around shooting people," she said. "I'd like to do that. But it's not up to me, it's up to the producers."

A pity, because if Carol was in charge, viewers would see Tanya go through some remarkable character changes over the next few months.

"Tanya's quite similar to me, although I suppose she's a bit of a goody-goody and I don't like to think of myself like that," said Carol.

"What I would really like is to play somebody completely different -- somebody who's quite strong and tough and likes to run around with guns, like a policewoman.

"Whenever I go up for cops' parts I always end up playing the victim -- in The Bill I was an abused wife. But in Redcap I got to play a baddie and that was a lot of fun."

Not only would Tanya end up as a cop or a villain -- if Carol had her way she'd also undergo an overnight accent-change.

"I like to put on accents -- it's more fun," she said. "When you're at drama school you play characters of all ages and all types, but when you start work you realise there isn't much opportunity to do that. People don't expect you to act as much -- you tend to get the part if you're just like the character.

"If you're playing somebody who's quite similar to you it's hard to know how much you're doing as far as the acting is concerned.

"If you put on an accent or play a complete villain then it's easier to feel you're doing a bit of acting."

Carol enjoyed her spell at drama school for more reasons than the variety of parts she played. For it was there she met her husband, the American actor Eric Loren. The couple now live in North West London with their five-year-old son Lincoln, who's already showing signs of following in his parents' footsteps.

Meanwhile, Carol has returned to her old school on a couple of occasions and felt very impressed by Westholme's new theatre.

"It was absolutely amazing," she said. "So professional. So much about the school had changed, although I still saw a few teachers I recognised. It's a lovely place."