'I don't know how she's still walking and talking,' says Daniela Nardini of her character. Nor do we. She smokes two packs a day, lives on pot noodle and pasta washed down with Soave and Smirnoff and doesn't so much go to bed as collapse in a drunken heap. Daniela professes to be nothing like Anna; friends say they have only two things in common - their nationality and their legs. Yet Daniela has found that there is a fine line between This Life and Real Life. 'I had a letter from a Christian who said I needed saving. She sent me three pages telling me how dreadful I was and how I would ruin my children's lives.'

Hellfire and brimstone notwithstanding, Daniela says she wouldn't mind being a little more like Anna. 'She's totally fearless and up front and has incredible faith in herself. She's a very tough cookie because she's had to fight to get where she is.' But Daniela is wary of being typecast and doesn't want to be permanently slotted into Anna's stilettos. 'I'd like to play Joan of Arc or Mother Teresa.' But the critics want more of the acidic ice queen. The Evening Standard 'aches to see her as Lady Macbeth.'