When Ruth starts hearing imaginary voices saying, 'Help me!' in Casualty it's clear she's unwell. And her colleagues realise she’s mentally unstable when she locks herself in a room with a patient, and begins an unauthorised cranial operation. Georgia Taylor, who plays Ruth, carried out in-depth research into bipolar disorder, and here she tells TV Choice what’s in store for her character…

Do you hope this story will educate viewers about the difficulties of dealing with mental health problems?
I don’t want to get on my soapbox and say, ‘I hope we’re teaching people things,’ because I don’t know if we are, frankly. I hope people see some sort of truth in it, believe it, and don’t think I’m dreadful.

I think the recovery part of the story is interesting, and that maybe will help people. More so than the early stuff, which is where Ruth is psychotic — that’s not so common. Not everyone who’s bipolar has a psychotic episode. It’s really important that we stress that. Her situation is unique. We’re not saying that everybody goes out and gets a knife and wants to operate on people.

Are we going to see Ruth get better?
Yes, she’s in the psychiatric unit for about three months, which is good, they haven’t rushed her back to work and said everything’s fine. What is also interesting is the recovery process, which comes in fits and starts. There are episodes where it seems like she’s having a breakthrough, and then she’ll have a relapse, which I think is the way it is. It’s very difficult to treat mental illness and to pinpoint exactly what the problem is and what the treatment is for that person.

It’s very individual — it’s about having perseverance and trust in the professionals taking care of you, and she’s never been gracious about receiving help. So you know that you’ve got a battle on your hands, and at times, she’s deceitful about whether she’s taking her pills or not.

It must have been difficult to film scenes of Ruth breaking down. So have you had much rest recently?
Honestly, I’ve just been working solidly. I did have a few months when I said to my family and friends, ‘I’m really sorry, all I can do is work at the moment.’ But my mum and dad are really sweet. They always say, ‘Just look after yourself — eat properly and get enough sleep.’

So my priority was going to bed early, but also doing nice things at the weekend with friends or with my boyfriend. Of course, it’s important that you don’t become a complete hermit and lose a grip on reality. But also, I knew from talking to the series producer Oliver Kent that it would be a very intense period for about three months, and then it would lighten.

Do your parents live up north?
Yeah, they’re in Wigan.

And you’re based in Bristol?
Yeah, it’s a bit of a trek — I spend a lot of time on the M6. I have had some holiday, though. I just spent time in Bristol, London and Wigan. I caught up with cousins and aunties, and people I hadn’t seen for ages — obviously, my mum and dad, my brother and his girlfriend. But there’s still a massive list of people I want to see.

This will create sympathy for Ruth, but in the past she’s been pretty nasty to people. So do you ever get any stick from the public?
Only people being playful. My mum’s the worst one — she’ll ring up and say, ‘I wanted to smack you on Saturday night.’ She’s terrible. But people love to hate a character. It would be a bit boring if everyone was just nice. I’ve never had anybody taking it too far or being threatening. People just say, ‘Oh God, she’s awful, isn’t she?’

But they’re still surprisingly sympathetic. People can flip from one to week to the next, and my mum is the same. One week she’ll say, ‘Oh, you were vile to Charlie’ and then the next she’ll say, ‘I was sobbing.’ Ruth is so unpredictable and people respond to that.

In future episodes, Matthew Kelly plays Ruth’s psychiatrist. Were you ever on his old show, Stars In Their Eyes?
No, I was one of the few [from Corrie] who never did it. I loved to watch it, but I’m not really a singer, and even if I was a singer I don’t know if I’d do it.

But I’ve met Matthew Kelly quite a few times. The last time was about two years ago on The Paul O’Grady Show. He was on with his son, who’s also an actor. Paul had us do some daft thing, like putting some foam on a balloon and shaving them until they popped.

So we had to go from that to saying, ‘Hi, you’re playing my psychiatrist today.’ But he’s a joy, he’s such a nice man, and we did manage to have a giggle — even though the stuff we were doing was heavy going.

By David Collins