Outlander began on Amazon. Are you excited it’s finally on a terrestrial channel so more people can see it?

It’s fantastic. It’s very much a Scottish show and Scotland is very much a character in it — it’s so integral to our story.

Do you have to apply a sense of humour to get through all the sex scenes?

The first series was my first time doing anything of that kind on TV and I think naivety helped. But it was important for the story and I like that it’s told as much from the female perspective as possible. It’s interesting to have a woman of that time be sexually liberated. But the actual doing is always awkward and there are too many people in the room who you have to try to look in the eye afterwards. But you giggle your way through it.

Have a lot of your friends and family seen it?

I think for some members of my family it’s better they don’t! My mum has seen it. We just don’t talk about those parts [the sex scenes]. There are certain episodes I tell my dad he can watch. I don’t think he wants to see the others — and I definitely don’t want him to.

Were you prepared for how huge it was in the US?

I had no idea. I didn’t know about the book series. I had never done TV so I had zero expectations. I was just so delighted I’d got the job and that it was going to shoot in the UK so I’d be back on this side of the world.

It has a feverish fan base. Do you get chased down the street?

No, luckily Sam [Heughan, her co-star] gets all the chasing!

Sam didn’t have any big acting roles before this either, so you’re doing it together…

So much so. We have each other’s backs and it’s great that you have somebody to confide in and share an experience like this with who knows exactly what you’re going through.

You can read the rest of the interview here