Gina Bellman plays Jane Christie

Jane was once Steve's "unflushable" ex-girlfriend. Gina Bellman describes her as, "kooky, every man's worst nightmare. She has no filters, which is great fun to play. She's a real live-wire, self-obsessed, oblivious to the feelings of others and supremely manipulative.

"She has her own unique set of principles which are usually completely politically incorrect, which makes for great comedy."

Given that, she's starting to mature and realise that a puppy can only be a boyfriend substitute for so long. So she is on the hunt for a boyfriend, and ends up bumping into Oliver, again and again.

Steven Moffat comments: "Jane's a fairly needy, lonely character, mostly concerned about her age and the fact she hasn't got a boyfriend.

"Desperately seeking attention, Jane constantly makes things up, telling more than just little white lies. She lives a fantasy life, but she doesn't live up to any of the fantasies she creates.

"Instead, she's a woman who'd really rather prefer to be married - perhaps to someone like Steve - but pretends to be OK with the single life."

Gina loves playing Jane: "The audience knows our characters really well now and we all know them too and we see more of their vulnerability beneath the comedy. That's certainly the case with Jane.

"We also see her loneliness - she seems supremely self-confident and tactless, but that masks a lot of insecurity which is compounded by her being such an attention seeker!

"She loves being part of the group and the friendships are much more cemented now, offering Jane a real stability. But she is looking for a serious relationship so has decided to join a dating agency - which is how she meets Oliver."

Gina continues: "There's a real tension between them - at first she calls him half puppy and half idiot. But Jane is not known for her sense of humour - and Oliver really makes her laugh. And that is incredibly attractive…"

Gina is dating an American actor and was over in America whilst NBC were making their ill-fated version of Coupling.

In fact she made a cameo appearance in the American version as 'girl at bar'.

On completing Coupling Gina was determined to pile on the pounds in order to play Marilyn Monroe in the stage play Insignificance at the Royal Theatre, Northampton:

"It's true. I was doing a bit of a Renee Zellweger. I was on the cream cakes and wanted to put on a stone. But I wasn't that optimistic because when I get on stage I have so much adrenalin coursing through my body that I burn fuel like a power station."