Fresh-faced Romola - barely looking her 19 years - explains how a photo-shoot on a very hot day in Malta almost landed her in hot water.

"The cast were asked to do some publicity shots for Daniel Deronda. I was corseted in full period-style gown and we had to stand in this room, with make-up, to make sure we weren't sweating, for about 20 minutes," says Garai.

"Eventually they said: 'You can go.' And I walked out of this room and just fell down a flight of stairs, landing in a pile of dust at the bottom," she says breathlessly.

Luckily for her, nothing was broken, but she was worried about the state of the dress. "You know you are committed to your work when you fall over and you think: 'Oh no - my dress!' "

Romola, who was plucked from the anonymity of A-levels to play the young Judi Dench in The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells, certainly seems committed to her work, even abandoning a degree in English at Queen Mary's College to concentrate on her acting. And it appears to have paid off, with the complex role of Gwendolen to add to her growing list of credits.

Master adapter Andrew Davies (Tipping The Velvet and tomorrow's Dr Zhivago) believes Eliot's complex tale of of self-discovery and identity is ideal for contemporary re-evaluation. "Daniel Deronda is highly original and modern in its feel," says Davies. "George Eliot's last novel is bold and experimental for its time, which makes it ripe for adaptation. Set in the 1860s, it is a passionate, intense love story which takes both hero and heroine, Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth, on a journey of eventual self-fulfilment."

In the three part series - which was partially shot in Edinburgh's New Town - Gwendolen falls in love with Daniel (Hugh Dancy) when she first sees him at the roulette table and senses that he is not like other young men. Gwendolen - outwardly alluring and vivacious - is selfishly determined to get what she wants out of life. Daniel is sensitive, caring and highly intelligent but an illegitimate son who is haunted by doubts about his own identity. He is drawn to Gwendolen, sensing the vulnerability and despair that lurk behind her brilliant facade.

Gwendolen is forced by circumstances into an oppressive marriage to a handsome but self-centred aristocrat, Henleigh Grandcourt (Hugh Bonneville). Rich, worldly and sophisticated, he could have been the ideal husband for Gwendolen but feels compelled to crush her independent spirit and mould her into his perfect wife, unaware of the repressed hatred he is stoking up.

Romola admits that playing Gwendolen was a challenge for her. "The thing that I found difficult to play is why someone as intelligent as Gwendolen would make such a fatal error in marrying this man that she believes she can control. But I suppose that just comes from naivete. Gwendolen has no experience with the world at all, outside of her domestic sphere."

Romola believes that Gwendolen's relative inexperience, though possibly a fault, is not the flaw that leads to her downfall. Her fundamental flaw is selfishness, and that's what George Eliot is exploring. Eliot was a social activist, so she very much believed in being socially conscious - particularly in the patriarchal enviroment of Victorian London.

"[Elizabeth] Gaskell, Eliot and other women writers were engaged in a moral struggle to improve themselves. And Gwendolen doesn't think about others and, as a result, suffers because she doesn't know enough about other people to be able to judge characters properly," says Garai.

"So she makes this mistake, which is just appalling, because she has to suffer the ignominy and mental torment of this desperately unhappy marriage."

However, unlike your average character in a Greek tragedy, Gwendolen does not die from a fatal flaw at the end of Daniel Deronda. Instead, she is redeemed, thanks largely to the eponymous hero himself, played by Hugh Dancy.

"The relationship she has with Daniel is completely different to the misery she endures with Grandcourt. Daniel's positive influence convinces Gwendolen to change from a selfish person who doesn't think of others."

Although Gwendolen is admittedly rather spoiled, Romola actually thinks she has something in common with the tragic heroine of Daniel Deronda. The affable actress explains: "It's so funny when people say: 'Do you see yourself in Gwendolen?' and I say: 'Yes', and people seem really shocked, like you said something appalling. But I think she's like so many clever, beautiful, spoilt young women who lived in an age that didn't afford women the opportunity to express creativity or intellect."

Fortunately for Romola, she did not grow up in the 1800s, but had an untraditional upbringing in Hong Kong and Singapore until the age of ten, where her obvious intelligence, rather than being stifled like Gwendolen's, was encouraged.

Her parents liked to discuss books and music around the dinner table. And it is this that Romola partly attributes to her success. "It doesn't matter how good you are [as an actor]; if you can't talk to the director, that really affects the result. I think I'm quite gregarious and chatty, and I think that really helps. I'm not sure whether it's made me a better actress, but I think it's helped my career," Romola confesses.

Her career doesn't seem to need much help, with an upcoming role in I Capture The Castle, a feature film based on Dodie Smith's classic coming-of-age fantasy, and other offers she is currently contemplating. But, for now, she is happy to play Gwendolen.

"She is sexy and I think that's really fun!" Romola says without any hesitation. Breaking off for a moment, she recalls impulsively stamping her foot during a scene, with obvious relish, just because it felt like something Gwendolen might do. With a coy smile, Romola admits that Gwendolen is "the kind of girl that I would have loved to have been at school: the cool, sexy, difficult, naughty and arrogant person with whom everyone seems to be in love. And, for eight hours every day, I get to be that person".