Why sex disgusts me; The Vice star Rosie Marcel talks about how getting hot for the cameras leaves her cold.

Byline: Pauline Wallin

She is not shy when it comes to stripping off for raunchy scenes, so it is a surprise to discover that Rosie Marcel finds them a total turn off. And what made her recent romps for The Vice even harder to do was knowing that her real-life fiance was watching.

During a passionate clinch with co-star Peter Firth, who played a businessman under investigation by the Vice Squad, all Rosie could think about was what her partner Scott Bunce, a production assistant who works on the gritty cop series, felt about it.

"I was struggling because I'm very much in love with my partner and this was the first sex scene I'd had to do since we'd been together," says Rosie, 24, who plays cop Kirsty Morgan in the show, which ends its current run on Monday. "It was like, this is the person I want to be with for the rest of my life, but I've got to kiss someone else. It was hard for Scott to work that day, too. In the end, he made himself scarce."

It's not the first time that Rosie has been troubled by the intimacies required of her career. Playing a prostitute in C4's The Secret World Of Michael Fry left her in floods of tears.

"The first day I had a lot of nude scenes," she recalls. "It was my choice to do them then - I wanted to get them out of the way. By the end of the day, I was covered in so much baby oil and felt so disgusted having to kiss someone and pretend I was enjoying it, I just went back to my hotel and cried. I had a shower and a bath, then another shower. It is a hard thing to do because you are not attracted to that person."

There is no mistaking who she is really attracted to as Scott keeps cropping up in conversation. The couple, who met while working on The Vice, plan to marry in May. "Scott can be a complete pain in the bum," she says with a grin, "but he makes me feel so good about myself and about us. We get on so well and we love all the same things - he's just perfect for me. When he walks through the door I still get butterflies, which after a year together is pretty good."

Rosie glances at her engagement ring with its square cut diamond and admits that she was the one who proposed.

"I put an advert in the local paper," she says. "I dragged him to the newsagents saying someone had written a horrible story about me. I made him read the front page and there, in the bottom left-hand corner, was the ad. It said, `Scott Bunce, I, Rosie Marcel, love you and wish to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?'"

Of course, he said yes. Now her happiness would be complete if they owned a home rather than living in rented accommodation in Richmond, Surrey, and started a family. Sadly, it could be hard for Rosie to conceive as she has endometriosis.

"It means the womb's lining grows outside, sometimes on the bowel or uterus," she explains. "You suffer very painful periods. Unfortunately, it's incurable. You have it for the rest of your life." She also has a form of haemophilia, which means her blood won't clot without the aid of drugs.

"I was very ill a couple of years ago," she says. "I had one constant period and the doctors couldn't work out why. They gave me drugs which started the menopause early to stop the bleeding. I went through hot flushes and mood-swings, the works. When I was filming the previous series of The Vice, the make-up lady had to wash me down because I was getting such bad hot flushes. But at least my periods returned after the treatment finished - they don't always."

Because of all this, Rosie knows that pregnancy would pose enormous risks to her health.

"If I did get pregnant I could die during childbirth or the baby could be effected by the coagulants used for haemophiliacs," she says. "But I'm a positive person and if I do get pregnant I will have it. If not, we are keen on adopting. Scott desperately wants kids, but he's happy to have me for the rest of his life."

Although she couldn't be happier with her personal life, things aren't so great as regards her career. In the nine-month gap between filming the last and present series of The Vice, she has not had any acting jobs.

Rosie says, "I went up for a lot of auditions and always got down to the last two, then didn't get it. It's the first time I've not worked for a lengthy period and it's been terrifying. I got a part-time job in a fashion shop just to get out of the house and because I was broke."

She has thought about a change of career unless things pick up, even though she has been acting since the age of three when she played a fairy in a National Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Performing is in her blood. Her mum Lindsay was an actress and her dad Terry is a film and TV director.

Rosie does have a secret ambition that would keep her working in the world of film and TV. She'd like to be a stuntwoman.

"I'd love the physical challenge of doing stunts. I went to a stuntman's ball with dad when I was 17 and I've been fascinated ever since. I'm a black-belt in karate and I love water-skiing. I also love bungee jumping, which I could put to good use. I'm tougher than I look."

And you don't doubt her for a minute.

The Vice, Monday, ITV1, 9pm.

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NO VICES: Rosie Picture: MARK HARRISON/ STAY STILL