By LOUISA CLEAVE
Francesca Hunt is in her element as British Secret Service agent Rebecca Fogg in the 22-part series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (Prime, Saturday 9 pm).
The character is an expert in all martial arts and weaponry and Hunt learned fencing, kickboxing and knife-throwing for the role.
Hunt loves physical roles and preferred to do her own stunts during the 10 months it took to film the series in Montreal.
Prime viewers may remember Hunt as Hilary in the oil-rig drama Roughnecks.
She prepared for that role by undergoing a gruelling training programme at Scotland's famous RGIT Survival School.
Hunt lists among her hobbies flying and gliding and, on the phone from Los Angeles, says she had wanted to be a dancer because it was physically demanding.
But she was a bit top heavy for the dance discipline, and instead turned to acting, training at Oxford University and at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
"I seldom get cast as girly girls," says Hunt.
She is appreciative of actresses such as Lucy Lawless making female action heroines popular, although she fears it is a fad which will pass.
"The characters coming through in scripts are a different kettle of fish. You're much less likely to be the wife or daughter left to follow the men around."
So Hunt is taking advantage of characters like Rebecca Fogg - a role she describes as "delightfully physical" - while she can.
The series brings to life the young writer Jules Verne, who works alongside his comrades Phileas Fogg, Fogg's valet Passepartout and cousin Rebecca.
At the turn of the 19th century, they are pitched against the League of Darkness, an evil global organisation bent on manipulating the future of the world and stopping the new industrial era from taking shape.
Hunt sums it up: "I've never seen anything like it. "Rebecca Fogg is the world's first secret service agent and a woman with her own agenda, which is a rather rare and lovely role to get.
"They let me play around quite a lot with the concept of the character."
Fogg is never the damsel in distress but she is attracted to the bad guys, giving Hunt the opportunity to get into romantic clinches with the likes of guest star Patrick Duffy.
"One of the roads we decided to go down was the idea of women who think they should do good tend to fall for bad men.
"It's one of my theories that bad guys are hugely attractive."
Hunt is now working on a play in the West End, but credits The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne for finally giving her the satisfaction from a television role that she had always found in theatre.
"Up until Jules Verne, telly hadn't given me the same kick. It was a surprisingly merry time."
* Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Prime, Saturday 9 pm
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