Kelly

Kelly is the daughter of a hearing mother, Vicky. Kelly's good looks and warm, easy-going personality suggest that she has everything going for her, but under the surface she has experienced deep unhappiness. Towards the end of the first series, we learned that her mother's boyfriend, Alan, had sexually abused her. In series two, Kelly wanted to put the past behind her, but she had to deal with Alan's attempts to intimidate her into changing her story, and this caused her a great deal of pain. Frightened and confused, she lied to Adam that she had made up the experience of her sexual abuse. But finally, she found the strength to confront the situation, and reported Alan to the police.

'Playing Kelly has been a fantastic experience for me, evoking lots of different emotions,' says Samantha Baker, at 18 the youngest member of the cast. 'In RUSH 2, there were certain scenes which were really powerful – where Kelly felt very frightened and alone. It made me think about how awful it must be to be in that kind of situation.'

Samantha was born hearing but at the age of 10 months caught meningitis, which left her completely deaf. 'My parents and family are hearing but they do sign at various different levels,' she told VEE-TV.

'I've really enjoyed being amongst people my own age who are also deaf signers,' she says. 'The experience of going to school with other deaf children has given me an awareness of Deaf culture and a strong sense of identity and deaf pride. This can be a difficult issue sometimes for deaf children with hearing parents.'

Samantha started acting in primary school, when she was cast as Sandy in Grease. 'This gave me the bug,' she says. Her first television role was in the BAFTA-winning Dream On, a Channel 4 drama for schools written by RUSH director Ray Harrison Graham. As a result of her performance in RUSH, she was cast in the role of Elena in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries series.

'I would definitely love a career in TV acting full time,' Samantha says, 'but I realise the business is not too reliable, not a steady job. I would love to take on a main character role in one of the top soaps – I think having a deaf character could add depth and loads of issues to any soap.'

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