Davinia Taylor worried she'd need a "face peel" when she returned to 'Hollyoaks'.
Davinia Taylor
The 38-year-old actress is reprising her role as Jude Cunningham, 18 years after her alter ego left the Chester village, and she admitted she was concerned that new high definition technology would make her look old.
Asked if she'd watched the show before returning, she said: "Yeah of course. I kept putting it on and thinking, 'God, is that HD? S**t. I need a face peel.' "
While Davinia thinks her character - whose return involves a property scam - looks "horrific" with her new glamorous image, she has enjoyed spending hours in the make-up chair.
She told heat magazine: "She's extremely glamorous now - massive hair, massive eyelashes.
"I look like a Cheshire housewife. It's horrific.
"But it's fab to have all the make-up and hair done."
The blonde beauty is having a great time filming the show after spending so long at home caring for her three youngest children, Lux, five, from a past relationship, and Asa and Jude with fiance Matthew Leyden.
Davinia - who also has son Grey, nine, with ex-husband Dave Gardner - said: "It's surpassed my expectations. I've been a full-time mum for so long, I 'd forgotten I could do anything else except get pregnant and moan.
"It's fabulous to have the character back."
Since she left the show, 'Hollyoaks' has gone from airing twice a week to five times and she has found show bosses are much stricter now.
She said: "It used to be two nights a week and repeats and we'd all be like, 'Let's go out.' Now they crack the whip."