Rose Williams is revved up and ready to fire in Curfew

Rose Williams stars alongside Sean Bean in Sky’s new death race thriller, writes Ed Power

Rose Williams wasn’t much of a driver when she was cast in Sky’s new death-race thriller, Curfew. But she was soon learning from the best.

“I have my license but I’d only driven in America,” says the London-born, LA-based actor.

“The first time I ever drove in England was with Ben Collins, the original Stig on Top Gear.”

Collins was her mentor as she prepped for her performance as Faith, a pregnant young woman required to do whatever it takes to survive in a post-apocalyptic future UK overrun by ravenous undead hordes (insert your own Brexit joke etc).

As the story begins she and the child’s father The General (a never more grumpy Sean Bean) are counting down to a Mad Max-style road race. This against the backdrop of a zombie outbreak that requires citizens to remain indoors at night (a “curfew” if you will).

The winner gets to stay on a quarantined island presided over by a mysterious zillionaire (Adam Brody from The OC).

But Faith and the General have a job on their hands staying ahead. Arrayed against them is a gonzo line-up of drivers, including over-the-top speed freaks portrayed by Hollywood veterans Michael Biehn (Aliens) and Billy Zane (Titanic).

Cue eight episodes of crash, bang, wallop good fun — interspersed with flashbacks to the characters prior to the zombie outbreak (Faith’s original story is especially heartbreaking).

Williams, 25, is a rising name with appearances in the bodice ripper Medici the Magnificent to her credit. Coming off that and several other costume dramas, it was thrilling to play a completely different character — which the straight-talking Faith assuredly is.

It was great fun to do something set in the modern world. She is a really dynamic, powerful, forceful modern woman. I had hair extensions and a gold jacket. It’s quite a statement look.

Bouncing off Sean Bean was a treat, too. The General is dangerously unpredictable and Bean brought some of that to his performance.

“I just didn’t know how he was going to play it at times,” says Williams. “I really enjoyed acting opposite this erratic character.”

Williams was born into show business in a roundabout way in that her mother worked behind the scenes in costumes.

She visited her first set as a teenager and, having initially set her heart on a career in fashion, was drawn back to acting.

“Being on set I had strong feeling that this was something I wanted to do,” she says. “A lot of doors were shut in my face. But a few were opened too.”

Sky is putting all its marketing muscle behind Curfew. And it has assembled a heavyweight cast including the aforementioned Zane and Biehn and also Miranda Richardson and Adrian Lester (don’t buy entirely into the hype however — not all the A-listers feature as heavily as you might think).

“It’s a mash-up of genres,” says Williams. “It’s an action show. It has solid character storylines. And you have these strong female characters whose stories are not necessarily tied to male romantic leads.”

Curfew will raise the profile of Rose who over the eight episodes gradually emerges as a fascinating screen presence.

She will then spend the summer shooting supernatural thriller The Power, about the bad things that happen when 1970s Britain is hit by mass electric outages.

And she’s busy on social media, where she has over 100,000 Instagram followers. Is an online presence de rigueur for young stars nowadays?

“Yes and no,” she says. “Really, it’s a case of each to their own. As a creative person you can connect with other people and see examples of their work. So it’s quite empowering. But social media is a complex issue. If it doesn’t feel right for a young actor… it depends on individual personality. As a creative platform it’s great. It’s not the be-all and end-all.”

Curfew begins tonight on Sky One at 9pm, and all eight episodes will be available on demand