Dakota Blue Richard’s name will always be synonymous with Oxford, her roles deeply embedded in the structure of the city.

Having played Lyra in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass in 2007, the die was cast for her longevity here from an early age.

And with Series five of Endeavour about to begin, the famous Morse detective drama being increased from four to six episodes this year, Dakota Blue is here to stay, with WPC Trewlove being given an increasing amount of screen time.

So does Dakota have a sense of ownership over Trewlove now?

“Yes, I feel I know her much better because in the past two series you only saw one side of her.

“She is involved in each episode but takes on a little bit more, and we get to know her better away from the job and find out who she is. We are all different people at work and at home, so now she is much more familiar.

And? “Well she doesn’t suffer fools gladly – we know that much, but she is also a sweet compassionate person.”

As for Tewlove’s enigmatic relationship with Endeavour himself, played by Shaun Evans, the ‘will they, won’t they’ question has been building from day one.

So has it progressed?

“Well it’s a meeting of minds isn’t it and they are attracted by their mutual intelligence. But the problem is that Endeavour, unlike everyone else, sees her as a WPC not as a woman, so she is constantly having to remind him of who she actually is.”

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“It’s not until the very end of this series that we really see that,” the 23 year-old says enigmatically.

Meanwhile Morse is such an inadvertent womaniser. “Yes, he’s always out chasing the dragon.

“He doesn’t really know what he wants and never really understands himself, so is forever making himself miserable despite the endless dubious women plaguing him.

“Trewlove will be the one person that Morse will look back at, down the line, and think ‘that was really stupid’- it was right in front of me all that time,” she agrees.

“But there are so many characters in the show all wanting their moment in the sun and for their characters to develop, and it doesn’t always happen, because Endeavour is a plot driven series with a mystery that always needs solving,” she laughs, “so the regular characters sometimes have to take a back seat.”

And what of the historical sexism. Was it hard to swallow?

“It would have been much worse at the time, but there is one guest character who is a terrible misogynist, and typical of that era, and it made me quite angry that women had to experience that, and in some cases still do.

“But if someone treated me like that now they would regret it,” she warns.

And yet Dakota is realistic about WPC’s ambitions: “Of course there are limitations to how far she can progress up the career ladder or take on any more responsibility because Endeavour has to retain historical accuracy, and Trewlove is a rarity anyway.

“I did a bit of research but it’s quite difficult because there are very few examples of female police officers, and not many examples to choose from.

“WPCs were generally given the menial tasks to do, sensitive things – dealing with children, victims of assault or abuse, jobs that needed a female touch - so Trewlove has more responsibilities than most.

“It’s important to show what things were like for woman at the time and how normal sexism was.”

As for Dakota’s links with Oxford, is it nice to be back filming in the city?

“Yes absolutely, but we spend much less time in Oxford than you’d think. Of a 30 day shoot, only two to three days will be in Oxford itself. The rest is on location or in a studio somewhere.”

Each episode takes over a month and as they are feature film length, it’s a massive commitment. “There are so many things to get right, that you lose sense of time.”

“And I did Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw at the beginning of the year in the West End which was great fun. And then Endeavour takes up the rest of the year until Christmas.

Is it hard switching between the two? “No, it is a great balance. “I never thought I’d be a theatre person, but I love being on stage. It’s a very different skill set to screen acting and I itch for it now, although it is exhausting running around on stage night after night.”

“But filming Endeavour is always been an exciting time for me and spending eight months filming it was actually, very easy.

“Oxford will always be a very magical and nostalgic place for me.”

Endeavour's six part Series Five commences on Sunday on ITV1