LAURA Fraser has been racking up TV detective credentials at impressive rate lately.

She has a starring role in One of Us, a four-part BBC thriller alongside Juliet Stevenson, Gary Lewis and Kate Dickie, which begins on Tuesday.

The Glasgow-born actor has also been cast in BBC drama, The Missing, which returns for a second series later this year.

Laura, 41, is currently on location filming ITV murder mystery, Loch Ness, where the monster lurking in the shadows isn't that typically found on souvenir shortbread tins.

Two is coincidence, three is a trend. By this stage, Laura must be getting confused about what her day job is: actor or police detective?

"I'm on a roll with detectives," she says, laughing. "It is really hard because they are all melding into one, these dark, psychological dramas.

"I'm attracted to the detective role. I like to have something going on at the same time as the emotional turmoil. It makes it a wee bit more interesting."

When we last saw her, Laura was dabbling on the wrong side of the law in cult television series Breaking Bad.

She played calculating and ruthless Lydia Rodarte-Quayle who faced a grisly end after becoming in embroiled in Walter White's infamous meth empire.

Laura may be walking the other side of the thin blue line, but One of Us has its share of blurred boundaries.

It is set in a remote Scottish village where the brutal double murder of newly-wed childhood sweethearts shatters a seemingly idyllic existence.

Yet, when the killer's car comes off the road in a fierce storm and the families of the victims find him, badly injured, they face a murky dilemma.

Laura's role as police detective Juliet provides plenty of meaty material as her character struggles to reconcile illegal actions with her own long-standing moral code.

"The two families are battling for justice on this epic scale while she is in her own little private hell trying to keep it contained and carry on the investigation," she says.

As One of Us airs Laura has already made the quantum leap from Juliet to Annie, her latest TV detective alter-ego in Loch Ness which is currently being shot for ITV across Scotland.

"We are filming in Loch Ness and Glencoe, but at the moment we're in Glasgow doing some interiors," she says. "We are going to be using a studio near Kilmarnock for a couple of weeks as well."

When we speak she is giddy with delight. After a stint of gruelling night shoots, Laura has a rare morning off to spend with her Dublin-born husband Karl, 43, and daughter Lila, 10, and is excitedly mulling over whether to have Thai or Indian food for lunch near their Glasgow home.

The family returned to Glasgow in 2015 after four years based in the US. "It has been lovely," says Laura. "When we moved back from America last summer I thought: 'Oh, it will be hard with work. I wonder how that will go?'

"We knew it was the right thing and wanted to be home. It has been the best of both worlds because I've got the work as well."

It is an altogether different pace of life from her time in New York. "The first year we were in Brooklyn and then moved upstate to the woods about three hours north of Manhattan," she says.

"It was quite remote and there was herds of deer that would come through our garden as well as the occasional black bear, wild turkeys and chipmunks. It was mad. And beautiful.

"It was hard, though, because we missed our families so much. The winters were long with lots of deep snow and we felt a bit cut off. I was back and forth to different states all across America for work. Sometimes we would think: 'What are we doing here?' because it was so remote.

"When we moved back to Glasgow it was such a lovely feeling and just felt right," she adds. "We are able to see friends and family. Everything is so easy – I love Glasgow.

"I enjoyed living here before we went to America, but sometimes you feel a bit unsettled and want to try things. I feel settled now. I think I will be here until I die."

Two decades have passed since Laura burst into public consciousness in the Gillies MacKinnon-directed Glasgow gangster flick Small Faces co-starring Iain Robertson, Joe McFadden and Kevin McKidd.

Can she believe it's been that long since the acclaimed film was released?

"No – it feels longer actually," she says, chuckling. "I feel so far away from it now. When I look at old photos from the time I think: 'Who is that?'

"I can't believe it was the same body of molecular cells. It feels like maybe 30 years rather than 20."

Five years ago Laura faced the disappointment of being dropped from Homeland after the pilot episode.

Deadpool star Morena Baccarin replaced her as the wife of Sergeant Nicholas Brody opposite Damian Lewis in the hit US political thriller.

At the time Laura said she was "dying of humiliation". How does it feel to reflect on that now?

"It makes me laugh when I think about it because I couldn't have got Breaking Bad if I had been in Homeland," she says.

"The part in Breaking Bad was just such a great role. If I had known that when I was so embarrassed and humiliated for being kicked off a show for internal political reasons.

"You do feel like a piece of crap. Then to have such jubilant happiness at getting such a good role in Breaking Bad.

"I feel a lot stronger because I had always worried thinking: 'Imagine if I got fired …' It's really not that bad. It makes you stronger and I feel more grateful than I would have done."

One of Us starts on BBC One, Tuesday, 9pm