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Dani Harmer, 21, makes a triumphant return to the character that made her a household name.

Dani Harmer may have been playing Tracy Beaker since she was 10 years old but the actress has only recently discovered that the pair have a major personality trait in common, "I am more similar to Tracy than I thought I was – she can be really bossy and I've learnt that I can be as well," she reveals. "But the one trait of hers I wish I had is her confidence. I think a lot of her popularity is down to the fact that she's a strong female character."

Dani made another startling discovering while filming a stunt sequence on the roof of The Dumping Ground for this series:

"I discovered that I'm very scared of heights. Everyone was laughing at me though because they built another roof which wasn't as high as the proper one but still being stood up there really scared me. I didn't have a harness on, just a stunt guy holding my leg so I did kind of feel like I was balancing on the roof all on my own and if I did fall off I would've really hurt myself!" she reveals. "Jessie, who plays Lily, is only 11 and she was doing back flips on the roof and it really didn't bother her at all, which just made me look even more silly."

Were there any other embarrassing moments on set for Dani?

"Oh gosh me and Saffron (Sapphire) had to dress up as sausages in the middle of Newcastle – it was awful!" she giggles, "They don't shut any of the location off either so it was completely open to the public and everyone just crowded around wondering on earth we were dressed as sausages. I'm so glad there were two of us doing it though – being dressed as a sausage on your own would have been 10 times worse."

Tracy Beaker Returns also tackles some more serious storylines in series two – how did Dani find those?

"It's really the nature of the programme – it is about children being in care and sometimes you can kind of forget that all these children have back-stories. When you're filming it's all fun and games and then you realise that these children in care do have families and it's really interesting to find out why they're in care and what happened to them," she explains. "Lily's dad comes back in one episode and that messes up our family of me, Lily and Cam. It was quite difficult to play, but was brilliant for me as an actress to get those kind of storylines."

This series sees Tracy continuing to work at The Dumping Ground – would Dani make a good care worker in real life?

"I'd give it a try. I think Tracy makes a brilliant care worker as she's been through it all herself and sometimes she does make silly decisions but she always does what's best for the child," explains Dani. "I think I would be a good care worker too as I'm really good at listening. I have a million cousins and I'm one of the oldest so I've have had to look after a few kids and with my sister being five years younger I've taken care of her before and I'm quite good at it."

How did Dani find working with the predominately young cast?

"It is so much fun – I just wish I was a kid again as they always look like they're having a ball!" says Dani. "At first I was a little bit worried as they were all under 16 and I thought, oh my gosh it's going to be really noisy and a little bit crazy, and it can be, but those kids are the best cast I've ever worked with. They really are amazing actors and wonderful off set. They do come to me for advice sometimes but I'm not just there as another cast member I'm there as their friend as well, so if they're missing home or anything like that I'm always around to give them a cuddle."

So after all these years, does Tracy ever surprise Dani?

"She surprises me all the time – that's what's so good about playing this character," she reveals. "One minute she's happy, the next minute she's sad, then she's doing something really silly and sometimes she'll come out with something really sensible. It keeps me on my toes."

Dani got her first in-depth look into what life is really like for children in care when she recently visited several care homes for a Newsround special to be aired next year. How was that experience?

"It was absolutely heart breaking and the biggest eye opener. The only real experience I had with people being in care was being on Tracy Beaker, so going to an actual care home, meeting children and realising that their stories are true was really difficult. It wasn't a TV show, this was real. I met the most amazing children, they were just brilliant, and considering how much they'd been through in their lives they're such strong people now – it's amazing."