• TUESDAY: An adoring gaze from Emilia Fox for O.T. Fagbenle, her dashing co-star in new film about legendary romantic fiction house

• THURSDAY: Not a hint of eye contact as she attends Mayfair premiere with Jared Harris, her husband of 3 years

Perhaps they were rehearsing scenes from their latest drama, Consuming Passion, 100 Years Of Mills & Boon.

Certainly in these pictures, taken last week, Emilia Fox seemed utterly absorbed by her new co-star, O.T. Fagbenle.

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Emilia Fox, daughter of Edward Fox and wife to Jared Harris, with British actor O.T Fagbenle

On a shopping trip in Notting Hill, London, the Silent Witness star gazed at the 28-year-old actor with something close to adoration, while he gallantly carried her hand-tied bouquet of flowers from the boutique florists Harper & Toms.

Emilia, 34, who is married to the actor Jared Harris, was not wearing her wedding ring at the time.

Forty-eight hours later the ring had returned to her finger, although she had apparently lost her smile along the way.

In fact the actress barely gave her husband a second glance when they were pictured at the movie premiere of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas in Mayfair.

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Emilia is not wearing her wedding ring as she spends time shopping with her co-star between rehearsals

Jared, 47, dressed in a black suit and dark-grey shirt, looked downcast while the body language between the two appeared strained and awkward.

The couple married three years ago after meeting in 2003 at the West End production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

They divide their time between Los Angeles and London, where they have a house in Acton.

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The pair are currently rehearsing their latest film, Consuming Passion, 100 Years of Mills & Boon

Friends insist that the couple are still together but admit that it is an unconventional relationship.

A source close to the family said: ‘Because they’re both actors they do spend long periods apart. Emilia is now back in London as she is starting another series of Silent Witness and she is doing this film with O.T.’

The BBC have promised that the film, to mark the centenary of the romantic publishing house, will be a ‘raunchy bodice-ripper’.

Emilia plays a university lecturer tempted by an attractive young stranger, played by O.T., who slips into her classes.

Emilia and Jared, both actors, have an 'unconventional relationship' due to their work schedules

It is expected to be a breakthrough role for the actor, born Olatunde Fagbenle to a British mother and Nigerian father.

He trained at RADA with Emilia’s cousin, Laurence Fox, and was chosen in 2004 as one of the 100 faces of RADA alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins and Lord Attenborough, but he is still not a well-known name.

He has appeared in Dr Who and the American series Quarterlife.

He lives in Kingsbury, North-West London, with his brother Luti, a former actor who now works in television production.

Emilia, on the other hand, has become one of the country’s best-loved actresses. The daughter of the actor Edward Fox, she recently admitted that ‘relationships are a compromise in all sorts of ways’.

And when asked in an interview last month whether she was an optimist, Emilia replied: ‘I try to see the rosier side of life. I’m sure it must be annoying to other people. I move on quite quickly from things that are not right and not working. I’m probably totally unbalanced, but very happy being so.’

For his part, O.T. insists that he remains devoted to Nigerian women. He spent seven years of his childhood in Nigeria and his mother and younger brother still live there.

In an interview for a Nigerian newspaper last September he said: ‘Nigerian women are the best in the world.

'I say this with every sense of respect and devotion. There is no way I can get married to a non-Nigerian woman, and it is not that I am a racist.’

Last night a spokesman for Ms Fox said: ‘They are working together. Emilia never wears her wedding ring when she is working.’