PATIENTS OF A SAINT 'I LOVE THE OPERATIONS AND THE SOUND EFFECTS!

ACTRESS AMANDA REDMAN TELLS US WHY SHE'S HAPPY TO BE BACK AT THE GOOD KARMA HOSPITAL AND WHAT MADE FILMING THE LATEST SERIES SO SPECIAL

- STEPHEN MURPHY AND TRICIA MARTIN

Starring in TV hits such as New Tricks and At Home With The Braithwaites, plus brilliant films like Sexy Beast, has made Amanda Redman a household name. She's one of our most watchable stars, and anyone who's met her will say she's fun, smart and feisty.

But things haven't always been so rosy for the actress. It's well known that Amanda suffered terrible burns as a toddler after pulling a pan of soup off the hob. The trauma was so severe she was declared dead at hospital, yet she overcame her injuries and has never hidden the large scar on her arm, feeling it's part of who she is.

Amanda has enjoyed huge success in her career and has always encouraged the actors coming up behind her, setting up the Artists Theatre School. Her passion for training young performers contributed to her being awarded an MBE in 2012 and she continues to teach today.

There's undoubtedly a sexy spark about Amanda, and fans were intrigued to learn that she and New Tricks CO-star Dennis Waterman had had a romance decades earlier. That romance didn't work out and Amanda went on to marry actor Robert Glenister, with whom she had daughter Emily. Various relationships followed their 1992 divorce, then in 1999 she met Damian Schnabel, a designer 15 years her junior.

The couple split for three years, but were reunited in 2006 and wed in 2010. Her three New Tricks co-stars to whom her character Sandra was boss (Waterman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolam) were guests, while her Sexy Beast co-star and long-time friend Ray Winstone gave a reading.

Amanda jokes that Damian's far more grown-up outlook works perfectly with her youthful exuberance, and that she lucked out finding a man who's more mature in every way, except physically!