Trauma In The Tropics

TV Times heads to Sri Lanka to meet stars neil Morrissey and amanda redman on location for their new Sunday-night drama

- Rebecca Mahoney

Sitting in a rickety Sri Lankan tea hut, TV Times is watching a huge lizard scramble up a banyan tree, while colourful kingfishers perch on branches and wild dogs weave between cameras and lighting rigs.

A man suddenly brandishes a machete, chops the top off a coconut, pops in a straw and hands it to us.

‘Drink plenty of that!’ bellows actor Neil Morrissey, whose loud 

Hawaiian shirt emerges like a mirage through the shimmering heat haze. ‘The locals swear by coconut water. It’s the best way to keep hydrated.’

It’s 30°C and 100 per cent humidity, yet filming is in full swing inside the nearby Dutch-colonial house, which has been transformed into a rundown cottage hospital for ITV’s new Sunday-night drama.

Along with his co-stars, Phyllis Logan and Philip Jackson, Neil is full of tips on how to avoid turning into a puddle, and co-stars Amanda Redman and Amrita Acharia tell us they are fully acclimatised.

‘You get used to feeling permanently damp,’ laughs Amanda, 59, gracefully keeping her cool as we chat at lunchtime over an assortment of curries while our faces melt off.

‘I’m fine with the heat, but the life here suits me. my mother was born in India so I love it. I was weaned on curry as a kid!’

While the six-part series is filmed in Galle in Sri Lanka, it’s set in a fictional coastal town in Kerala, South India, called Barco, where the formidable Dr Lydia Fonseca (Amanda) manages a team of overworked medics.