Ian Wylie

TOO much to do, too little time to do it in. Amanda Redman admits her recent schedule sent her a touch stir crazy. "This last year has been very difficult," explains the actress, who begins work this week on a new Manchester-based drama.

She's back on screen tonight as lottery winner Dame Alison finds herself under suspicion of murder in the latest ITV1 episode of At Home With The Braithwaites.

But there was no chance to relax once filming on the series had ended. "I finished the Braithwaites on a Friday and started at 5am on the Sunday on a drama called New Tricks.

"We worked a six-day week all the way over Christmas and into January. That was really quite hard because I wanted to do a family Christmas," says Amanda, whose daughter, Emily, is now 15.

"So I was coming home at night, making the cake and icing it, because I insist on doing all that. I wouldn't go to Marks and Spencer, even though everyone else told me I was being stupid.

"But I was so determined to try and make it a real family Christmas. So I was really exhausted by the middle of January."

New Tricks is screened on BBC1 tomorrow night. It stars Amanda as police Supt Sandra Pullman, who is sidelined after a hostage rescue goes wrong.

"She's a high-flyer and very New Labour in her beliefs. But then she messes up quite badly. Instead of demoting her, they side-track her and ask her to set up a department to re-investigate crimes where the police are not happy with the result - good or bad.

"There's no money for this new department, so she's told that she has to use retired detectives to be her staff. She's very into the new way of policing and they are very much into the old way of doing things - the old 70s-style corruption, illegal taping and all of that."

Naughty

The drama - a pilot for a full series - co-stars Alun Armstrong, James Bolam and Dennis Waterman. "The four of us laughed so much, we were like naughty kids," she adds. "Twice they had to stop filming and re-apply my make-up.

"The script is full of very witty dialogue, but my character doesn't have a sense of humour. She's very career-minded and honourable, if a bit uptight and poker-faced."

James Bolam, who plays Jack Halford, thinks there's every chance New Tricks could return. "The characters have all left the force for one reason or another, which makes them intriguing," he says.

"Jack left to look after his wife, then she died and that was it. He's idling his time away in the garden or on the golf course with no great purpose in life. Going back gives him an interest."

Alun Armstrong had tragic news while filming, with the death of his best friend, London's Burning star James Hazeldine. "Jimmy fell ill suddenly and I was rushing from filming to see him in hospital. It was awful and very distressing."

He subsequently began commuting between Cardiff and Prague, filming two different dramas. "I've been staying at the Marriott Hotel in both places - the rooms are exactly the same and I have to look out of the window to see which country I'm in and which job I'm on!"

Amanda's latest project is a two-part ITV1 drama called Suspicion, to be filmed in and around Manchester and Cheshire.

"It's about a woman - seemingly happily married - who's just learned how to use the computer when she starts getting email from somebody saying her husband's having an affair."

At 43, it seems Ms Redman can have her cake and eat it. "In my 20s and 30s I was advised to make the most of it because I probably wouldn't work so much afterwards. Luckily, that's not been the case, and instead it's got better and better because there are more interesting roles for women in their 40s now."

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