Amanda Redman

“The menopause shouldn't be so taboo because it's natural. I was filming on 'New Tricks' when mine started.”

“Misogyny was rife when I started out. You'd moan about it with your friends, but you just got on with it.”

“I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a physical attraction on my part towards certain men who are younger than me. But it goes deeper than that - younger men are more enlightened. Generally speaking, and I know there are exceptions, they are more honest and open than men of my own generation.”

“Motherhood brought me even closer to my own mother - I realised everything she'd been through.”

“I would have had a baby at 52, 53, 54 if I could have. Most definitely.”

“You've lived and all the experiences that you've had in life inform the characters you play.”

“I was lucky because I was in a long-running series.”

“I was watching TV one day and a lady who had two miscarriages was crying. I said to the TV, 'Pull yourself together.' It was terrible to say that. I've dealt with that denial now but there was a hell of a lot of pain.”

“When I was young, I spent years in and out of hospitals because of serious burns I'd suffered and at the age of five, I was super hyperactive.”

“My earliest memories are in hospital. But I didn't know any different so it didn't bother me.”

“I do go to the gym every day. I do three hours every day.”

“I've had a lot of operations over the years.”

“I was covered with burns and it took a long time to recover.”

“People do get interesting as they get older!”

“My mother was Indian in her soul.”

“My love of theatre began at a very early age.”

“When I was in my 20s I was told by an older actress, 'You won't get decent jobs past the age of 40.' When I got to my 40s that wasn't true. But from 50 onwards isn't so great.”

“The day after Emily and I appeared on television together in 'New Tricks' for the first time, someone approached us when we were out shopping, asking for an autograph. It's something I've been asked a thousand times after nearly three decades in the public eye, but this time the young man wasn't interested in me. He had eyes only for my daughter.”

“I'd had two miscarriages before Emily and there were more after her.”