<p>Actress Amanda Redman talks&nbsp;to Charlotte Williamson about&nbsp;her role in the crime drama New&nbsp;Tricks, gaining weight, losing her&nbsp;beloved mother &ndash; and meeting&nbsp;her husband on the rebound.</p>

- Charlotte Williamson

Amanda Redman oozes classic glamour. Sitting outside after the woman&home shoot with a glass of wine, she looks every inch the show stopper in heels, a slinky dress, and supersized shades. But if it weren’t for the photographs, she says she wouldn’t look quite so dolled up.

“In this profession, there’s a lot of pressure to look – and stay looking –a certain way,” she says. “I’ve spent my career going up and down in weight, and I’ve always gone, ‘I don’t care what they think’, because real women aren’t sticks, and I like playing real women.”

Amanda was raised in Brighton, where her father was a salesman and her mother a housewife, but her family travelled a lot, even staying in SA for two years. She’s best known for her role as detective superintendent Sandra Pullman in the long-running BBC series New Tricks, and for playing Jackie Rose in the miniseries The Trials of Jimmy Rose (both shows are currently airing on DStv). Amanda, 58, has a daughter, Emily, 29, with her first husband Robert Glenister. She lives in London with her second husband Damian Schnabel, a graphic designer. In 1995, she established a drama school, and received an MBE for services to drama and charity. 

Crime dramas give me a real thrill. I’m not sure if it’s because I worked on New Tricks for so long, but so