Amanda Redman has enjoyed a diverse range of roles over the past three decades, including At Home With The Braithwaites, Sexy Beast, alongside Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane, and the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit. Currently she’s best known as Det Supt Sandra Pullman in cold case series New Tricks, alongside Alun Armstrong, Dennis Waterman and James Bolam.

The first New Tricks episode Dead Man Talking involves the daughter of a dead financier being told by a psychic there is unfinished business surrounding her father’s death. What are your views on psychics and have you ever visited one?
I have visited one a long time ago and I was quite shocked by what he knew. The truth is that I don’t know. I’m not completely sceptical but at the same time I’m wary of it. You just don’t know.

Did the experience alter your views at all?
It did at the time. It’s difficult because my friends would say, ‘Oh he has only got to read about you and he knows stuff.’ But I went under an assumed name and I tried to disguise myself, but you never know.

This series of New Tricks has 10 instead of the usual eight episodes. How did you find the extra workload?
The extraordinary thing about New Tricks is it doesn’t feel like work. It’s a long filming commitment. It’s eight months and it’s a long time, as opposed to six months that we did before. But because we have so much fun, we weren’t anywhere near as tired as we expected we would be, and so it didn’t seem difficult at all.

New Tricks is tremendously popular, and is even repeated during primetime on BBC1. Why do you think the show is so successful?
I think people recognise that the production values are very high, and the writing and stories are fabulous. Also, I think what maybe comes across is how well we all get on with each other. That is something that is rare — certainly for four people it is. People always say to me, ‘Is it as much fun as it looks?’ and I think that is what attracts people to it.

Another feature of the show is that it is an older cast, which is a rarity on TV, isn’t it?
Yes. It is four people who have been around the block a few times and I suppose they have seen us all in other things and maybe feel a bit safe with us, because we are established.

Will there be another series?
Yeah. We start filming in November. We are commissioned for eight programmes.

Are you a fan of the cop show genre yourself?
Yeah, I love them. Mostly American ones, actually. I love The Wire and The Shield.

Aren’t the real police complimentary about New Tricks?
They are, which is fantastic. Dennis and I went to present the police bravery awards and we were astounded by the response from people. We are sticklers for the correct procedural stuff and they like that. They also think it’s very true to life because they have to deal with such hideous things on a daily basis and, in order to deal with that, they have this extraordinary gallows humour. In fact, Dennis and I were quite shocked at what they were laughing at when we were at the bravery awards. But I suppose you have to laugh in order to deal with what they have to deal with. And I think that’s what they like about New Tricks, because they think it’s very true to form.

Could you have been a copper?
God no! Never. I don’t have the guts or the bravery.

Your daughter Emily is following in your footsteps and recently graduated from the Bristol Old Vic, didn’t she?
Yes she did. She has started going out for auditions. Nothing has happened yet.

Any plans to work together?
That is a difficult one. At the moment, Emily doesn’t want to particularly, because she doesn’t want people saying, ‘Oh, you only got that job because of your mum or your dad [Spooks and Hustle star Robert Glenister]. So she wants to do it on her own terms, which I admire her for.

It must be very difficult for Emily, having famous parents.
Yes, it’s a double-edged sword really. It opens doors, but you are putting yourself up for a lot of criticism. It’s very hard.

By Nick Fiaca