Shared karma

Amanda Redman has had a long and successful TV career – and she’s not about to let turning 60 hold her back. She tells Georgia Humphreys about playing Dr Lydia Fonseca in The Good Karma Hospital, and how filming in Sri Lanka has been a spiritual experienc

PICTURE the scene – You’re lying outside a beachside villa at dusk, watching the sun going down over the sea. Swarms of bats soar down from the mountains and glide above your head.

It’s easy to understand why Amanda Redman found Sri Lanka an extraordinary place to film.

“There is something just spiritual about it and I can’t put my finger on it,” the 60-year-old star says. “I feel more peaceful in my life. I can’t pinpoint why or how, but I certainly think the place does something to you.”

Brighton-born Redman spent four months in the South Asian country last year, to reprise her role in ITV’s sun-soaked medical drama The Good Karma Hospital (which is actually set in India).

She portrays Dr Lydia Fonseca, an eccentric and formidable Englishwoman who moved to Barco 30 years ago and is now head of the overworked and under-resourced cottage hospital at the centre of the drama.

Series one followed disillusioned junior doctor Ruby Walker (Amrita Acharia) leaving the UK to join Lydia’s team.

And the show has been an “absolutely lovely experience” for Redman at this point in her TV career.

“I think what’s great is to be the age I am playing a woman who is so fantastic – and a woman that’s unstoppable,” she says.

But while Redman agrees she’s hit the jackpot with The Good Karma Hospital, she hesitates to say roles have got better for older women: “It might be better for some people, but there are a lot of us out there. The truth is that there’s not enough [roles] and therefore the ratio is much more towards the males of age than it is towards the women.”

There’s no denying Redman has had some brilliant jobs over the years. From 2000-03, she played matriarch Alison in At Home With The Braithwaites. Then there are her 10 series of BBC One’s New Tricks, as the boss of a group of crime-solving retired policemen.

When it comes to the draw of The Good Karma Hospital, she likes how it covers social issues.

“If it had been just warm and fuzzy Sunday night television, I wouldn’t have been that enamoured with it. But it was the fact that it’s not frightened of dealing with some pretty heavy stuff and, for my money, everything always has to be rooted in truth.”

When asked how Lydia is different this series, Redman notes there will also be less of a focus this time around on the doc’s relationship with Ruby.

“It’s more about Lydia’s feelings towards the different cases that come into this hospital – either why they make her very upset, or why they don’t bother her at all,” shares Redman.

Then there’s the intriguing relationship between Lydia and beach bar owner Greg McConnell (Neil Morrissey), which Redman says moves on: “She’s in love with him – she just won’t tell him.”

Indeed, the fiercely independent medic insists she doesn’t need a man.

“She would prefer it if he was there, but in terms of needing, she doesn’t need him, because her life is actually very full,” explains Redman. “And I think that’s quite refreshing actually.”

While filming in Sri Lanka has some downsides – the long days, the humidity and “making sure you’re covered head to toe in mosquito repellent” – the chance to play someone like Lydia is second to none.

“When I first read the script, she struck a chord with me,” Redman says fondly. “And then I was pleasantly surprised when other people said, ‘I really like Lydia.’ You think, ‘Yes, there’s something very good about her.’

“She’s the sort of person you’d like in your life.”

The Good Karma Hospital returns to ITV on Sunday, March 18.