Tamzin Outhwaite

Tamzin OuThwaiTe, 47, returned to eastenders this month after a 16-year absence. She was married to actor Tom ellis, 39, for eight years, but they divorced in 2014. She lives with their two daughters, Florence, nine, and marnie, five, in London.

THE LIFE-CHANGING POWER OF POSITIVITY

Being a single mum has its challenges. There’s pressure to get the balance between work and home right, and i do find myself questioning how well i do it.

You want to further your career, yet you also know how quickly children grow up and you want to enjoy every moment with them.

The girls do see their dad, but he lives in America, where he films his U.S. show Lucifer, so we go in the school holidays.

if there’s one thing i’ve learned, it’s that life is easier if you give things a positive spin. i don’t constantly view the world through rose-tinted spectacles — but i do think a person who feels lucky is bound to be happier than someone who constantly feels hard-done-by or lives in a cloud of negative feelings.

My mother, Anna, used to drum that into me when i was a child. She would say i was a lucky girl to be given such amazing opportunities, including going to the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. So i do the same to my girls.

even if it’s simply that they’ve drawn a picture that doesn’t work out the way they wanted, instead of screwing it up and throwing it away, i always say: ‘Look at what you’ve done in a different way. if it’s a portrait of a person whose nose has gone wrong, say, turn it into an elephant with its trunk instead.’

The huge positive of my career is that i can be with them often and we can have amazing adventures together. i always ask advice from my eldest when an acting job comes along, and the main thing she asks is: ‘Where is it filming and can you come home at night?’

even when i injured my foot during rehearsals for the stage show Stepping Out, i tried to be philosophical about it. i was tap-dancing in heels and the pain got worse and worse until i had to pull out of the show.

Recovery took longer than i’d hoped, but it gave me the chance to look at other offers and think about getting back into TV. in the end, it worked out fine. it normally always does.