Dawn Steele on her new Holby City role

Wild at Heart star Dawn Steele on playing a new fearless surgeon in Holby City

Holby City Tuesday / bbc1 / 8Pm (scotland, 10.45Pm)

Best known for playing vet Alice Trevanion in ITV drama Wild at Heart, Dawn Steele has now swapped poorly animals in the South African veldt for human patients in her latest role as plucky new general surgeon Ange Goddard in Holby City.

Ange has come to set up a new Young Adult Unit at the hospital but her first case has already seen her clash with Holby boss Henrik Hanssen (Guy Henry)! This week, Ange needs staff to help run the YAU and she’s soon at loggerheads with Dr Dominic Copeland (David Ames), too. With Ange’s daughter Chloe and her on/off boyfriend Evan – played by West End star Amy Lennox and former Eastenders’ star Jack Ryder – arriving in the coming months, it looks like the drama is only set to continue.

Here, Glasgow-born Dawn, 43, tells

TV Times more about Ange and reveals why she’s pleased she’s not squeamish...

So how would you describe Ange?

Ange is the most emotional surgeon you’ll ever meet. She’s all about helping these kids that come to the Young Adult Unit; she’s not a hard surgeon who just sees it as a job. Ange probably does gets a little too involved in these cases, but the more you get to know her, the more you discover why she is the way she is.

Ange arrived at the hospital with former Holby favourite Tom Campbell-gore. What’s it like working with New Tricks star Denis Lawson, who plays him?

I know Denis and we get along really well. The first scene I filmed on Holby was me, on this hospital trolley, straddling Denis while pumping his chest. I was thinking: ‘Thank God we already know each other!’

We know that Ange’s daughter Chloe will be arriving soon with her boyfriend Evan. So what is the dynamic like between the trio?

Chloe comes in to help with a tricky patient. Ange was a single mum, who went back and studied at medical school while having a child, so Ange and Chloe have got a very caring relationship. Ange loves her daughter and is continually trying to protect her. When it comes to Evan, I don’t think Ange thinks he’s the best thing for Chloe. There’s a lot to come...

We see you perform some complicated surgery as Ange. Are you squeamish?

No, not at all, thank God.

If you are, Holby would be the hardest job ever because the prosthetics are just so good – it all looks incredibly real. There’s someone underneath the hospital bed, pumping the blood, so it’s all spurting out.

Those surgery scenes are the best bit about this job but they take a long time to film.

At the end of the day, my back’s killing me, my feet are sore and I’m thinking, ‘I feel like I’m actually a surgeon!’