Sunetra Sarker

The Safe House star, 44, takes us through a day in her lifeé

6.05am

That’s when my first alarm goes off, but I don’t find it easy to get up – I’m a snoozer! I won’t get out of bed until 6.25am because I’ll be making deals with myself like, ‘I can do a shower in five, I can get breakfast on the run, I will get the stairs rather than take the lift!’

6.30am

i usally have breakfast on the go and take my banana and weetabix in the car and chat away with the driver or ill have an egg and bacon roll and eat half of it then and half of it when im famished at 10.30am

7am

The girls are always first in hair and make-up because we take longer! Mind you, the character I’m playing in Safe House is a DCI and doesn’t wear much make-up, so it’s a pretty quick job. It is nice to have half an hour in the chair in the morning though – it wakes me up!

1pm

We break for lunch at 1pm and we all sit together on the catering bus. I really enjoy lunchtime, it’s like social downtime and this is when all the stories come out! It’s also an hour’s gap for me to call home and make sure everything is OK with my son Noah.

2pm

We get back to filming and work through the day. I have done a three-day juice cleanse recently. I hated it at first but, by the end, I loved it! If there is a runner passing a shop I’ll ask them to grab me a carrot and ginger juice to give me some Popeye power! When I was directing Casualty, green juice got me through the day!

7pm

Filming is finished by 7pm, unless we are on a night shoot and that would mean we wouldn’t finish until 2am! When the script has ‘suspense thriller’ on it, you know you are going to be doing night shoots. Afterwards, we end up eating together, which is nice.

8.30pm

At the end of the week we might go for a few drinks, but I’m a terrible drinker. I’ll have two glasses of wine and fall asleep! I’m the butt of my friends’ jokes – they see me emptying my drinks down plant pots! One time I was caught sneaking lemonade into an empty can of beer!

9pm

When I get back to the hotel I’ll make a few phone calls and learn my lines. I’m very big on my night-time skin routine. I really enjoy cleaning my face at the end of the day – I like feeling and smelling nice. I’ve got this lovely hydrating facemask gel, it’s rose-scented, and I add a couple of drops of frankincense essential oil to it, so it feels like I’ve just walked into a spa!

10.30pm

Once I’ve done my skin I’ll get to bed and put the radio on, or a podcast if I’m on my own for a bit of company. I’m obsessed with Serial, an American podcast. The last thing I do before I go to sleep is read my lines so they’ll sink into my mind through the night – and then I’m asleep by 11pm.