amanda redman who is the actress© Photo: ITV

All you need to know about Good Karma Hospital star Amanda Redman

The actress has been nominated for a BAFTA

Senior Features Writer
March 22, 2020

She's back on our screens as Lydia Fonseca in the new series of The Good Karma Hospital, a role that Amanda Redman has played since 2017 In the show, Amanda plays a strong-willed English doctor at the heart of the hospital. This series will see Lydia face a challenging task when a patient is the victim of an acid attack. While caring for the patient, she's forced to confront her own previous experience. But who is Amanda? We did some investigating and here's all you need to know about the actress.

Amanda Redman's early life and family

Amanda, 62, was born in Brighton to parents Ronald and Joan. When she was 18 months, Amanda suffered burns as a result of an accident involving a boiling pan, and is still badly scarred on her left arm today. After finishing school, Amanda then went on to train as the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and by the early 80s, she was appearing in BBC dramas such as adaptions of Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare plays.

MORE: Meet the cast of The Good Karma Hospital series three

Amanda was appointed an MBE in 2012

Amanda Redman's career

Throughout the eighties and nineties, Amanda started taking on role in many TV shows. She played the female lead in comedy drama series EI C.I.D., and starred in the first two series of Dangerfield in 1995, then went on to play a small part in Taggart that same year. In 2000, she featured opposite Ray Winstone in film Sexy Beast before going on to land a role that she's perhaps best known for, as Alison Braithwaite in ITV's At Home with the Braithwaites

In 2001, the actress even received a BAFTA TV nomination for her part in the show, and a nomination for Most Popular Actress two years later at the NTAs. The actress played Alison for three years before going to appear in other popular show New Tricks as DSI Sandra Pullman, a role she played for over ten years. New Tricks focused on the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad within the Metropolitan Police Service as they re-investigated crimes that had yet to be solved. Amanda played DS Sandra Pullman, the head of the UCOS unit. The actress was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours list for her services to drama. In 2013, Amanda announced her departure from New Tricks and Tamzin Outhwaite replaced her. Since leaving New Tricks, Amanda is best known for her role in The Good Karma Hospital as Lydia Fonseca, who she's played since 2017. 

MORE: Noughts + Crosses: the real story behind the book and show

Amanda plays Lydia in The Good Karma Hospital

Amanda Redman marriage and children

In 1984, Amanda married actor Robert Glenister. The couple share a daughter Emily together but divorced in 1992 after eight years of marriage. While married to Robert, it has been said that Amanda encouraged her then brother-in-law Philip Glenister to pursue acting. Philip then went on to star in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes and is currently starring in ITV's Belgravia. Amanda has since re-married mobile phone designer Damian Schnabel. The couple got hitched in 2010 in a romantic ceremony at Maunsel House in Taunton.

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