Amanda Redman came face to face with a snake whilst filming The Good Karma Hospital
The TV star got the shock of her life on coffee break
It’s not every day that an actress enjoying a well-earned coffee break suddenly feels her life’s in danger… from a deadly snake!
But that’s exactly what happened to Amanda Redman while filming ITV drama The Good Karma Hospital.
“I was sitting on the front steps of the set and suddenly this 5ft-long snake went by,” explains Amanda, 59, with a chuckle.
“I’d never seen one in the wild before and I stood up and went [in a panicked whisper]: ‘Snake! Snake!’
It was huge. The local crew said: ‘Don’t worry, madam,’ and just waved it away. The idea is, it’s not going to harm you if you don’t bother it, so you just go: ‘Er, okay.’”
It’s one of several exotic animal encounters Amanda had filming the six-part series in Sri Lanka – she also spotted a giant lizard that “looked like a mini-dinosaur” and filmed a scene with an “adorable” baby monkey.
Despite the brutal heat and humidity in Galle (which was chosen for filming to avoid monsoon season in India), Amanda looks effortlessly cool as we sit under palm trees in the grounds of a colonial-style teacher-training college.
It’s been suitably dressed down to become the show’s Indian hospital, and its crowded, colourful rooms suggest a medical centre run on a shoestring, but with love.
The drama, about the medics who run the hospital, stars Amanda as Dr Lydia Fonseca, a no-nonsense British surgeon.
In the first episode, she’s joined by young British-Asian doctor Ruby Walker (Game Of Thrones’ Amrita Acharia) who arrives from Britain expecting to work somewhere a little more upmarket.
“Lydia is passionate, opinionated and doesn’t give up, I really identify with her,” smiles Amanda.
“She’s a surgeon, so I have my hands inside people’s bodies dealing with all sorts of gruesome stuff.
"I absolutely loved it. We had great prosthetics and real theatre nurses doing the scenes with us, so that made it more real.”
Dr Fonseca is a central character, which meant Amanda had to remain in Sri Lanka during the entire four-month shoot and couldn’t fly home.
Her husband Damien came out to visit three times and whisked her off to the Maldives for their sixth wedding anniversary.
“He’s a very romantic man,” beams Amanda. Amanda’s co-star Phyllis Logan plays Maggie Smart, a British woman visiting India for her daughter’s wedding.
"When she falls ill, Maggie decides to make India her home.
"Phyllis joins us in the hospital grounds and explains she accepted the role because it was so different from her Downton Abbey character.
“Maggie is more upbeat than Mrs Hughes and with some nice modern frocks to wear. This ticked every box, really,” says Phyllis, 60. “Also, I didn’t want to be in a corset any more!”
Phyllis explains that she filled every spare second of her time in Sri Lanka with sight-seeing – she and Cold Feet actress Leanne Best, who plays Maggie’s daughter Debbie, stood for three hours on a cramped train to visit Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, and went early-morning whale-watching. Phyllis also visited an elephant orphanage.
“That was fabulous,” she enthuses. “I fed an elephant a bunch of baby bananas – this big pink tongue comes flopping out and you push the bananas inside and get covered in drool.”
Neil Morrissey saunters up to join us, clutching a drink to help remedy a bit of a dodgy tummy.
His deep tan is set off by a clashing outfit of Hawaiian shirt and checked shorts, which he explains is his costume as Greg McConnell, an ex-pat who owns the beach bar where all the medics hang out between shifts.
Neil reveals that he backpacked around Sri Lanka about 25 years ago and learnt to scuba dive and spear-fish here.
“Talk about art imitating life,” chuckles Neil, 54.
“Greg is one of those people who’s been here 20 years and absolutely loves it – and so do I. Everyone knows him and he knows everybody. He’s also in a relationship with Lydia and a loveable rogue.”
By bringing together two very different societies, The Good Karma Hospital showcases
a wonderfully colourful, exotic corner of India.
“The world of the hospital and mixing British and Indian cultures is just so exciting,” smiles Amanda. “This series means so much to me.”
NEW! The Good Karma Hospital Sunday 9pm ITV
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