http://www.teletext.co.uk/tvplus/feature-interview/default.aspxen-gbWed, 15 Jul 2009 22:33:25 GMThttp://www.teletext.co.uk/images/Logo64x64.gifhttp://www.teletext.co.ukBy Kate Whiting - Forget Silent Witness et al, in the last six years New Tricks has become "the" crime show to watch.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/tv-plus/feature-interview/~4/aLxP_gg_xOY" height="1" width="1"/>
Viewing figures for repeats of the show regularly leave prime-time programmes trailing in the dust, and star Amanda Redman thinks she knows why.

Redman explains: "We get positive feedback from real officers, saying that out of all the police dramas on TV, we're the most true to real life."

She continues: "They say the banter and the humour is absolutely correct as well as the police procedure - we're really strict on that."

"It's weirdly happy, it is honestly!" she says.

"You even get crew members coming in saying, 'We love this, it's Monday again and we're at work'. How weird is that? It just doesn't happen normally, we must sound like the Waltons!"

New Tricks is back for a sixth series with what the cast describe as some of the most gritty cases yet, touching on racism, UFOs and Brian's alcoholism.

"The viewers are more comfortable with New Tricks now, so that allows you to go into a darker place without them feeling threatened," says Redman.

We last saw Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong) back on the bottle and his colleagues now have to deal with the effects.

"This series looks at the truth of how people cope with somebody, either colleagues or family, who drinks too much - and it's very lonely.

"There are some very heavy emotional episodes in this series."

All the characters have a few skeletons lurking in their closets, none more so than Jack Halford, played by James Bolam, who Amanda describes as the "darkest of all".

As for DS Sandra Pullman, she's torn between following police procedure and the boys' rule-bending tendencies.

An ambitious officer, she was sidelined into the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad after an incident in her former high-flying Scotland Yard career.

"The strength of New Tricks is that sometimes we can do some quite light stuff, but the next episode we can go really quite dark," says Redman.

It's one of those rare series where you can go anywhere, there is no ceiling on it." And for that reason, we may well see a seventh series next year.

"The BBC wants to do another one," she admits, "but there's no point doing it just for the sake of it. As long as we feel we've got something to give... but you just don't know."

Catch Amanda Redman in the sixth series of New Tricks, BBC1, Thursdays, 9pm.

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