Outhwaite's sleepless film schedule

Tamzin Outhwaite has said she had a tough time surviving on only a few hours sleep while she juggled filming New Tricks with a busy family life.

Mum-of-two Tamzin plays DCI Sasha Miller in the BBC One series and told OK! she had had a lot to fit into her day while making the programme.

The actress, who recently divorced husband of eight years Tom Ellis, described filming while looking after daughters Florence, four and Marnie Mae, two, as “lots of sleepless nights” and said: “It did get tricky at some points.

“But at work it almost felt like it was a rest because someone cooks you food and gives you lunch and people make you laugh. And someone gives you a makeover, so really I only have to worry about myself. I was well looked after at work, so it was just a phase really.”

She admitted: “It was seven months of having to knuckle down and of not getting much sleep. Sometimes the lines didn’t go in quite as well. Now I feel a great sense of achievement just getting to the end of filming.”

Tamzin added that some nights she hadn’t been able to get home in time to put the girls to bed, saying: “Three days on the trot I hadn’t seen them awake, but that’s the most it’s been.

“As a mum, you will forever have some form of guilt – whether you’re going out for a part-time job or doing those long hours – but you just kind of have to.”

Tamzin refused to talk about Tom, but said of how she copes: “I’ve got a nanny. She lives with us now. I wouldn’t be able to do it without her.”

Outhwaite's sleepless film schedule