Tamzin Outhwaite: 'I'm not a fan of HD'

Tamzin Outhwaite: 'I'm not a fan of HD'
Tamzin Outhwaite: 'I'm not a fan of HD' (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Tamzin Outhwaite has said she is not as comfortable seeing herself on screen as she used to be. The former EastEnders actress, 41, who recently co-starred in an episode of Silent Witness with her husband Tom Ellis, said high-definition put her off. "As I get a bit older I don't like to see myself on screen quite so much, because everything gets shot in HD and you think to yourself, 'Why don't they just get 16-year-old models?'," she said. "I love the immediacy of theatre and the feeling you get from staying with a character for a whole evening, but I also love seeing the finished product of a TV show when it's been edited well and put together, because you have no idea when you're doing it what it's going to turn out like." Tamzin is playing Molly in a film version of Great Expectations, directed by Mike Newell. "I'm sharing a bed with Ralph Fiennes at one point, and being the housekeeper to Robbie Coltrane, which was a lot of fun," she said. The actress added of the prospect of working with her husband again: "I think people see me as a drama actress and him as a comedy actor, and at home it's the complete opposite, I've got the jokes and he's got the drama!"

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.