Amanda Redman knew from reading her Twitter feed that 'The Good Karma Hospital' was going to be a TV hit because the tweets were all positive.
Amanda Redman in The Good Karma Hospital
The 59-year-old actress plays Dr. Lydia Fonseca in the ITV drama which has just been commissioned for a second series.
Redman would regularly log on to her account on the social networking site when the episodes aired on Sunday nights to see what the viewers at home thought and once she saw the praise she was sure ITV bosses would give the green light to another run.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, she said: "I do pay a lot of attention to the reaction on social media actually, because these days it's very important. It's the voice of the people and it's certainly listened to by the bosses at ITV so it would be silly not to take notice of it to be honest. Social media can be a bit scary, but that's because I'm not used to it, but it's extraordinary and it's rather lovely to hear what people think, especially if it's positive, I'm not sure I'd like it if it was negative! When it's positive it's great."
Redman was online for the series finale and tweeted her thanks to all the fans of the programme - which also stars Amrita Acharia as Dr. Ruby Walker, James Floyd as Dr Gabriel Varma and Neil Morrissey as Greg McConnell.
She posted: "A huge thanks to you all for your continued support and lovely tweets. Thrilled you enjoyed the series #goodkarmahospital (sic)"
Redman insists she hasn't been targeted by trolls yet on Twitter much to her relief.
She said: "I haven't experienced any trolls yet."
Redman can't wait to get out to Sri Lanka for the second series of 'The Good Karma Hospital' because it was such a "fulfilling" experience for her to play Dr. Fonseca, especially as she gets offered many roles that are uninteresting to her as an mature actress.
She said: "This has been such a fulfilling role, it's a great role for someone of my age and that's why I wanted to do it. This character is very interesting, she's very multi-layered and I like her - that always helps!
'The Good Karma Hospital' is available now on DVD from RLJ Entertainment's Acorn label.
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