Tamzin Outhwaite back on TV in The Fixer

THE underground crime-fighters of The Fixer return to ITV1 for a second series on Tuesday.

And Ilford-born former EastEnder Tamzin Outhwaite, 38, is back as Rose Chamberlain - in her first role since giving birth to Florence a year ago.

She says: "It was like coming back to a family who had been very supportive during a very important time in my life. It felt really comfortable and I was really happy to back.

"It was just lovely to be working with the boys and the rest of the team again"

The first series saw Rose occupy a very specific role within the team, but as the second series begins, we see that not only has the drama stepped up a gear, so too has Rose's involvement in the missions.

Tamzin explains: "It was clear that in series one she was the team's honey trap, but obviously that skill isn't required on every case, so there were times when she just wasn't needed or wasn't integral to the plot necessarily.

"But this time out, she gets involved in a lot more of the action. She actually totes a gun and you see much more that she used to be a police officer.

"In the first series it seemed like these were just four damaged characters who just do one thing each, but in this series, you realise that they each have a variety of skills and get to put those to rather effective use."

Given that Rose is now right in the heart of the action, the role demanded that Tamzin handle firearms, something she is quite familiar with.

How does the actress feel about filming with guns?

"It's quite a bitter-sweet thing - I love doing all the action and because of all the training that I did for Red Cap, I don't feel like I've had to call on it that often really, so it's quite nice returning to something so specific that you've had quite a bit of training for and know that you're able to do it convincingly.

"Holding a gun and saying you enjoy it feels quite weird, especially now, as it represents such a dark time in our culture.

"You're quite aware that when you're out filming with a gun in your hand in London, you actually want to be hiding it and there is a real feeling of 'I hope no one sees us and thinks this is real'.

"But at the same time, the reality living out that film and TV cop dream is quite exciting and a real challenge."

While the team's trained killer, John Mercer, still performs the majority of the hits, there are some particularly brutal sequences involving Rose taking out a couple of marks.

Tamzin touches on the rarity of women like Rose Chamberlain on screen.

"You don't see characters like her very often and it's not just me saying that, as you can gauge it from people's reaction to her.

"Everyone sort of stops and says 'gosh what's it like to play her' which I feel is rather indicative of how few roles like Rose there are out there.

"Really, the only other one that immediately springs to mind is Roz from Spooks. Because so often, in dramas like this, women are the vulnerable ones, they aren't generally out there toting guns, making hard, horrible, unthinkable decisions. That's often left to the men.

"I think these characters are written almost with a male thinking to them.

"That's not a bad thing necessarily. I always used to think that women should be writing for women because women know about women.

"In a situation like this, I love the fact she doesn't come from an all-female stance. She's not regretful, remorseful, thoughtful, the victim, or vulnerable.

"She is pragmatic, she's practical, she gets on with it and she does her job. And then she still manages to live her life; read a newspaper, listen to music, without going over and over it in her head.

"She has resigned herself to thinking this is her job and she manages to have relationships within that job just after someone's killed people. She compartmentalises everything; her whole head is one big filing cabinet.