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CELEB PEOPLE: WHY I'M GLAD TO BE GLAM AGAIN
Tamzin Outhwaite has the kind of style even army fatigues can't hide - but she's still delighted to be shrugging off the camouflage in her latest TV role.
"Look at these extensions," she grins, swinging her silky blonde locks. "Aren't they lovely? I'm so glad to be glam again. I've loved the gritty roles I've had since I left EastEnders last year, but it's great to be back with kitten heels, mini skirts and make-up."
Tamzin, 32, has tried hard to shed her sexy image as Mel Healey by appearing as tough-talking military copper Sgt Jo McDonagh in Red Cap, and as the single mum of a tearaway in the drama Out Of Control.
But now she's proved that she's more than just a soap star with big ideas, Tamzin is ready to go girly again as sexy confidence trickster Natalie Bingham in the new BBC drama, Final Demand.
As the ambitious clerk who devises a scam to defraud her employer of thousands of pounds, Tamzin gets to wear everything from high street style to over-the-top designer chic.
"I'm not desperate to be a sex symbol, or to be top TV totty," laughs Tamzin, who for three successive years was voted Sexiest Woman on TV. "But it's nice when a role comes along like this that's real trailer-trash glam with tight mini skirts and killer nails!"
Off screen, although her home life is never up for discussion, Tamzin confirms she's still with dance DJ Steve `Da Force' Ellington and is contented with her love life - and pretty much everything else, it seems. Apart from her increasingly successful TV career, she's just landed a plum contract to be the face of cosmetics giant Avon, which insiders say is worth £250,000.
Nevertheless, she remains grounded by her family and the ever-present niggling need to be liked that dogs even the most successful showbiz star.
"I'm waiting to see if fans will be shocked by seeing me on the wrong side of the law in this part," confesses Tamzin." I just hope people won't hate me because Natalie is a pretty dark character at times.
"She's a bit like Mel when she first arrived in Walford, a party girl who wants to have a good time and to live a little. But she's a tough cookie with a definite ruthless streak."
In Final Demand, Natalie loves the good things like swanky sports cars and a luxury home - but that's something that Tamzin doesn't share with her character.
"I'm not a material girl at all," she says. "I don't own diamonds. I don't live in a penthouse, in fact I don't own my house - it's me and the mortgage company.
"I'm uncomfortable with the idea of showing wealth overtly. The one thing I did buy was a big TV but even then my family said it was a bit nouveau riche!
"It's partly an East End working class thing as well. It's been ingrained in me. You don't splash your cash about and you make sure you get value for money!"
With her hectic acting schedule over the coming year, Tamzin doesn't have to worry about scraping by and she hopes to fit in a few holidays.
"There's a new series of Red Cap that starts in May, then there's a possible theatre project, and I want to do lots more travelling."
She admits that since she became so successful, going on lots of exotic holidays has been her biggest extravagance.
"Any time I have off, I go away. In the last year, I've been to Italy, Dubai, Thailand and Australia. And there are still masses of places I want to see.
"From travelling, you get so much more pleasure than from simply owning any old possession.
"You get loads of photos and stacks of wonderful memories. They are the sort of things money can't buy, no matter who you are."
Final Demand, BBC1, Easter weekend
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