6pm
If I’m at home, I’ll cook. My father Colin lives with me. When I moved him in, I had his place built at the end of the garden. I will often cook him something and then do something different for the kids. I always do different types of salad with meat. I’m trying to stay off bread and pasta because they make me sluggish.
Dad has been living with us for eight and a half years. He is 80 and has survived prostate cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer. He’s going through chemo at the moment so he is not very well at all. I spend a lot of time checking he is all right, bringing back all of his plates and cups as he only has a kitchenette. I’ll hang out with him. They say multi-generational living helps people to live longer. What is wonderful is the kids would never have spent so much time with their granddad.
7pm
I might see friends in bands or go to the theatre. From EastEnders I’m still in touch with Lucy Benjamin and Letitia Dean. I saw Natalie Cassidy for the first time in ages on Lorraine recently. I’m very close with Laurie Brett because we were friends at college. If I’m staying home with my kids, we watch television together, something such as Saturday Night Live, the UK version. We are also a bit obsessed with Amandaland. I’m trying to not drink wine at the moment. I love a glass of red but for me it’s always the cleaner the better. It would be tequila and soda, because it’s the cleanest alcohol and apparently it’s the only alcohol that isn’t a depressant.
10pm
I’m in bed. I have been known to go to bed before 9pm sometimes! I’ll read. I recently listened to Kathy Burke’s book A Mind Of My Own, just because I wanted to listen to her voice. I also listen to a lot of podcasts – like Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time, Gabby Logan’s The Mid-point, Gaby Roslin’s Reasons to be Joyful. I absolutely love Parenting Hell with Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett. Then I’m gone. I can sleep pretty much anywhere.
Tamzin, 55, shot to fame playing Mel Owen in the BBC’s EastEnders, a role she played from 1998 to 2002, returning in 2018 to 2019. She has also starred in New Tricks, Red Cap and Inside No.9. She lives in north London with her father Colin, 80, and children Flo, 18, and Marnie Ellis, 13, from her marriage to Tom Ellis, the Miranda star.
Tamzin Outhwaite stars as Beverly in Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party on a national tour before a West End run at the Harold Pinter Theatre from August 12. atgtickets.com