Talent show will be ’huge’, says Amanda - Mar 14 2008
Amanda Holden has promised TV fans Britain’s Got Talent will be better than ever when it returns to our screens next month.

The actress says she and the other judges - TV’s Mr Nasty Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan - took their time when it came to picking talent for the upcoming series.

"It took us a lot longer this year and Simon spat his dummy out on several occasions but it’s a better show than last year in my opinion. It took us a long time," she said.

"Last year I think it was much more an emotive show and it was highly emotional - this year I watched it with a different eye. I watched it for talent rather than the people’s stories and so it took a lot longer to connect but once I did the show was up and running, and it’s gonna be huge."

Britain’s Got Talent returns to ITV in April.

Amanda: I want to be in Doctor Who! - May 4 2007
Amanda Holden has pleaded for a role in Doctor Who.

The 36-year-old actress wants to play a baddie in the BBC One sci-fi show.

Appearing on ITV1’s Parkinson show alongside current Timelord David Tennant, Amanda said: "I am the only person I know who hasn’t been on Doctor Who. I want to be in it!

"I want to be really evil but glamorous, like the snow queen in Narnia."

Amanda recently announced she was quitting Sunday night show Wild At Heart, which is filmed in Africa, because she wants to spend more time with one-year-old daughter Lexi.

"It’s that cliche that your priorities are sorted," she told interviewer Michael Parkinson.

"Lexi comes first and I put her first. This will be my last series of Wild At Heart - I am not necessarily going out of it for good, but because of her I had to make this decision.

"I can’t keep taking my daughter away from her family for six months of the year. She is still my first priority."

Meanwhile, David Tennant talked about the enormity of playing Doctor Who.

"It’s more than a job," he said. "It is a bit overwhelming - you go into a supermarket and your face is on a cake.

"There are now underpants with my face on them, and that’s not a sentence I thought I would ever say on national television."

The interview will be shown on ITV1 tomorrow.

Amanda ’takes giraffes for granted’ - Jan 9 2007
Wild At Heart actress Amanda Holden admits that she’s got so used to filming out in the African bush, that she takes the stunning wildlife for granted.

"I completely take it for granted while I’m there now," she shrugs. "I’ll be having a cup of tea on the balcony during filming and a giraffe will walk past and we’re like, right," she shrugs. "It’s terrible. But, yes, it is amazing and beautiful."

The 35-year-old - who lives near London in Richmond with fiancé Chris Hughes, a record executive, and daughter Alexa - admits she still managed to miss city life after a while.

"I missed buildings," the Hampshire-born actress says. "I wanted chaos, traffic fumes - everything Ken Livingstone hates. And I didn’t want Ken Livingstone," she laughs. "Towards the end I just didn’t want to see any space, or sun, or dust, or beautiful creatures and gorgeous sunsets.