Redman has never been secretive about her scarred arm, and this is not the moment to start. On Thursday she presents a BBC1 documentary called Scar Stories, which looks at four incidents of scarring, three physical and one psychological, and learns how the various sufferers have coped.First, though, her own case history. When she was 18 months old she tipped a pan of boiling turkey and vegetable soup over herself, and was so badly burnt, and so traumatised, that at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex, she was pronounced clinically dead. The burns covered most of her body, and for the next few years her parents carted her around from hospital to hospital, depending on which specialist she needed to see.Her arm was the only part of her body permanently affected.

“And that,” she says, “was because infection set in.” Her mother, she adds, hates her talking about the accident and the scars, hates the fact that she is presenting this documentary. “She says to me, ‘why can’t you leave it alone?’ “Needless to say, the accident left her mother tormented by guilt. “To this day if she hears a child crying in a particular way…” Redman tails off; she doesn’t need to finish the sentence She herself has never ascribed blame. Rather, she admires her mother for resolutely not allowing her to feel like a victim.”I was brought up to think that there was nothing wrong with it, even to the point of going up to people and saying ‘look what I’ve got’. I say to her that she did such a wonderful job with me that she should feel proud when I talk about it.”But for an actress, who by definition spends her life being looked at, the scars must surely have caused some problems?”No, really Oddly enough, in fact, that’s how the acting started. When I came out of hospital I had so much energy, having been cooped up for so long, that my parents were told I was hyperactive, which in those days sounded like a mental disorder. So to let off steam, I was put into Saturday morning ballet class.

The trouble was, I had two left feet, and was bumping into other children all the time So then they put me into the drama class upstairs. And I loved it.”She remained serenely free of self-consciousness about the scars, even during the introspective teenage years “It was never an issue,” she says flatly. “Well, only once, when I was 22, and sitting in an Indian restaurant in Westbourne Grove (west London) with a boyfriend. I was asked to cover up because it was making my fellow diners feel ill And I did. Of course, that wouldn’t happen today.”Redman is now 42, and infinitely more angst-ridden about her age than her scars “Turning 40 was horrid,” she says. “I was so depressed on my 40th birthday, and I don’t understand when people say it’s marvellous I don’t like the fact that when it rains, my knees hurt.