Two ratings winning ITV1 dramas have already won commissions to make new series later this year.

Stephen Fry is set to return to Norfolk to make a third series of Kingdom and it is back to South Africa for Stephen Tompkinson to film a fourth series of Wild at Heart.

The third series of Wild At Heart burst back onto Sunday nights with more than eight million viewers and Kingdom’s second series won nearly six million viewers.

Wild at Heart, which also starred Amanda Holden, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Hayley Mills follows the lives of British vet Danny Trevanion (Tompkinson – Prime Suspect, Marian Again, In Denial of Murder) and his family as they struggle to expand their business and get along with their neighbours in the heart of the African bush. Read more & comment »

Britian’s Got Talent judge, Amanda Holden has revealed that the reason she left ITV drama, Wild At Heart, is because she thought the travel and prolonged trips from home were unfair on her two year old daughter.

Amanda told The News Of The World:

“It’s just got too much. I can’t have my daughter running around in elephant s*** any more,” Amanda told the News of the World. “Lexi’s two and hasn’t spent a summer in England yet. I can’t take her away from my family any more.

“It’s not fair, especially on my mum, to be out of the country for six months again. Wild At Heart was a huge experience and I don’t regret it for a minute, but I have to call it a day.” Read more & comment »

Wild At Heart actress has revealed that she hated the wedding dress she had to wear while filming soon to air scenes in the Austrailian outback.

Lucy-Jo, 24, told the Daily Star: “The dress I wore was beautiful. It was great when I put it on at 11am but by 6pm I was like, ‘Get me out of it!’

“It was heavy, it was itching, it was irritating and I had a headache.”

The popular series ends this week as the wedding is wrecked by a fire, and everyone rushes from the celebrations to save the animals in the safari park. Read more & comment »

Award winning actress Jessie Wallace joins the cast of Wild at Heart tonight as it returns to ITV1 for its third series.

Best known for her role as Kat Slater in EastEnders, Jessie will be trying out her stilettos in the African bush as Essex girl Amy Kriel.

Jessie explains that she jumped at the chance to play Amy in the successful ITV drama.

“I’d never been to Africa before so I knew it would be an exciting experience for me and Tallulah and it’s a great opportunity to play a fun character in such a popular show. I’ve always thought as soon as Wild at Heart comes on the telly you just want to sit down and watch it, it’s like nothing else on British TV.”

Talking of her character, Amy, Jessie says: “She comes across as scatterbrained but she’s actually quite a bright spark. I based her on a real Essex girl, bright and bubbly. She arrives on the show with a bang – quite literally as she drives into a cow. So she starts off on the wrong foot with Danny and the same with Sarah who is shocked to hear this woman shouting and screaming because she can’t find Mara, the reserve next door which Amy’s husband owns. Read more & comment »

Former Eastenders actress Jessie Wallace, has admitted to having botox, so as to keep her youthful features.

The 36 year old Wild At Heart star is scared of looking older than her 25 year old fiance, Tommy O’Neill, she stated: “He’s a boxer and so young and fit.

Jessie also told The Sun that she hopes never to return to BBC soap, Eastenders, saying:

“Hopefully, every part I play takes me a bit further away from Kat.”

This series Wild at Heart catches up with British vet Danny Trevanion (Stephen Tompkinson – Prime Suspect, Marian Again, In Denial of Murder) and his family as they strive to expand the veterinary practice and co-exist with their neighbours through a drought which grips the region.

Amanda Holden (Cutting It, Mad About Alice, Hearts and Bones) is Danny’s wife, Sarah, busy juggling work and family life, and Lucy-Jo Hudson (Coronation Street), as daughter Rosie, is keen to prove herself an able vet assistant to her father while romancing bar owner Max (Martinus Van Der Berg). Read more & comment »