Doctors: BBC1, 1.45pm, Monday to Friday; Decade of Doctors: BBC1, 2.15pm, Monday to Friday.

DIANE KEEN has a window free to talk, in between filming Doctors and getting fitted for a tap dancing costume. “Our characters are putting on a show for charity, so we’ve all been having tap dancing classes since October and I’ve learnt a new skill – isn’t that amazing?” says the 63- year-old.

Cast members have an extra spring in their step because the daytime drama, which follows the lives of practice manager Julia Parsons (played by Keen) and her team of doctors, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.

To mark the occasion, Keen – as the longest-serving cast member – is fronting A Decade Of Doctors, a week-long series of programmes dedicated to the show and its history.

‘‘It’s been running for ten years and I’ve been in it for eight. I have no idea where the time went, but it’s just nice to be associated with something that’s got better and better and we go on and on becoming even more successful,”

she says.

Viewing figures now regularly reach two million an episode and she points out the cabinet “packed with awards”, which greets the cast in reception each morning.

“It has changed a lot over the years, it’s grown up.

It’s become a fullyfledged, grown-up, worthy of primetime television show. I travel a lot so wherever I go people say, ‘oh, you’re in Doctors’.

It’s amazing, places like Dubai and Bahrain, and M o m b a s a , e ve r y wh e r e .

It’s massive in all these countries and they do put it on in prime time with an omnibus at weekends – pretty much everywhere except here,” she says.

One of the merits of Doctors, Diane thinks, is the bold way in which it treats subjects such as illness, rape and marital breakdown. “It’s totally unafraid to deal with very difficult issues,” she says.

“I don’t think there’s anything we haven’t or wouldn’t tackle. I’ve got a big storyline coming up, which tackles a very difficult subject and the good thing about it is we just do it, we don’t tippy-toe around it, which I admire.”

She’s tight-lipped about the aforementioned storyline but, she does let slip that it involves an illness (“which is unheard of because Julia is always well”) and a family reunion.

She adds: “It’s going to challenge her, really, it’s going to make her completely review her life.”

IT will be the latest in a string of blows for Julia who, despite her stern professionalism and fun-loving nature, has not had much luck in her love life.

Her relationship with husband Dr Brendan “Mac” McGuire (played by founding cast member Christopher Timothy) came to a dramatic end when she found out he was cheating on her with his ex-wife, Kate. In an episode which attracted the show’s peak viewing figures in 2006, Julia kicked him out and set fire to his golf clubs.

Neither did her rebound relationship with Chief Superintendent Leo Jackson bring her any comfort after he murdered someone in front of her, then tried to hold her hostage.

But she admits that Julia’s ill-fated love life has helped make her the determined woman she is today. “She’s become much more confident since the split with Mac.

“She used to be a very high-powered, medical exec-type person in a big hospital and that world is a very different world from the one she’s living in now.

“I think she’s dealing with real people now, patients, doctors, the admin side of things. She’s found this is good for her and she’s actually enjoying it and not just climbing up corporate ladders.”

Being on set for up to 14 hours a day, five days a week, and commuting to Birmingham each week from her home in Hampshire can also take its toll.

“You’re still working at weekends because you’ve got so many scripts to read and mark up, so weekends are not completely free either. A couple of the actors live in Birmingham and I do envy them because they get to go home every night to their own home.”