“You think about your own and everybody’s mortality and how this could happen to anyone. That’s the part that gets to me the most.”
It’s become one of TV’s most popular and gritty cop dramas.
But star Andrea Lowe says anyone who thinks DCI Banks has a gory element ain’t seen nothing.
“It can be a bit like that to film, particularly the pilot episode,” says Andrea as we catch up for a chat about this new series.
“I know that sometimes some of it is taken out in the editing because it’s just a bit too gory.
“There’s some pretty strong stuff in this series too and it can be a bit macabre in the mortuary with the bodies.
“I always think that there’s something about looking at a body, seeing wounds and wondering what happened.
“You think about your own and everybody’s mortality and how this could happen to anyone. That’s the part that gets to me the most.”
When I mention that we don’t seem to be able to get enough tough crime dramas Andrea agrees, enthusing about how much she enjoyed a recent Silent Witness starring an old pal.
And there are some tough cases for Banks again this time around.
The current two-parter, What Will Survive, sees the team investigating the dark world of vice after a young Estonian woman is found dead on a piece of waste ground.
The team in question are, once again, Stephen Tompkinson as the dour copper, plus Andrea and Caroline Catz.
Andrea is DS Annie Cabott and Doc Martin favourite Caroline is DI Helen Morton.
Caroline was brought in as a replacement for Andrea when she took a series off on maternity leave and the character worked so well she stayed after Andrea returned.
The duo team player Annie and awkward loner Helen rub each other up the wrong way, but Andrea would like more of that.
“Caroline’s really fun to work with and I sometimes think we don’t get enough stuff together,” she says.
“Because the storylines are so compact there tends to be certain amount with Banks and Annie and Banks and Helen and not so much with each other.”
There’s plenty to chat about between takes with Caroline a mum-of-two and Andrea mum to a bouncing two-and-a-half-year-old (she prefers to keep his name private).
“Terrible twos? Oh, he’s not terrible at all,” laughs Andrea, whose partner Terry works in fashion.
“He knows his own mind and he’s challenging everything is a debate. But he’s really good fun as well. I love him and he’s my best friend. He keeps me entertained.”
After settling back into the routine last year, Andrea says she felt fully back at home on the show this year. But, like every working mum, striking the right balance is key and the right amount of time off at home after the birth was paramount.
“You get a role and you want to prep and you want to get fit for it,” she explains.
“With the way I work I find it hard. It’s a skill I’m trying to learn. You want to immerse yourself in it and it’s hard to do that when you’re trying to get to grips with being a mum, which is a whole new experience.
“I couldn’t just go and work six weeks later unless it was something I knew very well and it was near home. I certainly wanted to do the bonding with my son.”
Although the Leeds-set filming takes Andrea away from home, she reckons the city and surrounding countryside give an important extra flavour.
“I love the Yorkshire locations,” she adds. “It’s so atmospheric and the landscape is really interesting.
“We deal with dark, unusual storylines I mean Yorkshire is obviously a very dangerous place in our eyes!
“You have that dramatic licence of all this stuff going on in one place. That’s the beauty of television, you’re allowed to get locked into this real/unreal world.
“I think I could definitely be a copper although I’m more into the psychology of it. I don’t know about the dead bodies, though.”
DCI Banks, ITV, Wed, 9pm.
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