BBC One's hit show The Responder has its finale tonight, with viewers keen to see how the tense police drama concludes.
Its main star, Martin Freeman, has won praise and five-star reviews for his portrayal of police officer Chris Carson, the perpetually angry, stressed officer on the edge who has been demoted to constable. His job responding to emergency calls has left him feeling constantly exhausted, as has his relationship with drug dealer Carl and addict Casey.
Freeman has long been known for his roles as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy, Dr John Watson in the BBC drama Sherlock and as Tim in Ricky Gervais' classic series The Office.
Away from the screen, Martin said recently that he will 'always love' his former partner. The star was in a relationship with fellow actor Amanda Abbington for 16 years from 2000 to 2016 and the pair have two children together, Joe and Grace.
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They met on the set of the TV movie Men Only in 2000 and have also starred in the TV series The Robinsons together.
From 2014 to 2017 the pair acted alongside each other as husband and wife in the BBC adaptation of Sherlock and the distance caused by Martin filming in the US, including for the Marvel film Black Panther, contributed to the split.
When Martin announced the news in an interview with the Financial Times, he said: "I’m not with Amanda anymore. It’s very, very amicable — I’ll always love Amanda."
Both Martin and Amanda have publicly said that the split was amicable and last year Amanda spoke as part of a mental health campaign saying that she believes the split has 'damaged' their children. She said: "I’m sure I’ve given them irreparable damage and they will be going to therapy because of me and Martin at some point." Both she and Martin are encouraging the children to talk openly about their mental health.
Amanda added: "Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable. There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn't live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we've started a new chapter.
"It is sad and it is upsetting, because you think you’re going to be with someone forever, but you either do that or you break up, and we both came to the decision that splitting was best for us. We've been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."
The 50-year-old Freeman now has a new girlfriend, French actress Rachel Mariam, 29, with reports of the couple's relationship emerging in 2020.
The couple have often been pictured together at events like the Raindance Film Festival in October 2021 and Rachel often shares photos of them to her social media.
Rachel was born in Toulouse and is now based in London. She has starred in the popular BBC Three series Normal People and the TV series This Way Up.
She is also a scriptwriter and has written and produced the TV series Call It A Day. This year she will feature in the new TV series Citadel starring Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci and Murder in Provence starring Keala Settle.
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