Rod Stewart makes feelings clear on wife Penny Lancaster's 'mad' career choice: 'You've changed'

During her time on the show, she often arrived home enthusiastic and excited about the day she had and would stay over in Peterborough - where the show was filmed - if her shift pattern allowed her to do so.

As a result, Lancaster told The Times: "There’s something about getting justice for people. My husband, in particular, was shocked at how enthusiastic and how excited and what a buzz I was on, every time I came home.

"Sometimes I didn’t come home, because it would be late shifts and we’d stay up. We were filming in Peterborough with the Cambridgeshire police. I’d stay over for the next shift the next day, depending on the pattern."

After the show came to an end, Lancaster decided that she wanted to continue to pursue her career on the force and decided to tell her husband and children about her huge career change.

"When I first told them the idea of joining, they thought I was absolutely mad. And also, being young lads, my sons didn’t think it was cool. But now they’re so proud. It’s a complete turnaround.

"I think it’s because they’ve heard the stories and seen the change in me. To begin with they were like, ‘Mum, you’ve become stricter. I don’t like this.’ And even Rod would say, ‘You’ve changed. You’re more forceful, you’re more this, you’re more that'."

Whilst the decision was partly to do with the Channel 4 series, it also came after her battle with menopause: "There is a change in me because the training is not just how to handcuff someone, learning legislation.

"They teach you about morals and ethics and they teach you about the natural unconscious bias that you have. So yes, I might stand up for myself more, talk out more."

Lancaster previously spoke about a horrific ordeal she went through as a teenager, and recalled back in 2017: "I found myself face-down on a bed with him on top of me. He was a guy that I had worked with. I was naive and I trusted him."

The wife of the Maggie May singer was recently involved in King Charles' coronation, and told Good Morning Britain: "It was the most fabulous day and of course, tremendously proud and honoured to have been given that opportunity, along with the City of London Police, that I’m a special constable for.

"There were the regular officers and then the specials (on duty) and, of course, we volunteer our time to help with the duties of policing, and we were stationed on Whitehall, right opposite 10 Downing Street, just behind New Scotland Yard."

Lancaster also worked during Queen Elizabeth's funeral and said: "Our main message to us was to be smart and look smart, and to be alert and just to inform our inspectors and those officers in the crowd if we saw anything suspicious but luckily it was a fantastic atmosphere…

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"Lancaster added that they had also been briefed about 'some of the dangers that could occur', including horses getting spooked and said that if someone attempted to come over the barrier, I would have most certainly intervened."

The Loose Women panellist said she was "really, really proud of our Royal Family and the connection that they have around the world."