Blast From the Past: Nicola Stapleton on Life After Mandy
By Larry Jaffee
In true tabloid tradition, a headline in an early issue of the Walford Gazette bellowed: MANDY TO WALFORD: STOP ME BEFORE I STEAL AGAIN!, amid a photo of her running on the lam with what looks like a bottle of milk in her hands.
“Probably was a bottle of booze,” quips Nicola Stapleton, via a transatlantic phone connection, laughing heartily, in an exclusive interview with the Walford Gazette. Mandy left EastEnders in 1994 after a three-and-a-half-year stint, and even though she’s achieved other successes in British telly, such as the women’s prison drama Bad Girls and more recently the U.K. soap Emmerdale, which she joined last fall, it’s her portrayal of Walford’s one-time troubled youth Mandy Salter for which she’s best remembered.
“I’m 35 this year and when I joined EastEnders I was 19,” says Stapleton, who has been acting since she was 6 years old. When Stapleton was an EastEnders cast member and at the centre of several powerful storylines, including one Christmas cliffhanger, the show typically drew 20 million viewers. “You tend to forget you’re in people’s front rooms.” Asked who were her closest mates on the set of EastEnders, she names Sid Owen (Ricky), Todd Carty (Mark) and Patsy Palmer ¬(Bianca) – “the young crowd.”
She thoroughly enjoyed the experience being on the show, but admits that even as a young actress, she wasn’t an EastEnders fan, which actually worked to her advantage, Stapleton believes. Otherwise, “you can become a little bit judgmental.” So she never really watched the show while she was on it or now; nor had she watched Emmerdale or Bad Girls for that matter. “I don’t have time to watch TV.”
EastEnders gave her good training in a technical setting with multiple cameras. She took mental notes how other actors worked. She did find the continuing serial’s around-the-clock schedule grueling when compared to the less taxing schedule of a sitcom or non-soap drama. “That’s six months of your life. It frees you up to do other things,” Stapleton adds.
Mandy typically would share her hard luck story with anyone who’d listen in the Square: Mark was often in the mix; Ricky was good for a shag. The troubled daughter of a prostitute then quickly latched onto the hunky but naïve Irish football prodigy Aidan, whose once promising professional career was cancelled due to injury. The couple left Walford, presumably to Ireland, homeless and trying to get off drugs.
Stapleton notes that she stays in touch occasionally with Sean Maguire, who played Aidan. He’s gone onto a successful acting career in the States, including roles as Donovan Brink in the UPN sitcom Eve, and as Kyle Lendo in the CBS sitcom The Class, as well as the feature film Meet The Spartans in 2008. “I bump into him in London; it’s always good to see him,” says Stapleton, who also has worked occasionally in the U.S. “Things are difficult stateside. It’s harder [to make it as an actor] in LA.”
She points out that it was her decision to leave EastEnders at the time. “I had an offer to work in LA. I wanted to do some other things, and EastEnders is strict about the cast doing other things,” Stapleton explains, adding that she didn’t leave on bad terms. Her character in Bad Girls, Janine Nebeski, would appear to be Mandy a bit older. She went to prison for a five-year sentence, convicted of credit card fraud. The official website says: “Janine broke her mum’s heart when she was arrested and the rest of her family disowned her when she was sent down. Used to work in a high street fashion store where she masterminded a lucrative scam involving credit cards. Janine is a selfish, uneducated, thick-skinned and mouthy little madam. She thinks she knows it all. She has an opinion about everything and is always ready to dish out advice. Basically, Janine loves the sound of her own voice and she’s not afraid to speak her mind, although chances are that she’ll say one thing to your face and another behind your back.”
Bad Girls allowed Stapleton to be reunited in 2006 with Sid Owen (Ricky), who played a prison guard Donny Kimber, but that didn’t stop him from getting involved with inmate Janine, who should have appeared familiar. Stapleton told a British newspaper, “I’ve snogged Sid before so it was revisiting old ground. We had a little thing going on EastEnders. He’s definitely got better. He’s obviously had loads of practice since then. It’s just as well because there are many saucy scenes. It was lovely to see him again. We've bumped into each other out and about at events but it was nice to spend some proper time together.”
Stapleton’s character in Emmerdale, Danielle, is described as a “streetwise Londoner,” although she too gets into police trouble.
Danielle made her first appearance last September. One wonders whether Stapleton is typecast?
The actress is taking matters into her own hands by developing and co-writing a sitcom. She’s presently pitching it with her writing partner.
“Keep your fingers crossed that it gets commissioned. [EastEnders] always left the door open for Mandy to return. At the moment I’m quite happy to be doing what I’m doing.”
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