Life After Albert Square
Former EastEnders actors continue to find gainful employment beyond Albert Square on various U.K. stage and television programmes.
Let's catch up with some old favourites.
* Leslie Grantham (Den Watts) wasted no time after leaving the show for good this past February, starring in Jeffrey Archer's Beyond Reasonable Doubt, which is touring England March through July 2005. He plays distinguished QC Sir David Metcalf, who is conducting the most important defence of his career - his own. Accused of murdering his terminally ill wife, Grantham's character finds himself locked in legal combat with his old arch enemy. The play revisits that fateful night, as the whole truth is revealed in this nail-biting thriller.
U.K. correspondent Rachey Sim reports, "Having met Leslie Grantham on several occasions over the years, I can confirm he is an utterly charming, witty, sophisticated, caring person. He also happens to be a damned fine actor. Having worked as a production assistant on EastEnders, I can vouch that Leslie was without doubt the nicest, most down-to-earth cast member, who appreciated the audience, and realised that without them, the show would not exist. He always had time to stop and say hello, sign autographs for fans waiting at the gates and generally help out wherever there was a problem. Anyone who has ever met or worked with him will tell you the exact same thing. During my four years as 'Dr EastEnders' on the official BBC website, I received more questions about Leslie, than any other character past or present."
* Roberta Taylor (Irene Hills) plays Gina Gold in police drama The Bill on ITV1.
"This is the most demanding, emotional stuff that I've ever had to do," said the actress, who, after EastEnders, also starred in U.K. programmes Family Affairs and This Life, before joining The Bill over two years ago.
* Following winning notices as Hugh Grant's love interest in the 2003 film Love, Actually, Martine McCutcheon (Tiffany Mitchell) spent three and a half months driving around Los Angeles, going for TV roles, the Daily Mail reported recently. "I just knocked down every door and auditioned for everything," she said.
McCutcheon eventually landed a role in an NBC pilot called Lies and Wives, and is waiting to see if the network picks it up.
"I'd see some fellow Brits out there [while auditioning]. You literally do have these girls in the corridors, all done up like Barbie dolls, reading their scripts and dressed up for the part - so if it's something set in 1940s France, they've got a beret on."
McCutcheon realises that life in Hollywood might have its drawbacks. "There's a cost to your soul and your sincerity. I saw lots of sad stories in America - and I saw what can become of you. You have to stay really strong. When I came home, I could feel the hardness, like a protective armour that I had put around myself, peel away."
* Another former EastEnders actor that clearly has her sights set on Hollywood is Tamzin Outwaithe (Melanie). She appears on the poster of the yet unreleased film 7 Seconds, also starring Wesley Snipes.
* Nicola Stapleton (Mandy Salter) played a devious, homeless girl in EastEnders, so it appears a bit of typecasting that landed her a role a decade later in the female prison drama Bad Girls, which is now in its seventh season. (The first season just hit U.S. DVD; see page 13 for review).
"I don't know why I've not done [Bad Girls] before," said the 30-year-old actress, who a few years ago played a hard-drinking, sex-mad guitarist in the U.K. series The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star.
"I didn't want to do too much mainstream TV for a while, after having done a lot. I wanted theatre and film as much as I could. But having done quite a few films and stuff in the last few years I thought it was time to get back on the box."
* Dalip Tahil (Dan Ferreira) in March won a 14-month fight with the government to be allowed to remain in Britain, reported The Guardian. Tahil, who was forced to leave EastEnders when the Home Office said he was working illegally, received an apology from the British government's immigration minister.
Tahil came to Britain in 2002 to appear in the West End musical Bombay Dreams. The BBC then picked him to play the head of a new Indian family in EastEnders.
After a complaint from the actors' union Equity, which said the BBC had not done enough to make sure that there were no Asian actors already in Britain who could do the job, he was dropped. Tahil endured more than a year of wrangling with the immigration services. He now plans to stay and work in Britain.
* Michelle Collins (Cindy Beale) and Ray Panthaki (Ronnie Ferreira) are currently working on a film called Don't Stop Dreaming.
* John Altman (Nick Cotton) made a guest appearance in April on the U.K. pre-school, children's TV show Balamory.
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