EE: What happens to stars after they leave....

[SpursFan1902]

I don't know who to believe...it seems so outlandish that they would just chuck him if he didn't yell or make a scene.

[eefanincan]

I'm with you spurs --- seems a bit over the top if he wasn't acting out, but, I suppose you can still be an ass to one person and seemingly appear pleasant to others..... really only two people who know the truth here.

Can't say I miss his character really.

[SpursFan1902]

Nah, me neither. He was a nice guy and kinda wishy-washy. I know enough of those in real life!!

[Skylace]

That is a weird story indeed. My guess is maybe they knew where the conversation might go and decide to nip it in bud before it went any further. He should learn there is a time and a place though.
That being said, I don't miss Gus but I do hope Mo can get his life sorted out and get work again.

[Kezza]

Hmmm, what's the saying: "No matter how flat you make a pancake, it will always have 2 sides".

If he just showed up without an invitation, then the people in charge must have had a reason to exclude him -- whether it's a fair judgment, depends on who you ask, right?

Best of luck to Mo and hope he can move forward in a positive direction.

[eefanincan]

[Kezza]

[eefanincan]

Quite possibly.

My personal favourite though is ... "Did you fall out of the dumb tree and hit every branch on the way down?"

[faceless]

Shaun Williamson on playing Fletcher in Porridge at the Liverpool Empire
Mar 22 2010 by Laura Davis,
Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN Shaun Williamson describes his soap career you imagine a giant mouth scooping him up and trapping him behind sharp incisors for a decade. He was, as he puts it, “gobbled up by EastEnders for nine years” upon leaving theatre school at the age of 30, having decided to go into acting in his late-20s.

“Television is great for fame, it makes you famous purely because you get buzzed into everyone’s front rooms,” explains the man known by millions as “Barry from EastEnders” thanks to his regular slot in Ricky Gervase’s and Stephen Merchants’ comedy Extras. “It’s the easy option to keep resigning a contract but, you know, let’s face it, it’s a great job. There aren’t many jobs that give you that sort of money and you are doing something different every week even though it can look very similar. You get to play big things like murder and divorce.”

But itching for work in the theatre, he was delighted to land the role of Fletcher in Porridge, a part immortalised by Ronnie Barker in the 1970s TV show, in the touring production at the Liverpool Empire this week. “I used to watch it with my dad and it’s hard to believe that I’m now the age Ronnie Barker was then. I’m 45 now and a similar weight,” he chuckles. “Even at 10 or 11 I could see it was great writing. When you’ve got great writing and a great cast it’s comedy gold.”

He describes the role as “one of the reasons why you get in the business”, but admits he was initially daunted to be following in Barkers’ footsteps. “He was one of my all time favourite actors,” says Williamson, “but I knew the original writers were on board and that they’d have to approve me, so I thought if they’re happy with me playing Fletcher then I’m happy to do it.” Each half of the show is based on an episode of the hit TV series – there’s a rigged boxing match and an escape tunnel as well as plenty of recognisable gags thrown in. “It’s very true to the original, all the characters are in there,” he adds.

Williamson’s sense of humour was revealed to the nation when he agreed to appear as an unflattering version of himself in Extras – allowing the show to send him up as a struggling actor typecast by his EastEnders role. “Ricky just phoned me up on my mobile, he didn’t even go through my agent,” he recalls. “He said ‘do you want to be in it, everyone’s going to get the Mickey taken out of them’ and he reeled off some of the names that were going to be in it – Kate Winslet and Samuel L Jackson – and I thought if they’re willing to go for it, I am. It’s the best thing I ever did.”

PORRIDGE opens at the Liverpool Empire today and runs until Wednesday.

[faceless]

Ex-Eastenders star in thriller at Marina
02 April 2010
lowestoftjournal.co.uk

MANAGEMENT at the Marina Theatre have announced that a former Eastenders star is set to grace the Lowestoft stage later this month. James Alexandrou is best known for playing Martin Fowler in the hit BBC soap, but after performing at the West End and Shakespeare's Globe, he is now touring the country as part of the spine chilling thriller The Black Veil.

The chilling thriller, based on the short story by Charles Dickens and adapted for stage by John Goodrum, will be performed at 7.30pm on Tuesday, April 13 and Wednesday, April 14, with a 2.30pm matinee on the Wednesday.

------------------

[faceless]

Tamsin Outhwaite: 'Sweet Charity is the Hamlet of musicals'
The ex-EastEnders actress is finding nothing but joy in her latest role, says Euan Ferguson
Euan Ferguson
The Observer,
Sunday 2 May 2010

Meeting Tamzin Outhwaite is like meeting all the good bits that can come out of Essex. The fire, the kindness, the fast smoky laugh, the strangely old-fashioned work ethic, the legs, the happiness – today in particular. "It's quite something, isn't it," she says, pottering delightedly around her dressing-room high above the Theatre Royal, Haymarket; a splendid room, with space, and golds, and whites, and her name on the door. "Just think. This is where they've all – Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, all my favourites – pottered, I suppose, too."

We may have known her best, for a while, as Mel, the well-meaning barmaid with an enthusiastic part-time line as emotional hand-grenade, in EastEnders; or, in successive high-drama soldier/cop series where she was the go-to girl for stern/wise/troubled/sexy woman in a man's world. Today, however, she's preparing again for the lead in the Menier Chocolate Factory's production of Sweet Charity, now transferring to the West End after exuberant reviews.

Unlike some recent shows where "names" are shoehorned into singing/dancing roles, Sweet Charity uses a real hoofer: trained and successful in musical theatre when younger, Tamzin is still captivated by her favourite genre, and hopes she doesn't sound daft when she says this role is "the Hamlet of musical theatre". "There's still a real snobbery about that kind of acting – why? My daughter Florence, who isn't even two, was watching Gene Kelly on YouTube for hours the other day, just transfixed.

"Yes, there was a wariness when I was offered it." She is 40 this year. "I immediately thought: am I going to have the stamina? It's a mammoth role. Am I going to be able to rehearse, act, sing, dance, do it eight times a week, and be a mum? But the kind of joy that comes out of it helps, feeds into life anyway.

"Charity's never going to come around again for me – it's perfect, as opposed to films, where you'd often have to be away. My whole thing is balance. I need my family, too. I've still managed to tick just about all of the boxes I ever wanted. And I'm loving theatre, because it's braver, and doesn't confuse you with your baggage – there was often a weird snobbery about me having been on EastEnders." The legs, you're meant to say, are you not, go right up to her … neck or armpits or something, but let's turn it around: legs right down to the earth.

[faceless]

Gillian Taylforth stars in Mum’s The Word at Hanley’s Regent Theatre
May 26 2010
by Will Harris,
Crewe Chronicle

FORMER Eastenders actress Gillian Taylforth stars in a touring production of Mum’s The Word at the Regent theatre in Hanley next week. The show stops off for two nights, and sees Taylforth, also known for her roles in Footballers Wives and The Bill, joined by Coronation Street’s Tracy Shaw and Sally Ann Matthews.

Taylforth is known to most as Kathy Beale, who she played from 1985 until 2000, but more recently appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, but went out in the first round with partner Anton Du Beke. Mum’s The Word tells the stories of five women with a common bond, and is an intimate look at motherhood. It has played eight record-breaking UK tours and a West End run, and is now on the road again – liberating, enlightening and educating, but mainly just washing the secret, funny, dirty laundry of motherhood in public.

This award-winning production has received critical acclaim and attracted sell-out audiences throughout the world, including in Australia, Canada, and across Europe.

[faceless]

Todd Carty is keen on Corrie
Lisa Stocks
May 24, 2010
menmedia.co.uk

IT would be one of the unlikeliest castings in Coronation Street history, but legendary Eastender Todd Carty reckons he'd be up for a role in the Manchester soap should the opportunity arise. “You never say never in this business,” he laughs. “Maybe some young cockney wide boy who comes up, you've had a few of them in the past – maybe a new generation of Londonlad that comes in. Anyway, give them my number just in case.”

Modest words from the man who has not only played two much-loved characters with Grange Hill's Tucker Jenkins and Eastenders' Mark Fowler, not to mention the evil Pc Gabriel Kent in The Bill, but who delighted a nation last year with his stumbling antics in Dancing on Ice. And a career off the screen might also be an option for Todd, who has directed his first feature film The Perfect Burger with the British Youth Film Academy, which he hopes will be released nationwide at the end of October this year.

First up though for Todd is his role in the forthcoming touring production of hit musical Monty Python's Spamalot alongside Blackpool's Jodie Prenger and comedian Marcus Brigstocke. He's currently in rehearsals,and in In July he will be coming to Manchester Opera House, banging a pair of coconut shells and following King Arthur in the search for the Holy Grail.

And, as servant Patsy, he will be singing Python's perhaps most famous song, Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. “Singing has always been the opposite word,” he laughs. “I think with The Bright Side Of Life, you don't have to sound like Pavarotti or Placido Domingo so I'll blast my way through it.”

Well Todd, there's always the dancing – that's got to be better without the ice... “Well, I'm no twinkle toes but I've done enough musical theatre and enough Panto to get by,” he adds. 'Calamity' Carty came to the MEN Arena last year as part of the Dancing on Ice Tour. He has nothing but praise for the city's cheering skills. He tells me: “I have to say Manchester was the best, the most raucous, the most wonderfully loud audience we ever played to on the whole tour. It's a great city and lovely to go back again.”

Spamalot is at Manchester Opera House from July 5-10. For tickets call 0844 847 2295.

[faceless]

[faceless]

Budget vid is a belter
20/06/2010
mirror.co.uk

A British road safety video made on a shoestring has been named one of the world's best adverts. The 90-second film, starring ex-EastEnders actor Austin Spangler, beat 120 glitzy commercials for the award in New York.

--------------

I don't remember him being in Eastenders...