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

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Ex-Walford dweller bags comedy role

Ray Panthaki appeared in more than 150 episodes of EastEnders between 2003 and 2005 and he's been much in demand since leaving Walford, starring in the projects Blessed, Kidulthood and Strictly Confidential.

Later this year, the actor, who made his name as Albert Square's resident DJ Ronny, can be seen in big-screen comedy drama City Rats. It centres on eight eclectic characters, including a suicidal woman and a struggling artist in search of a muse. The supporting cast includes Doctors and Holby City veteran Natasha Williams. It also features James Lance, who was writer Tom Warren in acclaimed soap-related comedy Moving Wallpaper.

Later this year, Ray Panthaki can also be seen in a new version of Shakespeare's classic play, The Comedy of Errors.

[Skylace]

I remember when I saw him on 28 Days Later. I am glad he is doing stuff after the terrible Ferreira family.

[eefanincan]

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Permission to laugh, sir
By Catherine Lofthouse
hertfordshiremercury.co.uk

A much-loved classic sitcom is on the march towards the Alban Arena, after Dad's Army made the transition from screen to stage. The Mercury caught up with former EastEnder Leslie Grantham, who plays Private Walker, to find out how the show has been going down around the country.

Leslie, 61, said: "The audience reaction so far is they're really enjoying it. They do say, 'You were just like watching the television, you look just like the characters. Some of us don't look like the characters, but because it's staged so well and we're all doing the best job we can, the audience seem to appreciate it and some people come back two or three times. It's a good family show. When you see the scripts, you realise how funny they are and what great observations about certain types of people there are. It contains characters everyone can identify with. Everyone knows those types of people. That's why it's held in such affection."

It's a chance for fans to see two lost episodes that were only ever screened once before a hapless BBC engineer recorded over them. In one of them, wheel-dealer Walker is called up into the army and Mainwaring sets about trying to get him out of it.

The current run is proving so successful that the production team may stage another set of episodes next year. Leslie has already signed up and added: (Writers) Jimmy Perry and David Croft are ecstatic about what's happening on stage and Jimmy Perry wants to write some new stuff for the next one."

Leslie is looking forward to returning to the Alban Arena, where he appeared in panto as Captain Hook in Peter Pan. The star has spent the past three years doing nothing but theatre, after being killed off in EastEnders for the second time in 2005. He recently released his autobiography detailing his rollercoaster life, including his conviction for the murder of a German taxi driver in 1967. He was also caught up in an internet sex scandal during his second stint in EastEnders in 2004.

Leslie said: "I do wear a hair shirt about most things, but you can't go around shutting yourself off from the world. The public have been very good to me and I take my lead from them."

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Life after death for Nigel Harman
Getting bumped off on EastEnders has proved a smart move for Nigel Harman.
Bruce Dessau
timesonline.co.uk

Watch EastEnders these days and it feels like doing the time warp. Ricky is back, Bianca is back. But there is one character who will never sink a pint in the Queen Vic again.

Dennis Rickman was viciously stabbed to death at the end of 2005 and that is how actor Nigel Harman wants it to stay. “It scares the bejesus out of me to go out of my comfort zone, but that’s why I’m here.” “Here” is the Menier Chocolate Factory near London Bridge, where Harman is currently starring alongside James Dreyfus and Reece Shearsmith in a revival of Simon Gray’s The Common Pursuit, a witty, engaging ensemble piece following a group of Cambridge chums from the Seventies to the mid-Eighties. We meet on a squashy sofa in the theatre’s restaurant while the soft-spoken star indulges in a mid-rehearsal steak sandwich.

The actor is relaxed and affable, popping his motorbike helmet down and settling back. The helmet is a handy device for avoiding attention, which he still gets from avid Rick-manites nearly three years on. The volatile charmer Dennis grabbed the limelight and ramped up the ratings. In two years he had his fair share of headline-grabbing plots, thumping Phil Mitchell and working his way through the female cast before marrying his adopted sister Sharon (it’s a soap, these things happen). It ended in tears of course, and he was bumped off at the height of his fame, breaking the hearts of his devoted fans. It was Harman’s decision to swap soapy security for freelancing, but it is working out nicely, with TV and theatre vying to keep him busy.

In The Common Pursuit he cuts a swath through the female population as Peter, a philanderer who divides his time between academia in Cambridge and womanising in London. The production is being performed in the period it was set, which is essential. Peter gets away with his duplicity because his wife, Erika, can never track him down. Mobile phones would have scuppered his shenanigans. “We did think of having a brick-type phone in one of the later scenes. They were just coming in then, but I don’t think these were the kind of people that had them.”

Quitting EastEnders is always risky. Michelle Ryan, who played Dennis’s conquest Zoe Slater, may have become Hollywood’s Bionic Woman, but for every ex-icon in LA there are dozens doing panto. Harman set his sights on the theatre but quite a few notches above Aladdin. Before his death had even aired, he was appearing in the West End as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, replacing Ewan McGregor.

Critics were shocked that he was suddenly singing and dancing but it was in his blood. Before Albert Square, Harman had been making a good living in musicals on cruise ships. EastEnders increased his box-office clout and helped him to land the role, but it was not all plain sailing. “I’d worked with the director Michael Grandage before at the Donmar and they wanted a name so we fitted, but I still had a five-hour audition. I was put through the ringer.”

Since then he has squeezed in more heavyweight drama, playing Mick in The Caretaker. “Acting with David Bradley was a masterclass.

Then I did a week on The Exonerated.” This was a harrowing piece based on death-row testimonies and came as a shock to the fanbase that snaps up tickets for everything with his name on: “They came expecting another Sky Masterson and there’s me talking about being gang-raped in the showers every day for 20 years.” The youthful 34-year-old decided to leave EastEnders precisely to confound expectations. There have been various TV projects, the thriller The Outsiders, playing a Hogarthian transvestite in City of Vice, the C4 comedy pilot Plus One which is now going to series – but Harman’s first love is the stage.

This sounds like a cliché but it rings true. While Peter in The Common Pursuitis someone who does not want to leave the education system, Nigel could not wait to leave and be an actor. He grew up in Woldingham in Surrey and his bank manager father sent him to Dulwich College. But Harman did not aspire to the dizzy heights of academia.

“I was never comfortable sitting down. I always wanted to get involved in something, not just learn and write. I was in so much trouble I had my own desk in detention.”

One reason Harman lacked academic motivation was that his acting career had already taken off. At 8 he had an agent and his first TV role in an Oxo advert. After studying at the Arts Educational School he worked consistently in musicals such as Mamma Mia!

But by 2000 he was becoming jaded with the kind of roles he was landing and started to pull in favours, only agreeing to do cheesy hoofing if he could also be in well-regarded plays. “I wasn’t exactly blackmailing directors, but when I was offered musicals I said, ‘I’ll be a pirate if you let me do Shakespeare or ten lines in The Three Sisters.’ ” For a while he opted out and delivered for Sainsbury’s. Then in 2003 he was offered EastEnders. Two years later, having produced a baby to keep the Den dynasty going, he was gone in a blaze of New Year’s Eve fireworks.

“Being killed off was very much my choice. They asked me to keep things open, but I said, ‘Let me die onscreen so there is no is-he-or-isn’t-he? ’ ”

Part of the reason Harman may have got itchy was the press intrusion. He describes the attention of the red tops as “tabloid barbarism”. Yet looking at his cuttings, he has had a gentle ride. In fact it is hard to see what Harman even gets up to off-screen apart from playing backgammon and getting depressed at Crystal Palace matches.

“There is a difference between acting and being a celebrity. I’m not a red carpet junkie,” he says firmly. “The people that I know that read about themselves, it brings them nothing but unhappiness.”

It is hard to unpick Harman’s personality because he gives little away. When I ask him how much I can ask about his personal life he replies: “Not much. I’m very clear about what’s mine and what’s for public consumption. What you bring into the public arena you can’t take back.”

Well readers, after my inquiries I can reveal that he rides a Triumph motorbike and lives somewhere in North London. One thing that crops up during research is Harman’s status as a gay icon. Admittedly, most men between 18 and 50 who have worn a T-shirt on television seem to have followings on gay websites, but there is speculation about his sexual preferences.

“You can see anything if you Google hard enough. You could probably find out that people are sleeping with horses.” He chuckles, but the shutters are coming firmly down. “It’s my private life. I am a straight man and have been all my life, but to tell you the truth it’s not really for public consumption. Congratulations, I'd find it quite a difficult question to ask.”

Luckily, he is diverted as a little chilli sauce drips out of his steak sandwich and the conversation moves on. Just like Harman is moving on. So no chance of a return to EastEnders? Not even as Dennis’s long-lost twin? “It’s not going to happen,” he grins. Given his success elsewhere, he is probably right.

[pirtybirdy]

I still can't get around how so many hot actors leave great shows like Eastenders and Coronation Street to do plays and such. Seems like a step down to me.

[misslisalynn]

I'm glad Nigel is happy doing his theatre work but does he have to make it sound like a fate worse than death at the suggestion of a return to EE? It was EE that made him a household name so a little gratitude to the genre would have been nice.

[eefanincan]

I think you're right misslisalynn....... but on the same respect, I think he's coming from the point of his career is so much more than just EE. Either way, it was nice to hear what he's up to.

If I'm not mistaken, I think he played in a TV miniseries with Stephanie Beacham called Tenko, when he was a little kid, just starting out in acting.

Thanks for posting, Face

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Ex EastEnders MEP pays gay lover £30,000 to be his secretary
By Ian Drury
10th June 2008

Michael Cashman, the former EastEnders actor turned Labour MEP, pays his gay lover £30,000 of taxpayers' money to be his secretary. Paul Cottingham receives the cash even though he is also the director of a public relations firm.

Mr Cashman, the West Midlands Euro MP, employs civil partner Mr Cottingham as an 'accounts manager, payroll administrator and personal manager' from his parliamentary expenses, according to the European Parliament's register of interests.

Mr Cottingham - who has been with Mr Cashman for more than 20 years - also runs Cause Celebre, a high-profile PR firm that has hosted a string of glitzy events for the Labour Party. At one fundraising dinner for the Scottish Labour Party, Tony Blair - the then Prime Minister - was the guest speaker. Gordon Brown also attended a fundraising event ahead of the 1999 European elections, when Mr Cashman was voted in.

The revelations will lead to more questions over exactly how MEPs on the Brussels gravy train use taxpayer-funded expenses. There is no suggestion any Brussels rules have been broken, but critics asked how Mr Cottingham can justify his £30,000 a year salary when he is director of a PR firm.

Neil O'Brien, the director of thinktank Open Europe, said: 'This opens up serious questions about how Mr Cottingham can combine both roles. Is he providing value-formoney for a salary of £30,000 a year if he is also the boss of a PR firm? 'Mr Cashman should be prepared to publish his expenses in full to show that everything is above board.'

Mr Cashman was the first major gay actor in a British soap when he played Colin Russell in EastEnders. His character was the first male to kiss another man in a UK soap opera.

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Former EastEnder heads to The Bill

ITV1 crime drama The Bill has become a stomping ground for soap stars past and present, and the latest guest star is no exception. Shaun Williamson is the latest familiar face to turn up in the show, playing gang leader Dave Monks, who comes under scrutiny during an international drugs smuggling investigation.

Williamson told The Sun: "I had forgotten about the long days and how hard the actors and crew work on a continuing drama. But everyone has been fantastic to work with."

The actor, who won legions of devotees as inept Albert Square car dealer Barry Evans, went on: "I am really chuffed with the character and storyline I have been given. Playing a villain is something I want to do more of!"

After starring in EastEnders for nine years, between 1994 and 2003, Williamson gained a new army of fans with his comedic turn in hit sitcom Extras. He has also shown off his impressive singing skills, both on the small screen in last year's Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, and on the stage in shows such as Saturday Night Fever in the West End. His credits also include roles in BBC series Funland and Fairy Tales.

Williamson will appear in The Bill in August.

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[eefanincan]

These attacks can be debilitating for a lot of people. I find it kind of interesting that she'd be this open in a magazine but maybe she's hoping to help others.

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Alex Ferns: I'd love to take Taggart back to the 60s
Jun 13 2008
By Rick Fulton

ALEX FERNS reckons television has turned its back on him because of his most famous role as Trevor Morgan in EastEnders. Five years after he finished working on the soap, he has barely worked on the small screen - despite being hugely successful as Little Mo's tormentor. A small part in Casualty last year was the latest in a long line of parts that have kept him in work, but haven't given him another big hit.

He played Mark Antony in Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire and starred in Low Winter Sun, Dream Team 80s and last took the lead role of Commander Martin Brooke in Making Waves in 2004. Four years ago, he also played career officer Gordon in the highly-acclaimed trilingual film Joyeux Noel, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTAs.

Turning 40 this year and with two young children, Alex admits he's only kept going as an actor because of theatre work. He said: "It's a tough one, although I really loved doing EastEnders it has been hard to get seen for stuff because of that character. That character was so imbedded in the public imagination it is very hard to move out of it. In theatre and film, I'm definitely not seen as a soap actor. I get auditions and I'mseen for everything, really good stuff. But for television, I'm just waiting for someone to have more imagination and cast me in something to break the mould of Trevor. But it's been very hard to break the stigma of Trevor."

But the bear-like Alex, whose voice sounds like he's been gargling gravel, has a plan. He said: "I'd love to do Taggart. I'd love to be Taggart in a prequel to the series. I could be the young Taggart. I love it, it's such a great show."

Alex is on to something there. He could easily look like the younger Taggart, who was played by Mark McManus until he died in 1994, and has the same gruff voice and build. And judging by the on-going success of the STV series, which has been on our screens for 25 years, and the big audience figures of BBC's time-travelling cop shows, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, a Taggart prequel, set in Glasgow in the Sixties, Seventies or Eighties, could have real potential.

Alex, who is back in Scotland, starring in the Agatha Christie play, And Then There Were None at the Theatre Royal Glasgow from June 23, is open to any work offers that brings him back over the border to work. River City is also an option for the London-based actor. He said: "I'm open to anything at the moment. The recession means even this industry is in a state. It's very tight in the acting world. If you have a few movies under your belt, like Ewan McGregor, you're fine but the rest of us have to make do with what's out there and get on with it."

Alex left EastEnders in 2002 after an incredible run that saw him become Britain's most reviled TV baddie. His character Trevor terrorised and even raped his wife Little Mo who, eventually, lamped him with an iron in one of the soap's most memorable moments, watched by 17million viewers. But the raging wife-beater came back and tried to kill them both in a house fire that took his life.

At the time, Alex even received a death threat and admits when he met people in supermarkets or book shops, the colour would drain from their faces. He said: "There was a death threat. I thought it was a joke but I arrived at the Baftas and wasn't allowed to stop to have photos taken and sign autographs. I was walked up the carpet by a security guard, which was quite odd."

He picked up Best Newcomer and Best Villain at the 2002 Soap Awards, so couldn't he just become another TV baddie? While he claims people on the street no longer flinch when they see him, those television bigwigs do. He said: "Even trying to be seen as a television baddie is difficult. Trevor was so strong and the storyline so strong that it's very difficult to change people's attitudes about it. I was brought up in South Africa and can even speak Afrikaans, so I went up for a role in Wild At Heart and didn't get it. But you live with it. Casting directors won't see me for television so I have to find other ways to make ends meet. Theatre is the only thing that is keeping me ticking over."

Alex is married to South African-born Jennifer and has two sons, Cameron, five and Mackenzie, 18 months. He said: "A tour like this one is good money and regular work. My two are big boys, they like to eat, so you have to keep working."

The family try to go to South Africa at least once a year to see family but, judging by the names he and Jennifer chose for their sons, Scotland is never far from his thoughts. Alex said: "I don't have to make sure they are good Scots, it's in their blood. They are very boisterous and expressive. Wonderful boys." Once the Agatha Christie play finishes in July, he will take the summer off and then "see what happens".

Alex, who was born in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, moved with his family to South Africa when he was 12. He admits it was very different to Scotland-and not for the reasons he expected. He said: "I was at the age when I thought there would be lions and elephants on the airstrip when we landed. But it was really weird when I found that there were no black people in my school. We were segregated completely.

"It was a hell of a shock for a Glaswegian boy to go to an Afrikaans school in the middle of nowhere, where nobody spoke English. I was there during apartheid - 1980 to 1997 - the dark years. I used to write things on my schoolbag like 'Viva ANC' and 'Free Nelson Mandela'. I remember once when I'd been playing rugby at school, you had to leave your schoolbags outside the last classroom you attended. I came back, still in my shorts, looking for my schoolbag. There was just a note stuck to the wall saying 'go to the headmaster's office'. He gave me six of the best." Alex lived in South Africa for 17 years, served in the army, studied drama at the University of Cape Town and played a gay hairdresser in a soap.

In 1996, he married Jennifer and a year later they withdrew £500 savings and flew to London, where he secured his most memorable EastEnders role in 2000. He's been touring with And Then There Were None since January and admits the play reminds him of South Africa. In it he plays the bombastic Captain Lombard - a part he played at 18 in the final year of his South African high school.

He grinned: "When I re-read it, it brought back a lot of memories of school. It's a strange thing, it was nearly 20 years ago to the day I did it. I can bring a bit more to it now. It's a great part. A funny part. I've done a lot of plays but never played to houses like this before. It's just incredible how many people come and see the show. They laugh through it. Then there are shrieking girls in the audience as it is quite scary in places."

The play, which also stars Peter Byrne, Gerald Harper, Denis Lill, Chloe Newsome and Jennifer Wilson, sees 10 strangers lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon where they are dispatched one by one. Alex looks every inch the dashing public school army man. He laughs despairingly as only awest coast of Scotland man can and said: "I'm drinking too much beer. It's the sunshine and the touring life."

Trevor is dead. Long live Alex.

And Then There Were None is at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, from Mon June 23-28.

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Michael Greco Signs With Littlewoods Poker
by PokerPages.com
Jun 25th, 2008

One of Britain's best-known soap actors, Michael Greco, whose EastEnders character Beppe Di Marco earned him legions of fans and the title of sexiest man on television, will now be taking on the world's best poker stars as a sponsored Littlewoods Poker player, representing the site in gaming online and in live tournaments, including this season's European Poker Tour.

Players will get the chance to regularly test Michael's online poker skills through the site's monthly bounty tournaments, where they can claim the GBP 250 bounty on his head for knocking him out of the tournament.

The deal is the latest highlight of Michael's five year poker career, which began shortly after he left EastEnders in 2002. It also follows his biggest-ever tournament win last year, when he walked away with more than GBP 100,000 during an event in Cardiff.

Michael GrecoMichael said: "When I first started getting interested in the game, I was just playing with friends and learning the basics. However, I've now been playing poker for around five years and I'm delighted that Littlewoods Poker has chosen to sponsor me for the new season.

"There aren't many great celebrity poker players around and I think some professionals are a bit sceptical of them, so it's great that I've been given the chance to show what I can do. Over the past couple of years, I've been trying to stay away from the limelight and the celebrity lifestyle that I had when I was in EastEnders. And although I'm still working as an actor I've also been concentrating very hard on my poker."

"I've got a good reputation at tournaments and have a few wins under my belt over the past few years, so I hope to continue that when I play in the LittlewoodsPoker.com colours. Because I am a former soap actor and a face that people have seen on TV, there are a few players who underestimate me. They see me as easy money and don't expect me to be any good, just because I've appeared on a popular TV show."

"But they don't realise that, as an actor, I have a great advantage as I can bluff very well and I can either hide my tells or create false ones to confuse them. Poker pros are also terrible actors, so you can usually tell what they're trying to hide and use that to your advantage. I'm looking forward to using those skills at the upcoming tournaments and performing as well as I can for Littlewoods Poker at both live events and online."

As a representative for LittlewoodsPoker.com, Michael will be joined on tour by his old friend Tony Cascarino, the former Republic of Ireland football legend who is the gaming giant's other sponsored player. He added: "I've known Tony for a few years now, so it's going to be good fun going to poker events with him. He's been a great ambassador for Littlewoods Poker over the years and, if I can manage even half of what he's achieved, then I will be doing very well."

The European Poker Tour begins in September and Michael will take part in his first tournament as a sponsored Littlewoods Poker player at the opening event in Barcelona.

Bruce Martin, Head of Operations with LittlewoodsPoker.com, said: "We're delighted to be sponsoring Michael for the new EPT tour. Not only is he a household name thanks to his time on EastEnders, but he is also a very good, and well-respected, player on the poker tour. Michael and Tony Cascarino have also been good friends for many years, so it's great that they will now get to compete alongside each other as they represent LittlewoodsPoker.com. I'm sure Michael will be a valuable player for us and I look forward to hearing about his successes this year."

[faceless]

If you remember Sean Maguire being in Eastenders then you might want to see what he's done in the comedy movie 'Meet The Spartans'...

you can watch it here: http://couchtripper.com/forum2/video.php?t=8032