Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’ll be fighting a fire and mid-job they’ll ask.. Weren’t you in Eastenders, mate?
SECOND LIVES BEYOND THE TELLY
TONY DISCIPLINE Eastenders’ Tyler Moon
He’s been a firefighter for two years but former soap star Tony admits it’s hard to shake off his showbiz past.
And fans assume his uniform is part of a new acting role.
Tony, 31, who played Tyler in the BBC show, recalls: “I was once walking back to the fire truck and someone walked past and said, ‘Oh my God, what are you filming?’ I said, ‘No, I’m firefighter’ and he said, ‘No, what is it?
What show’s it for?’
“Another time a guy’s shed was alight. I was trying to put it out and mid-job he suddenly went: ‘Weren’t you in
Eastenders, mate?’”
Tony, who grew up in Gravesend, Kent, was
21 and working at
Billingsgate Fish Market when
They become part of our lives and living rooms, but what happens when soap stars quit TV? Ex-eastenders actors Tony Discipline and Matt Lapinskas are appearing on a podcast this weekend revealing how
he landed the part of Alfie Moon’s cousin in 2011. But he refused to let fame go to his head. He says: “I always knew the attention was because of the show. When I they changed their lives after leaving the BBC1 show.
Here they explain what they did and we look at the fates of some of our favourite stars... ■ Tune in to soapfromthebox. buzzsprout.com
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was down the fish market I wasn’t getting that attention.”
But in 2013 his bosses told him his time in Walford was over.
After Eastenders, Tony took acting courses in Vienna and LA. He also did voice-over work and some short films before turning to the world of business – including nightclub events and video production.
Finally, in 2019 Tony applied to join the London Fire Brigade.
He says: “My friend had joined and told me how much he enjoyed it. It sounded exciting and it really appealed to me.
“I liked the idea of working in the community and realised that I’d be proud to be a part of it.”
However, Tony told how the job can be “quite dangerous”.
He adds: “I’ve tackled a fire in a block of flats, at a bakery and at a waste disposal plant.
“These are real life-or-death situations – it’s not like being on set at Eastenders – so you’ve just got to get on with it.”
MATT LAPINSKAS Eastenders’ Anthony Moon
MATT has been working as a builder to make ends meet during the pandemic.
The 32-year-old actor, who played Anthony, cousin of Alfie Moon and brother of Tyler, says: “Just because you were on TV once doesn’t mean that you can never do another job. You’ve got to be realistic.”
Matt joined the BBC1 soap in 2011 but after two years bosses told him his contract wasn’t being renewed.
He says: “They wanted to change things up. They said they couldn’t really find much for me any more so they’d be letting me go. It’s a shock at that age and you panic.”
Matt then took part in 2013’s Dancing on Ice with pro skater Brianne Delcourt, reaching the final. He has also worked in theatre and appeared in films.
But when the first lockdown began he realised he needed to do something else. “I had two films and a panto cancelled. I used to be a builder. A lot of my friends run building companies so I jumped on with a few of them, doing a bit of work to make sure the mortgage kept ticking over. “I’ve now started my own company.”
But Matt, of Ascot,
Berks, will always class himself as an actor. He says: “It’s not only being on telly that you can make people laugh, cry and smile. As a builder you’re doing it in another form. It’s still the entertainment business. You still have to chat to people, win the job, charm them and put on a good performance.”
FINAL On the ice with
Brianne Delcourt
WHEN my eldest son was about four years old, I applied for a place at an upmarket nursery in London and we were invited to an interview.
During the meeting he was shown drawings of two parents, a woman and a man, and asked to describe what they were doing. “Dad” was in an office speaking on the phone to his secretary, while the picture of “mum” was in an apron at home.
As a working mum I was taken aback by the blatant stereotyping and not fussed when he didn’t get a place.
I was reminded of it this week when listening to a debate about whether schools are the appropriate environment to teach boys lessons about respecting women and girls.
There was a lot of resistance to the idea, mooted by Policing Minister Kit Malthouse yesterday, that this should be included in sex and relationship education, as part of his response to Sarah Everard’s disappearance and death.
And if my experience 10 years ago of out of date thinking is anything to go by, I’d probably be thinking the same.
But that was then and this is now. And I believe with the right framework and forward-thinking approach, schools could be the perfect place for these basic and fundamental ideas to be taught to young people.
If the pandemic has taught us anything about schools, it’s that they are more than just places for children to learn to read, write and add up.
Lockdown reminded us they are vital places for kids, providing meals, social interaction and physical exercise among many other things.
In an ideal world this sort of teaching would happen in the home but, again, as the pandemic has highlighted, not all children live with parents who have the time to give them these vital lessons. And even if parents do have time, it’s still often not enough.
I like to think I’ve done a good job with my youngest son who’s five. But he still tells me there are colours that only girls wear, or jobs that only boys and not girls can do.
I don’t know where he gets this from and I pick him up on it, but it would be even better to have the support of the education system to back this up.
Yes, teachers have a lot on and we do ask a lot of them, but the fact is school is where most of our children spend most of their time. What better environment for them to learn some of the most important lessons in life?
With the right approach, schools could be the perfect place for this
A FEARLESS mamma bear stops at nothing to fight off a much larger tiger and protect her two cubs after they accidentally disturbed the big cat mid-mating.
Wildlife photographer Aditya Dicky Singh said that within a few minutes, the bear scared off both tigers at Ranthambore National Park, in western Rajasthan, northern India.