Tiff still hurts
20yrs on, Martine not over radio axe
IT’S been two decades since she was killed off on EastEnders.
But for Martine McCutcheon, the axing of Tiffany Mitchell still stings.
Martine heard on Radio 1 that Tiffany would be written out of the soap, before 22 million fans saw Frank Butcher run her down in a car on New Year’s Eve in 1998.
But Martine, 41, says it left her scarred: “As an actress you never take for granted that you are going to be in a job for more than two minutes, but it was the way I was told.
“Other cast members were like, ‘I cannot believe you didn’t tell us’ and I was like: ‘No, I am so embarrassed.’ It was the way it was done. At any time they can get rid of you. Nobody is the star of that show, the show is the star.”
The Loose Women panellist empathises with the huge workload facing current Enders actors, who clashed with boss Sean O’Connor, who left the BBC soap last month. Her pal Ross Kemp, who played Grant Mitchell, recently blasted O’Connor’s regime, accusing him of working cast members “into the f***ing ground”. Martine says when she joined EastEnders soaps were “not at all considered highbrow” but she took the job “because I needed the money”. She added: “I thank my lucky stars I made a name for myself. I went on to do other things and the audience followed me.”