CRINGE AT SCREEN KISS
peter.dyke@dailystar.co.uk
IT’S wonder the big boat tragedy will cause waves on the soap’s 35th anniversary next month.
The cast filmed the scenes – in which one of Walford’s favourite characters will die – during Storm Brendan.
Shona McGarty, who plays Whitney Dean, said: “It was freezing and wet. So different to anything we have done before. It felt like we were shooting a movie.”
She added: “Honestly, it’s like Pat Butcher’s earrings – you are never going to forget it.”
OUT: Radzi and partner Jess Hatfield
GEORDIE star Donna Air is thrilled after landing a role in
But there is one problem – her teenage daughter isn’t. In the legal drama, Donna plays Fi Hansen – one half of a celebrity power couple whose marriage has a dark side as her cheating husband is a controlling bully. However, Donna says daughter Freya, 16, was not impressed when she saw a clip of her kissing her TV partner, played by Ben Bailey. The ex-Byker Grove star explained: “She saw the trailer and said, ‘Oh my god! How embarrassing! Do I have to watch you kissing someone?’” Freya goes to school with the daughter of Susannah Constantine, who stripped on TV for The Great British Body.
Donna went on: “They talk about which mum is the most embarrassing because her mum got naked in front of the nation. “It’s like at least they have got each other for the humiliation and embarrassment.
“I just have got Susannah now.”
In The Split, Fi is the victim of gaslighting, where a partner uses emotional abuse and manipulation to make the other person question their sanity. Donna
Ice ★
Dancing On
The Split.
Peter to outdo
edward.gleave@dailystar.co.uk
admitted that she had endured similar experiences in the past, without naming names.
She said: “I have been... I do have elements of things I could draw on. I have had times in my life where I have been able to draw on that in this part.
“We have all been in one relationship in our life or someone who has tried to be in our life and it’s not necessarily the most healthy of relationships.
“Those are the ones we have to walk away from.
“It is a very confusing emotion to be in a relationship where he loves you and you love them.
“Normally, those characters that gaslight you, they are very pathological and very narcissistic and yet they can also be incredibly charming and huge amounts of fun and very loving.
“I would have left a person like that 100%.
“I’d advise anyone who’s being gaslit to get out. In my experience those personalities don’t change unless they undergo some serious treatment.”
Her TV character is someone who found fame after winning
I’m A Celebrity but the actress and television presenter says she would never dream of doing the jungle show.
Donna, 40, who has appeared on Dancing On Ice and
Splash!, added: “I have been asked but I am not brave enough.
“I don’t want to suffer for my art any more. I’ve been there, done that and got the T-shirt.
“I don’t need to be on TV for the hell of it.
“You get to the point where everything you do – you have really got to want to do it. That’s why I did The Split.
“To get such a good role at my age on the channel that built my career – it’s like I have come full circle.
“It’s great to be back on the BBC and back to my acting roots.”
● The Split starts on Tuesday, February 11, on BBC One.