“We’ll miss opening the scripts and gasping at what they do next!”

LORNA FITZGERALD & AARON SIDWELL

It seems that sometimes crime

does pay, because Steven and Abi’s sinister shenanigans have led to stars Aaron Sidwell and Lorna Fitzgerald scoring a whopping four nominations between them this year. Happily, the pair are a million miles away from their wicked alter egos – family man Aaron arrives with his young daughters under his arms, and has to juggle keeping the two girls occupied while posing for our photographer; meanwhile, Lorna chats away happily as she decides on an outfit. But it’s clear they’ve loved every minute of their screen machinations…

Hi, guys. We’re glad you’re both much nicer than your characters on the telly! Have you enjoyed teaming up this year?

Aaron Oh yes, especially as we didn’t know it was coming. We ended up shooting some episodes where

Abi and Steven were together before we’d filmed the scenes where they actually got together. Someone had to fill us in on what would happen in the episodes in between, and we were like, “Oh, right…”.

Lorna They’d kept telling me beforehand, “Just when you think the story will go one way, it’ll go another”, and it was a great twist.

You’re both up for our prize for Best Partnership, as well as Bad Boy and Bad Girl respectively. So who’s worse, Steven or Abi?

Aaron Max! Lorna I think Abi’s misunderstood. She’s not bad – it’s all Steven’s fault! Aaron Nooo, she jumped straight on board. She started it!

How would it feel if you won Best Partnership? After all, you’re up against Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright, aka Mick and Linda…

Aaron For me, it would be a nice way to end my time on the show.

Lorna And for us to win it together would be great for me, because it means someone else could do the speech!

Aaron No, I won’t be at the Awards. I’ll be away working at that time, so you’d have to do it all!

Lorna What a choice, though. Steven and Abi are like chalk and cheese, compared with Mick and Linda.

There have been so many memorable scenes in this storyline. Do either of you have a favourite?

Lorna The one scene that sticks out in my mind is the wedding dress scene in Ben’s room.

Aaron I was about to say that! I reckon that’ll seal the Best Bad Girl deal! It’s so dark. And remember that Abi was in the bedroom of her ex-boyfriend, who’s also Steven’s uncle. It’s all very Game of Thrones.

Lorna It’s so messed up!

Aaron For me, there was also Steven smashing up the garden [when he was convinced Lauren was having an affair with Josh]. They told me I could smash anything – the garden was completely breakable. I just had to be careful of the cameras!

What’s the best thing about working with each other?

Aaron I’ve really enjoyed our connection and just going for it.

Lorna Aaron is very funny. I like that!

Aaron, Steven’s cancer lie is up for Best Shock Twist. How did you find the story?

Aaron I reckon that what my character was doing was a really hard thing for people to swallow, but I think they started to pity Steven a bit once Max came in and tormented him. People love to hate things!

How did you feel while filming your last scenes?

Aaron Actually, it wasn’t as emotional as I thought it was going to be. The point that it really got me was when I shot the last scenes in the Beale house, but that was about three weeks before I actually finished. That set is the same as it was 10 years ago when I started, and it’s the only home I’ve ever had on Albert Square. I loved that I got some great scenes with Laurie Brett [Jane], as we were heavily involved when I was first in the show, but we’ve not had many big scenes since I came back. Doing that stuff with Laurie was brilliant for the both of us.

Lorna They were good scenes. It was weird to be with you on your last day, but you were pretty cool about it.

Aaron The way the filming worked, I wasn’t in for the week before, then I had some filming on the Monday and I was done – so it felt a bit like

I’d already left before I did.

Are you both going to miss the Steven and Abi double act?

Aaron Oh yeah!

Lorna We won’t have the fun of getting the scripts and going, “Oh God, what are they going to do now?”. I’m definitely going to miss that!