Blast From The Past: Jo Joyner (Eastenders’ Tanya)
Former Eastenders star Jo Joyner is busier than ever, as she joins us to talk about life after the Square…
They say mums never stop being mums even after their kids have grown up.
So when Inside Soap catches up with Jo Joyner – whom we know best for playing Tanya Branning
in Eastenders – it was lovely to hear that she was rooting for her former on-screen daughter Jacqueline Jossa, aka Lauren Branning, during the last series
of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
“She was fantastic, wasn’t she?” grins Jo, as she joins us for a chat about
reprising the role of Luella in Shakespeare
& Hathaway: Private Investigators. “Jac was so brave – I could never have done some of the trials she did, like that first one walking out over the edge of a building! I was super-proud, and I knew from the minute Jac went into the jungle that she’d do well, as she’s such a down-toearth and genuine girl. It’s lovely that everyone can see that now, isn’t it?”
The pair were last on screen together two years ago for the funeral of Tanya’s other daughter, Abi, who died after she and Lauren fell off the
Queen Vic roof. Jo’s return for that storyline was the second time that she’d popped back to
Eastenders for a brief stint as
Tanya, following her departure from the show in 2013 after seven years. Some soap actors struggle to shake off their characters after playing them for so long, but Jo has worked solidly since leaving Walford.
“The secret for me was that, for the seven years before Eastenders, I was just a good jobbing actress, and I’d been lucky to do a really nice mix of stuff,” explains the star, who was best known for playing Beth in No Angels, after roles in popular dramas such as Fat Friends and Spooks. “It must be incredibly hard to leave the soap and forward your career if it’s your first job out of school, whereas I had stuff under my belt already.
More often than not, though, people do still call me Tanya,” adds Jo. “It’s a mixture between Tanya and Luella usually – and sometimes Jo, which is nice because that’s me!”
Jo’s back on our screens in the third series of Shakespeare & Hathaway – and she tells us that she never expected the funny crime drama to take off as it has.
“I’m a bit long in the tooth to have expectations,” shares the 42-year-old actress, who is married to husband Neil Madden, and is mum to 10-year-old twins Edie and Freddie. “You can work on really lovely things that don’t come back, so you learn not to put all your eggs in one basket. However, I knew that I’d get on with Mark [Benton, aka Hathaway], so when we finished the first series I hoped it would go again.
“I was quite surprised and reassured by how the audience took it, as when we launched, there was quite a lot of dark crime on primetime telly, like Marcella, with children going missing and people being murdered,” remarks Jo. “Shakespeare & Hathaway has restored my faith that there are still plenty of people with a gentler spirit, if you like.” Another show that’s proved a hit is Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge, in which Jo plays headmistress Mandy Carter. Series four starts filming in the spring, so Jo is making the most of being at home for now. “I hope we get snowed in!” confesses the star, as the weather turns colder. “I’m often away with work, so I really love to get home and cook, go on walks and be there for the kids. I’m a country girl!”