Sister act
Tameka Empson and Diane Parish – Walford siblings Kim and Denise – on sharing their secrets
It’s been a year since Kim was last in Walford; the fantastic Ms Fox having swapped Albert Square for bonny Scotland. But she’s back on home soil this week – or, rather, Tameka Empson is. The bubbly star is reunited with on-screen sis Diane Parish (Denise) for Eastenders: Secrets from the Square.
And for Diane, it couldn’t come soon enough. ‘The first thing I enjoyed about filming this was seeing my buddy Tameka again!’ she tells us. ‘She has obviously been away and then there was the lockdown, so it’s been such a long time.
‘It was also really nice to get to meet Stacey Dooley, who I admire a great deal for her documentaries.’
Deadpan Denise and her rather more outlandish sibling have clocked up a quarter of a century in Albert Square between them and, naturally, a collection of dramatic plots. Remember when we thought Denise had been ‘done in’ by loopy hubby Lucas? And the time Kim gave birth in the Queen Vic loos?
But Diane admits that, when looking back at Denise’s most memorable moments, what shocked her most was her series of dubious hairdos.
‘It surprised me how many bad hairstyles I had!’ she laughs. ‘It seemed like bad hair on each of those occasions!’
The Secrets from the Square series was made to fill the gap left in the schedules when Eastenders ran out of episodes after being forced to halt production due to the coronavirus pandemic. The soap is now back filming, under strict health and safety guidelines. So what it’s like having to socially distance on set?
‘It’s tricky,’ admits Diane. ‘Actors intrinsically have to be free; they have to be tactile and uninhibited.
‘But it’s good to be working; that’s the important thing. We are part of a very privileged group in our industry who have jobs to go back to. So I’m grateful for that!’