MEL’S GREAT ESCAPE?

EastEnders’ Mel is in a panic when her husband Ray’s body is found – but can she rely on Jack to help her?

EastEnders’ Mel Owen takes desperate measures when the body of her murdered husband Ray Kelly is found by the police this week. Mel confesses everything to her former boyfriend Jack Branning, who agrees to help her leave the country.

But can Jack really be trusted not to tell his former colleagues in the police about Mel’s terrible secret – that she buried Ray in a shallow grave in the woods after her son Hunter shot him?

‘Mel is struggling to trust anyone at the moment – including Hunter, who she has realised is actually psychotic,’ explains Tamzin Outhwaite, the actress who plays her.

‘When Ray’s body is found and Mel is quizzed by police, she’s in a blind panic and uses Jack as a false alibi. She knows Jack still loves her, and hopes he might lie for her and help them to flee Walford – which he appears willing to do.

‘This then leads Mel to believe that they are in it together – but telling him the truth has the potential to come back and bite her.’

Mel was divorced from Ray when he turned up in Walford, and the pair rekindled their romance. But she then found out he was already married and plotted with his other two wives to expose him as a bigamist, which happened straight after Mel and Ray’s second wedding. In revenge, Ray kidnapped Hunter and tried to strangle Mel, before Hunter shot him dead.

Tamzin says, ‘Mel hopes Jack will get her out of the UK because he knows people who might be able to help her, but she fears she may have told him too much…’

The tension reaches a climax when Jack is driving Mel and Hunt-

er out of Walford, and they realise they are being followed by the police. Tamzin says, ‘Mel is paranoid as hell, and when she asks Jack why they are being pulled over by the police, he says, “Don’t worry, it’s probably just a brake light.” That’s all I can say.’

This is Tamzin’s second spell in the soap – she first played Mel in 1998 for four years before re-joining last January, intending to stay a year.

But she says, ‘I’ve extended my stay – I’m having such a good time.’

Being on EastEnders means Tamzin is always around to care for Florence, ten, and Marnie, six, her daughters with actor Tom Ellis, her ex-husband. ‘They love it as they see me every day, and the stability helps,’ she says. ‘I don’t like the idea of going away. When they were babies it was easier, but they need me now.’