Getting To Know…

Jo Joyner

● I am so chuffed to be back in a second series of BBC1’s daytime drama Shakespeare&Hathaway. Luella Shakespeare, my character, works as a rookie private investigator with Frank Hathaway, a hardboiled detective played by Mark Benton. It’s a lovely series that isn’t all about murders and gore – it’s light and fun. We have stories about dog-napping and one about doppelgangers going around Stratford-Upon-Avon pretending to be Lu and Frank, committing fraud. ● The icing on the cake is that it’s filmed in Warwickshire, only half an hour from where I grew up and live now [with husband Neil Madden, a teacher, and nine-year-old twins Freddie and Edie]. I still work long hours, but it means my family can meet me for dinner afterwards and pop to the set in half term. I haven’t done many shows my kids could watch, but they love this. ● You do worry after you leave something as big as EastEnders that you’ll never work again [Jo played Tanya Branning, left the soap in 2013 and has made only brief appearances since], that producers won’t want people recognising Tanya Branning in their show. But I’d done gritty shows like Clocking Off and No Angels before EastEnders, so people knew I could do other roles. Also, people like Katherine Kelly and Suranne Jones have done great stuff after leaving a soap.

Shakespeare & Hathaway starts on Monday February 25 and runs weekday afternoons on BBC1.