32 years on, Grange Hill’s Zammo’s back on TV
HE was known to a generation as the drug-addicted Zammo from Grange Hill.
Since then Lee MacDonald has had a career as a boxer and a locksmith.
Now, 32 years since appearing in the ground-breaking children’s TV series, he’s back on the box.
The actor, 50, said he felt he was ‘starting again’ after landing a role in EastEnders. He will play a bus driver called Terry who clashes with Danny Dyer’s character Mick Carter in the BBC soap.
Speaking about his return to acting, he said: ‘It was mad, like life had started again. I just thought, “I know this – this is where I should be”. It’s the most exciting time since I was 13.’
MacDonald played schoolboy Sammy McGuire, known as Zammo, who descended into heroin addiction on Grange Hill until 1987. After that he had a number of minor roles in programmes including Birds of a Feather and The Bill, but his acting career never took off.
He added: ‘I was leaving Grange Hill but earning reasonable money doing personal appearances in clubs and places like that. But then I got a call and they said, “We’re not going to use you any more”. I was like, “What?” And they said they didn’t want their nightclubs to be associated with a drug addict.’
MacDonald, who still owns a locksmith business, said he had never chased fame and only wanted to be on television for his love of acting. He added: ‘There wasn’t an addiction that I needed to get more and more fame, whereas now it tends to be different. Now, it’s more of a fame thing and how many followers you’ve got.’