Troubled Jessie dropped from soap
Queen Vic door’s open as actress carves out career
EastEnders star Jessie Wallace has been suspended from the BBC1 soap.
The troubled actress, 48, who has played Kat Slater on and off for nearly 20 years, will be temporarily written out of upcoming plots.
An insider claims bosses hauled her into a crisis meeting after an incident while filming in which her behaviour was called into question.
The source said Jessie was told during the crunch talks that she would be suspended for two months.
An EastEnders spokesman said: “We do not comment on artists’ contracts”.
A spokesperson for Jessie declined to comment.
EastEnders’ favourite Laurie Brett says it’s a “huge compliment” to still be called Jane Beale in the street, years after leaving the soap.
She played the long- suffering wife of Ian Beale in the BBC show for 13 years before quitting the programme in 2017.
The last time we saw Jane, she was being driven out of Walford, leaving her open to return to Albert Square.
But Laurie, 50, who left to spend more time with her family, said that working on the show left her feeling burnt out.
“It’s the hardest gig on telly,” she said. “It’s just relentless and I couldn’t bel ieve just how knackered I was when I left.
“It’s all- consuming and when you’re in that bubble, you don’t even realise how all- consuming it is.
“But you know what happened? I left there, I had a rest, I fell in love, I got married, I had a life.
“I had the most brilliant time there and I have friends there, but I’ve got no plans to go back.
“The door’s open and it’s a never- say-never scenario but I ’ m just real ly enjoy ing exploring other stuff at the moment.”
Since leaving EastEnders, mum-of-one Laurie has appeared in Waterloo Road and is currently starring in Channel 4 thriller Deadwater Fell, alongside Doctor Who star David Tennant.
She still gets called “Jane” in the street, however.
“I’ll always be Jane Beale for a lot of people,” said Laurie, who married partner Dennis Longman last year.
“That’s inevitable, but I’m not going to complain about that.
“It gave me a great career and gave me a great platform. It’s actually a huge compliment.”
During her time on EastEnders, Scottish- born Laurie admitted suf fering from “mum gui lt” because she spent so much time away from her eight- year- old daughter Erin.
She said: “I had a year-and-a-half off just to be mum.
“I started working again last year and I’m trying to be as selective as I can be at the moment, but I’ve still got to pay the bills. I have the whole mother guilt thing every mother has, but I hope that I’ve been a good example to show her that a woman can go out and earn her own money, have her own career and you can have a bit of it all.
“You have to juggle, but there’s no reason why you can’t have a kid and a career.
“It’s hard, but then she’s only ever known me working.
“I used to get upset about it and go, ‘Oh God, I’m working so much’. But if I get a teeny bit of guilt, I just think, ‘ I’m setting a great example here.’ In another year-and-a-half, she won’t want to cuddle up with mummy on the sofa so I’m mindful of that.”
Laurie is starring as tough DC
Gemma Darlington in Deadwater Fell, the Friday night Channel 4 series in which a house f ire devastates a close-knit community in Scotland.
She is using her real Scottish accent for the part, just like she did when she played Christine Mulgrew in BBC school show Waterloo Road.
Speaking about filming Deadwater Fell in Scotland, Laurie said: “It’s always great to go back to the motherland, as I call it.
“I’ve lived in London most of my life but when I go back there, I love the people, I love the banter, I love the countryside.”
Laurie also told how she always wanted to play a cop after being inspired by Helen Mirren in TV
I’ve lived in London most of my life but when I return to Scotland, I love the people and the banter
crime smash Prime Suspect. “I’ve been wanting this all of my life,” Laurie said.
“I mean, the minute they said it was this, I was like, ‘I’m in. Where do I sign, please?’
“Way back in the day when I was at drama school, Prime Suspect and Helen Mirren was my absolute worship.”
Now she has experienced the darker side of telly, Laurie is keen to be on the wrong side of the law in her next role.
She said: “I’d like to play somebody that’s a real baddie – a real evil, twisted character.
“I’ve always had a taste for the grittiness of roles, even when I was at drama school. That was more the sort of thing that I used to play.
“I’d like to do something on telly that was just a woman with no heart, totally unlikeable, a complete psycho. That would be brilliant.
“I want to be the baddie next time, the person on the other side of the police interrogation.”
Earlier this month, Laurie was hospital ised with a mystery ai lment . She later took to social media to praise the NHS care she received – and highlight the strain staff are under.
“The only reason I tweeted about it was because I was horrified,” Laurie said.
“I had to sleep in A&E for 15 hours because there were no beds available – and that’s just a tragedy in itself.
“But what I saw there, you know? The abuse and people that really should be in some sort of care facility, then people that obviously are very drunk or have mental health issues.
“The staff are angels without wings. They just got on with it, regardless of people shouting and screaming at them.
“I just put a tweet out to say, ‘ Listen, everybody. Don’t do that’, because I was absolutely shocked. And I wanted to say thank you to them for looking after me.
“If anyone says the NHS is not underfunded, they are absolutely insane.
“It’s so apparent. We need to protect it at all costs.”