Twenty years have passed since Tiffany Mitchell was run over and killed in EastEnders, but Martine McCutcheon is still fizzing.
The Loose Woman has said she had been happy in the role on the show and was shocked when she found out she was due to die under the wheels of Frank Butcher’s car on New Year’s Eve 1998.
Only, she didn’t find out her character’s fate from producers.
Instead, she heard the news while listening to Radio 1 and it still hurts! We don’t blame her, really.
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“As an actress you never take for granted that you are ever going to be in a job for more than two minutes, but it was the way I was told by listening to the radio,” the On The Radio singer told The Mirror.
“And none of the other cast members believed me.
“They were like ‘I cannot believe you didn’t tell us and I was like: ‘No I am so embarrassed’. It was the way it was done.
“At any time they can get rid of you. Nobody is the star of that show – the show is star.”
Martine admits that she had never wanted to be a soap actress but reveals that after her experience on the once popular show, she had greater respect for the actors who work a gruelling schedule.
“The last thing I ever wanted to do was soap, but the good thing that came out of it was that I had this whole new respect for the actors that work there,” she said.
“You do 22 scenes a day, they are constantly changing your lines, your scenes…and you have to be on it!
“The discipline is unbelievable. And if you can do that, anything else since has been a breeze.”
However, she admits that in spite of soap not being her first choice of career, she’s glad she found the fame she had at the time as it opened up doors for her.
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“I just thank my lucky stars really, that I made a name for myself at a time even though it was a soap, where it was a little frowned upon and not at all considered highbrow, I took the job at the time because I needed the money,” she says.
“I didn’t have that affordable luxury to say I am just going to wait to perform at the National Theatre.
“And I had to earn money
“But you do have that investment in you because you only had four major channels, there was no reality TV, and I was so lucky I went on to do other things. And the audience followed me.”
Martine releases her album Lost And Found next month.