It's a dramatic New Year in EastEnders as Tamzin Outhwaite reveals some big wedding secrets…
Mel’s been plotting her wedding day revenge on sly Ray for a while, even enlisting Ray’s wife Maddie to help pull the rug out from under him. But as the day dawns in EastEnders over the New Year, and the guests gather, Mel’s best laid plans are shattered, sending her headlong into danger – and into a terrifying showdown in the woods!
Here EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite, who plays Mel, reveals what horrors are in store…
WOTV: What can you tell us about the wedding and what happens between Mel and Ray in the woods afterwards?
Tamzin Outhwaite: "So the wedding is a big wedding in a church, I can say that. Mel’s ex husband Ian Beale is there and Jack is there, who proposed to her, so there’s a lot of history in that one place. But I can’t go into details about the woods other than to say it felt dangerous and that when we were doing it I was scared!"
WOTV: So will we end up with a body in the woods?
TO: "Who knows? What I can say is it’s not quick and it’s also not over! But it’s like a horror, it’s like the darker side of EastEnders. I mean, I’m not sure I’d want my children to watch it if you know what I mean. But I’m all up for the darkness! Also the filmic way this was done is some of my favourite times in EastEnders."
WOTV: You filmed at night. How was that?
TO: "Well we were in the woods until four o’clock in the morning for quite a few nights! I face-timed my six-year-old daughter just before she was going to go to bed and I said goodnight to her and she went, 'Oh, Mum have you got somewhere you can go to sleep at night?' and I went, 'No, this is my working day, it just starts later.' She went, 'What, there’s not even a little sofa to lie down on?' And I then she looked at my wedding dress and she saw it was all messy and went, 'Mum, I hope they don’t see that on camera!' She thought I’d dropped my lunch down it!"
WOTV: Do your daughters watch the show?
TO: "They don’t because they’re young. Also I think both my kids are a little bit over seeing their parents on telly. They find it weird and they just kind of go, 'really?' I think they’d watch EastEnders more if I wasn’t in it!"
WOTV: What’s it been like working with Sean Mahon who plays Ray?
TO: "He’s such a mild mannered man, so it’s quite weird actually when you see him playing such venom. You know, he’s this lovely human and he does it so well."
WOTV: So Sean’s nothing like Ray, but are there any similarities between you and Mel?
TO: "Well when people ask that I’m like, I’m not so uptight, I’m much more relaxed, I have much more of a laugh than Mel and I don’t have the grudges that she has!"
WOTV: There have been a few old faces return to EastEnders lately, but is there anyone you’d particularly like to come back?
TO: "Lucy Benjamin as Lisa, always! Mainly because that’s Mel’s history really. Mel’s quite a loner. She doesn’t have any great female friends and I think Lisa and Mel were tight. I used to love the fact they used to get drunk together, so she’d be right up there with who I could bring back – and Martin Kemp if Steve Owen wasn’t dead!"
EastEnders continues on BBC1.
