Ross Kemp has revealed that filming the Channel 5 drama Blindspot made him feel incredibly nervous, claiming that he hadn't felt like that since his first time working on a soap.
The actor is best known for his role as Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap EastEnders, which he played between 1990 to 1999, before returning to the role between 2005 and 2006. He last played the character in 2016.
His exit storyline saw Grant leaving for Portugal, which is where his character is now believed to reside. But up until that point he was involved in a big number of storylines alongside his onscreen brother, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).
But while he might have been nervous when he joined EastEnders all those years ago, Ross has since claimed his latest Channel 5 project made him feel even more nervous than ever.
Ross Kemp told The Sun: "My first day on set (at Blindspot) was Saturday evening and I was just as nervous as I was, in fact, more nervous, than when I first walked onto the set of EastEnders in 1989.
"I was 24/25 then, I was confident and cocky and now I’m a wiser and older man. It is a wonderful cast but working with actors again has been quite a leap for me and I know I’m a very lucky man."
Ross also revealed that returning to acting was "so important" to him, adding: "Ben Frow (Channel 5 boss) has played a blinder not asking me to make a documentary for them, not asking me to do a game show but maybe what a lot of people want me to do — go back to acting."
His new drama Blindspot will air later this year and follows a disabled woman who believes she has witnessed the build-up to a murder on CCTV, but when she reports it finds that corrupt police are keen to keep the whole thing quiet.
The former EastEnders star will play Detective Tony Warden in the four-part thriller, marking his return to acting after a successful presenting career that has seen him make programs such as Ross Kemp on Gangs, Britain's Tiger Kings, and Ross Kemp in Search of Pirates.
In Blindspot he joins other great stars like Crystal Clarke, Sue Vincent, Kiran Landa Michelle Bonnard, Haylie Jones, Milán Bartha, and Lewis Conway, with the program set to air later this year.
Blindspot is coming to Channel 5 in 2023.
