Adam Woodyatt used to call into his on-screen mum Gillian Taylforth’s house in the early hours after a night out – and raid her fridge.
The ‘EastEnders’ actor admits he and Gillian – who play mother-and-son combo Kathy and Ian Beale – "clicked" on their first day of meeting back when the soap first started out in the mid-80s, so much so he would turn up at her house unannounced for food in the middle of the night.
He said: "My daughter calls her nan. Right from day one, we just clicked.
"A couple of years further on, I’d be coming home from a night out, we’d be going through Islington on the way home. She’d be getting a ring on her doorbell at two in the morning, ‘Mum, I’m hungry!’ "
Gillian added: "He’d go straight to the fridge, ‘What have you got?’ Two in the morning. He’d go, ‘Alright mum?’ "
Adam admitted the pair have addressed each other as "mum" and "son" from day dot.
Speaking on ‘EastEnders: Secrets From the Square’, he added: "I remember everybody else was already there.
"She burst through the door and we looked at each other and went: ‘Mum!’ ‘Son!’ That was it, it started from that."
Gillian previously praised Adam for always being there for her and "supporting" her.
Speaking in 2017, she said: "I absolutely love the bones of Adam, I adore him. He’s always been there and always supported me.
"Even when I wasn’t in ‘EastEnders’, we’d keep in touch. I knew he was rooting for me to come back, he kept coming up with different storylines.
"And he’s always called me mum – and I’ve always called him son or Sonny Jim. His daughter calls me nana! Adam is a lovely person, and a wonderful actor."