Gillian Wright is excited to work with Steve McFadden.
The ‘EastEnders’ actress – who first appeared as Jean Slater back in 2004 – has revealed she will be sharing the screen with the Phil Mitchell star in the near future, and she always relishes the chance to bounce off new people.
She told Inside Soap magazine: "It’s amazing how many people in the show I haven’t worked with!
"Coming up, I have some scenes with Steve McFadden – I’ve never worked with him before, in all the years I’ve been here.
"Everybody has people they’ve never worked with, so it’s really nice.
"Being an actor, you’re always wanting to do something different – you don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again, you want [to] keep things fresh…"
Indeed, the 59-year-old soap star admitted a lot of her cast mates were disappointed to miss out getting to work with Adrian Edmondson before his alter ego Daniel Cook was killed off in February.
She added: "I really did have great fun working with Adrian Edmondson.
"But I remember when Ade left, there were a lot of people who were upset that they didn’t get to work with him!
"We were sort of kept very much in our own little bubble, in our own little unit, which was enough for that story.
"But there were people that kept coming up and going, ‘Oh well I didn’t get a scene with him’ as if it was my fault!"
Adrian’s character lost his battle with cancer in February, and while Gillian would have enjoyed working with him for longer, she knew they were telling a very specific story over the eight months.
She recently said: "I loved, loved, loved, loved working with Ade Edmondson, and yes I would have loved for him to have stuck around and to explore the relationship of Jean and Daniel for a longer time.
"However, that wasn’t the story that Ade came in to tell – and the story was about newfound love … facing the end of life."
Gillian Wright can’t wait to work with Steve McFadden
