Jake Wood played three ‘Casualty’ characters in four years before joining ‘EastEnders’ – and they all died.
The 48-year-old star has played Max Branning on the BBC One soap since 2006, but beforehand he had bit parts in the likes of ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘One Foot in the Grave’, ‘Red Dwarf’ and ‘Casualty’, on which his alter-egos always met their maker.
He said: "I started working professionally when I was about 10 and I was just a jobbing actor for years and years.
"I’d do bits in ‘EastEnders’, ‘The Bill’, ‘Casualty’.
"I think I died three times on ‘Casualty’ in the space of about four years."
Jake also played the small part of Jackson in ‘EastEnders’ in March 1990, a character whose girlfriend Disa befriended Diane Butcher (Sophie Lawrence) – the daughter of Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) – when she ran away from home.
He explained: "I think it was when Diane Butcher ran away, she met this other girl called Disa who was living on the street. [My character] was Disa’s boyfriend.
"That was 30 years ago, so I was probably 17, 18."
Since joining ‘EastEnders’ in the mid-Noughties, one of Jake’s biggest storylines saw Max have an affair with his son Bradley Branning’s (Charlie Clements) wife Stacey Branning (Lacey Turner), which reached a climax on Christmas Day 2007 when their infidelity was revealed to the whole family.
Jake has now revealed the plot wasn’t initially planned for the festive period, but the soap’s bosses extended it to make a dramatic Christmas episode, and he thinks it "really paid off".
Speaking on tonight’s (03.08.20) ‘EastEnders: Secrets from the Square’, he added: "I remember that the Max/ Stacey affair, originally it was only going to be shorter,
"I think it was only going to be six months and they changed it.
"They extended it because they realised they wanted it to be the Christmas storyline."