UNFINISHED BUSINESS EastEnders star teases return to Albert Square to ‘reunite’ iconic family
A FORMER EastEnders actress has teased “never say never” to an iconic soap comeback.
The family matriarch, who first stepped foot in on Albert Square in 2006, opened up on a huge return – despite pouring cold water on the idea two years ago.
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Jo Joyner, 48 – who plays Tanya Branning in the BBC soap – last appeared briefly over Christmas for her daughter Abi’s death in 2018.
The mum of two was at the heart of a number of explosive plotlines during her core EastEnders stint between 2006 and 2009, including a Christmas fallout where Tanya learned her husband Max had been having an affair with Stacey Slater.
Now, with Zoe Slater embarking on her second stint in the show and her secret relationship with Max Branning – Jo’s on screen husband – revealed, she has hinted she’s changed her mind.
On Love Island star Amy Hart’s Mum’s Club podcast, Amy quizzed: “As a superfan, I have to ask, are you going to complete my happy families card game for the Brannings?
“You’re the last one!”
Referring to actor Jake Wood, who plays Max, Jo replied: “You know what really made me laugh the other day because he sent me a picture from set and I saw how tall my son is, Oscar.
“I said ‘do they know he’s the Hobbit?'”
She added: “Erm no, not this year.
“Never say never but I have got a lot on this year, so no.”
OPENING UP
Jo recently revealed the real reason she quit the BBC One series – and it’s not what you might expect.
Jo Joyner plays Tanya Branning who nearly kisses Sean Slater in a 2007 episode of EastEnders
She told the Sunday Mirror: “If I come out of a drama I always try to look for a comedy,” she told the Sunday Mirror.
”You can’t just do it constantly for years in misery, otherwise you end up with a Walford frown. It gets to you.”
At the time Jo, who has been on and off the BBC soap since 1999, said bosses had left the door open for a comeback.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun’s TV Mag in 2023, she again doubled down on why she quit the BBC soap.
EastEnders stars who QUIT
MICHELLE Collins has seen her second EastEnders stint boost her bank balance. Yet what stars have quit this year?
The Sun exclusively reported how Michelle, 62, was down to £20,000 in her company accounts when she agreed to a shock back-from-the-dead return to Albert Square last year.
Her character, Cindy Beale, was presumed dead off-camera in 1998.
Yet what about the 2024 exits?
Earlier this summer, loyal soap fans appeared to note how Stevie Mitchell had “quit” the long-running series.
It came after Alan Ford enjoyed just six-months on-screen.
Bobby Beale actor Clay Milner Russell also left this year after five years in Walford.
Fans also feared Martin Fowler actor James Bye would “quit out of boredom” over recent storylines.
Additionally, a host of stars have quit the BBC soap for Hollywood fame.
One of the most successful stars to come from the BBC One soap is Rob Kazinsky.
He played Stacey Slater’s brother Sean Slater from 2006 to 2009, he has starred in Hollywood blockbusters Pacific Rim and Captain Marvel.
Ben Hardy, who quit EastEnders as Bobby Beale almost a decade ago, went on to break Hollywood the following year, when he starred as Archangel in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Since then, he has played Roger Taylor in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and he starred in Michael Bay’s Netflix movie 6 Underground.
Michelle Ryan played Zoe Slater until 2005.
She starred as the lead in short-lived American series Bionic Woman from 2007 to 2008.
“As soon as you got bored of one thing, you got a different thing, a new adventure,” she said.
Jo then looked back on her time at EastEnders, she recalled her storyline when on-screen hubby Max had been having an affair with Stacey.
“That Christmas special, one of the things I love about that as well was that it was a real testament to great writing and investment in stories and characters because a lot of Christmas specials for things, they throw a lot of money at it, lots of stunts and things…
“We had a rain machine and apart from that we just had the actors on one set so that was quite unusual.
“It shows that without good writing, it’s all nothing.”
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