She’s been a fixture on our TV screens for decades – so it’s no wonder EastEnders legend Gillian Taylforth gets asked for selfies wherever she goes, even when she’s popping to the loo.
The 67-year-old, who’s played Kathy Beale on and off since 1985, says nothing really shocks her any more.
“I’ve been recognised in some weird places,” she admits. “It’s happened in the toilet. Someone asked me for a picture with the lovely backdrop of the sink.
“I said, ‘Can we move away from the bogs?’ People call me Kathy all the time but I don’t mind it.”
Gillian says viewers have recognised her since she appeared in the very first episode of the BBC1 soap.
She says: “My children used to get so fed up because it took me two-and-a-half hours to go shopping because people would stop me and ask me to sign this and sign that.
“But I don’t mind. It is part and parcel of being on a soap. So long as people are nice and pleasant, then it’s fine.
“I’ve never minded because they’re the people who watch the show and keep us going.”
But there is one thing Gillian refuses to do for fans and that’s reveal spoilers.
She has become an expert at keeping quiet about what dramas are going to erupt in Albert Square.
“I don’t say anything to anybody,” says mum-of-two Gillian. “It’s more exciting for the public if they don’t know what’s going on.
“Some of my friends will say, ‘What’s going to happen?’ And I go, ‘Oh I can’t tell you otherwise I will have to kill you’. That’s the easiest way to get out of it.”
Later this month Kathy is set to wed Tom “Rocky” Cotton, played by TV comic Brian Conley.
Filming the scenes was a big moment for Gillian because she’s never had the chance to wear a wedding dress in Walford before – or in real life for that matter.
Gillian, whose long-term partner Geoff Knights died in 2013, says: “It was so exciting. I got a bouquet and everything. It was lovely to film. I’ve obviously never been married before in my life.
“There’s only one other time I’ve worn a wedding dress and that was for a photoshoot. People kept saying I looked like Kate Moss! Poor Kate… try telling her that!”
In the weeks to follow, Gillian will be involved in one of the soap’s biggest rivalries once again.
It has emerged that fellow Albert Square veteran Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) did not die and has been living in France under a witness protection scheme. She is set to clash with Kathy on her return to Walford later this year.
Gillian says: “The scenes between Cindy and Kathy are well written.
“I’ve been filming them and it’s been great. As you can imagine there are fireworks going off left, right and centre.”
The former Hollyoaks and Footballers’ Wives star will also be at the centre of a new murder storyline.
A flash-forward scene has revealed that someone will be killed off this Christmas and Kathy will be one of seven suspects. The plot is being kept so secret that even the cast are not being told what happens.
But Gillian is so desperate to find out the truth she has tried to get executive producer Chris Clenshaw to spill the beans.
She admits: “As a cast, we have got no idea what is going to happen. We have all sat around and pondered who it could be.
“We’ve all sort of worked out, ‘No it can’t be that one, no it can’t be this one, no it can’t be another one’.
“When we were at an awards the other day, I spoke to Chris and said, ‘I’m going to try and get you drunk so you might tell me who the killer is’.
“But he said, ‘That’ll never come out of my lips’. It’s funny.”
EastEnders airs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC1.
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