Martine McCutcheon had an unexpected fan in her EastEnders nineties heyday - Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.
The actress, 46, who played Tiffany Mitchell on the soap between 1995 and 1998, revealed that the rockstar surprised her in a bar one evening by declaring his and his whole family's admiration for her.
The Love Actually star recalled while on the soap seeing huge stars who came in to film performances at the Top of the Pops studio.
"We’d finish filming and go into the bar for a drink afterwards and in would pop Bono from U2, Cher, Diana Ross, Oasis or Blur," she said.
Martine told OK magazine: “I remember Liam Gallagher came bowling up to me and I thought, ‘What’s he going to say?’ and he said, ‘I bloody love you in the show – all the family love you!’”
Martine rose to fame on EastEnders, and then went on to appear in TV series The Knock and film Kiss Kiss, but her next big role was as Natalie in Richard Curtis' Christmas classic, Love Actually.
The star was on the verge of quitting showbusiness after suffering burnout when she got a call offering her the role, while staying at a friend's house in Spain.
Recalling the moment, Martine told the Mirror on Sunday: “At that time, I’d decided to give up the business. I’d worked from the age of 17 playing Tiffany – it was a relentless schedule of 22 scenes a day, six days a week, alongside my pop career.
"There was a lot of pressure, a lot of touring and I battled with exhaustion and felt unwell.
"Then there was the press scrutiny. I had paparazzi running after me. I was only 23 and lived on my own – it was scary. I just thought, ‘I love what I do but I don’t love what comes with it’, so I called my agent and gave up the industry. I remember thinking, ‘If I’m meant to stay in it I’ll get a big sign.’”
Speaking about the movie, in which she plays an employee at No 10 Downing Street, opposite Hugh Grant's Prime Minister, Martine said: "That film completely changed my life because I wouldn’t have been in the industry any more.
"When I first saw Four Weddings And A Funeral it was my absolute dream to work with Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis – I fell in love with the writing and I fell in love with Hugh.”
She remembers shaking with nerves on the first day of filming.
“The first scene we shot was the last scene at the airport,” she said, “It’s when I run and jump on Hugh at the airport – I was shaking, I was so nervous. I was just petrified! He was like, ‘Just go for it, it’s fine!’”
