LIKE Titanic’s Jack and Rose, Romeo and Juliet, and Pyramus and
Thisbe, they were the star-crossed lovers who positively defined a
generation.
Now, almost 25 years on, sweethearts, Sonia Jackson and
Jamie Mitchell – played by and Jack Ryder – have
reunited to lift the lid on life on Albert Square.
Natalie, who is teaming up with her former screen love for a new National Rail campaign, says: “It was just so lovely to see him again, we had a
massive hug that lasted quite a minute.
“It’s like that time is kind of encapsulated; you can never get it
back, but you can treasure it.
“Sometimes I think, ‘gosh, it is quite weird’ because being in
EastEnders from such a young age is like having millions of home
videos of you growing up through very awkward years for everyone to
see.
“But another part of me thinks, how lovely it is for my kids and my
family for that to always be there.
“My eldest daughter, though, is very funny. She watches it, she loves
it, and a couple of years ago when I was still there, she said, ‘I
love EastEnders, it’s great, but your scenes are so boring, I
fast-forward your bits.’
“I mean, if that doesn’t keep you grounded, what will?
“I think my kids love me being at home a little bit more now, which is
really, really nice but I guess the have kept the door open for me
[to return] which is nice.
“And, well, you never know, do you? Someone could come up on the
phone, ‘Sonny’s had a car crash’ – come back. It would be quite easy.”
For a raft of millennials and Gen Xers, Sonia and Jamie’s teenage
romance was THE most iconic and tragic in soap history.
After getting together on screen at the turn of the millennium, aged
15 Sonia gave birth unexpectedly to a baby girl, Chloe, without
realising she was pregnant.
The father was Martin Fowler, whom she had slept with prior to dating
Jamie. She eventually gave the baby up for adoption.
Over the next two years, the pair endured further infidelities and
several increasingly madcap storylines including Sonia’s attempted
kidnapping of her baby.
However, the climax to their love story saw Jamie run over by Martin
outside Walford East tube station, moments after buying an engagement
ring for his beloved.
Over 16 million fans sobbed into their mince pies as Jamie died in
hospital on Christmas Day 2022. (“My family and I decided not to watch it on Christmas Day that year – it would have been a bit dark, and quite weird,” Jack notes).
During his four year stint in Walford, and with his poster boy good
looks and floppy blond curtains, the Woolwich-born actor became the
ultimate pin-up.
He couldn’t go out in public without getting mobbed, and regularly
topped teen magazine “most fancied” lists.
Just 21 when he quit the show, today he opens up on his reasons why.
“I just couldn’t go anywhere,” he explains. “I was getting so much
attention and stuff, there was such a big impact in that sense.
“It was hard, and a whirlwind. It was a mad thing, and I didn’t
really align with it.”
Natalie chips in: “I remember us going to Bluewater once, shopping,
and trying to get a McDonald’s but you just couldn’t do it.
“We were like, ‘you’ve got to go – there’s not enough security here.
It was like being with a member of .”
In an age before Instagram, fans felt connected to stars through the
medium of [TV] screen.
As a result, they often went to extreme lengths to meet their heroes
whereas, today, followers are content to make do with a DM slide.
Now, Jack reveals he was plagued by a stalker, so much so that CID
were forced to get involved. It was, understandably, a difficult time.
“I had a lot of mail,” he says. “I mean, where everyone else had
pigeon holes, I had an entire room at EastEnders.
“I got all the knickers in the post type-thing, but I didn’t have time
to answer everything, to go through 100,000 letters after work.
“I think there were a few little moments [with stalkers], because I’m
still friends with a guy who was head of CID.
“I remember he got involved with something years ago because I was
getting letters from somebody but again, I was on set all the time,
and tried to not get involved.
“I had a really good group of friends including Natalie who were great
– they were my therapy – but fame, for me, well I just went into my
shell a bit.
“Getting back to your question, I wanted a break from the fame and the
stardom and all that.
“I wanted to step away from it, get some air, and find out who I was.”
His uber-fame was not helped by his headline-grabbing romance with
Hear’Say singer whom he married in August 2002 before
separating six years later.
They became gossip column favourites, and regularly sold millions of
copies of glossy magazines.
As you might hope, meanwhile, Natalie is one of the most down to earth
celebrities you could hope to meet – and a woman who probably doesn’t
even class herself as a celebrity.
When I tell her she seems “very normal”, she replies: “I am very normal”.
One of the most enduring – and endearing – storylines involved Sonia
learning to play the trumpet. (A prop, she does not look entirely
thrilled to see me bring with for our interview)
But memes of her blowing that trusty thing still circulate online to
this day – and once bellowed across the BBC canteen
“where’s ya trumpet?” to a young Natalie.
She kindly agrees to blast my snazzy red trumpet… if I can get her VIP
tickets to see at Knebworth: Noel and Liam, if you’re reading:
please do your thing)
Top of The Pops was filmed next door to EastEnders at Elstree, meaning
the cast regularly bumped into rock and pop royalty during breaks from
filming.
Natalie recalls meeting US superstar Pink, and getting a Polaroid
photo with the , while Jack adds: “It would be a normal
week at work and then all of a sudden, the corridors of Elstree would
be, like, white carpets and lilies and stuff, and would
be there.
“I remember getting my lunch, and hearing ‘Jack! Jack!’, turning
around, and seeing Liam Gallagher sitting on this platform saying,
‘Mate, mate, come here’. And I sat down with him and Noel for like 15
minutes and they said, ‘what are you doing?’
“And they let me watch rehearsals, and I remember thinking ‘I’m just
here watching Oasis: that’s so cool.’”
Since quitting EastEnders, the softly spoken actor experimented with
roles on and off screen, as well as on the stage including Kenneth
Branagh’s production of The Play What I Wrote.
In 2008, he landed a role in The Archers, and has now set up an online
acting coaching service.
Arguably, meanwhile, his former co-star, remains one of GB’s most
recognisable faces. (And a face entirely untouched by even a solitary vial of Botox, it transpires: “I don’t even bother with facials – I get bored”, she
smiles).
So, would the pair ever make a return to EastEnders – Jamie as a
ghost, perhaps? Yes.
“We were saying how much we love working together,” says Jack; “It’d
be great to do something,” adds Nat.
Happily, for EastEnders fans, they do not have to wait for long.
Today [Weds] the duo are back on screen for a new National Rail
campaign, called Proper Catch-Up Carriage, encouraging people to ditch
their phones, and talk.
It comes in the wake of a poll claiming 52% of Brits get distracted by
devices during meet-ups.
Ads will show the stars reuniting on screen, and chatting over a train journey.
While Natalie stays in touch with EE cast, past and present, via a
WhatsApp group, this was the first time Jack had seen his former
colleague in 24 years.
“It was amazing,” he grins. “We genuinely were like best mates and
never, ever had a row.”
When I ask if they ever drunkenly snogged on a night out back in the
day, Jack replies: “I have never drunk alcohol”. (Well, bar one
occasion, as a teen, and then never, ever again)
Of course, over the past decade or so, there has been a sharp decline
in viewing figures for soaps as more and more people ditch terrestrial
telly for streamers.
Numerous big name stars have also quit Albert Square (and the cobbles
of Coronation Street) for big-money dramas.
And the sad passing of screen legends like , Barbara Windsor
and Wendy Richard have left an indelible dent in EastEnders.
Natalie was close to all three women, especially June who died three
years ago at the age of 95, less than two years after quitting the
soap.
Hilariously, June was the only actor allowed to smoke real cigarettes
on set, whilst everyone else was given herbal ones to puff.
“She was amazing,” smiles Natalie, fondly.
“She was magic, and it would be right up my street to go back, like
with the early eighties June Brown hair, when I’m old. I’d love it.”
Natalie Cassidy and Jack Ryder have reunited by train for a
long-overdue catch-up, showing how travelling by train gives you
uninterrupted time to connect with the people who matter most.
Find out more at nationalrail.co.uk/catchups .
