EastEnders star almost gave up on acting before finding fame on BBC soap

25 July 2023 , 13:57

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EastEnders star almost gave up on acting before finding fame on BBC soap

A household name on EastEnders almost gave up acting before being cast in the soap.

Perry Fenwick, 61, who plays Billy Mitchell, is one of the show's most popular characters, having made his debut in Walford in 1998.

The actor has amassed a legion of fans for his portrayal of hapless Billy, but Perry says he almost didn't get the part because he was going to become a cab driver.

Speaking about struggling for acting work before being cast in the soap, he told actress and podcaster Kathy Burke: "It’s funny…I think Kath, at that point I was at the point of knocking the acting on the head because as you said I did a hell of a lot of work and then it just dried up.

Perry Fenwick, 61, who plays Billy Mitchell, is one of the show's most popular characters

"I was about to start ‘the knowledge’ (driving black cabs). But then they rung up the agent and said about EastEnders and I thought ‘oh, I could do with that now’."

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Kathy added: "I’m very proud of you Pel. I’m very proud of you mate because it is tough doing stuff like this.

"I’ll never forget when your character first turned up because I’d seen the majority of your work up until Eastenders, and you were always a bit of the wide boy and the sort of good looking sexy one that all the girls were after, and then in you come as Billy Mitchell.

"God love him, he’s a right old dopey draws isn’t he, and he doesn’t have any luck.

"I just thought this is so nice because it’s such a shift for Pel to play this sort of character, and now you’ve been doing him for 25 years!"

Perry is the only actor to have played Billy, who's had his fair share of drama over the years. Most recently the character was left heartbroken when his beloved granddaughter Lola, played by Danielle Harold, died from a brain tumour.

Perry confessed that despite the make-up team having tear sticks for sad scenes if needed, it was all real emotion for the heartbreaking storyline, which won Danielle a well-deserved TRIC award.

Speaking about the "saddest exit" he's ever filmed in his 25-year history on the BBC show, Perry confessed the "devastating" scenes left him in tears.

Asked if it was the "saddest" exit he had been involved in, he said: "Without a doubt. I’ve been on the show 25 years and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, but my last scenes with Danielle were just devastating.

"We’ve been playing this story with the gang, we lose Lola but in real life we lose Danielle. We started off doing this storyline and we all committed to painting a big picture, the euphemism of it being our Sistine Chapel and we had to get every single bit of it right."

Victoria Johns