EastEnders’ James Bye discusses the pressures of filming for the BBC soap opera in the lead up to Christmas.
After playing the role of Martin Fowler on EastEnders for just over 10 years, James Bye has opened up on how he looks back on his time on the soap.
Speaking exclusively to online casino Betway, the actor speaks about the pressures of filming the live episode, which saw his character leave the show in February, breaking the hearts of the nation as fans tuned in for the anniversary.
James also shares his thoughts on taking part in Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancer Amy Dowden, admitting that being backstage for the results show was one of the most ‘stressful’ situations he’s experienced.
Your pal Shona McGarty is currently in the jungle – how do you think she’s coping?
She’s such a kind-hearted, genuine person. It can’t be easy for her in there. I know what she’s like, she’s a very sensitive person, so for her to take that leap and jump up and do something like I’m A Celeb, I think she’s incredible.
Do you think she’ll go far?
I don’t see why she won’t. She’s being very truthful to herself, and that’s who she is. You just never know with these shows, they’re brilliantly made. They’re cleverly constructed because they have to be entertaining; they can’t just film people sitting on a campfire, chatting. They’re edited to be entertaining. I think it’s the beauty of that show because it’s out of your control. If you go in there and you’re yourself and you’re true to your beliefs, I don’t think there’s anything more you can do. I don’t think it matters who wins or loses.
The EastEnders Christmas special will be coming up soon – what do you remember about those specials? Was there pressure when it came to filming them?
EastEnders is famous for its Christmas Day storylines. Everyone sits down to watch it, whether you enjoy the show or not. For the Christmas episodes, you’d normally have a meeting and most characters are in it in some way or another. I think I got the main story on the one where everyone thought he’d killed Keanu. So for me, that’s all I needed to focus on. I think once you’ve had a Christmas Day episode, you can say you’re a true member of EastEnders.
But yes, the pressure is on for Christmas because so many more people will watch the show that time of year. You want to make sure that they can do a good job and hopefully, perhaps fans that have dipped out in the year, will watch the Christmas episode and continue watching throughout the year.
Barry and Pat are coming back this Christmas to tie in with Nigel’s exit. What are your thoughts on bringing characters back from the dead, and would you want the same for Martin?
Oh that’s brilliant! That opens up the door for me, doesn’t it?! Martin will be on Barry’s shoulders – that’s great. Pat and Barry are the most iconic characters to ever leave the show. As a fan of the show, when they weren’t in it anymore, I was devastated because they were brilliant.
I’ve chatted with Shaun a little bit. I don’t know him particularly well, but I think he is a class act. He’s a brilliant, brilliant performer. And obviously, Pam, no one does it better than her. I didn’t actually know that, so thank you for telling me! I’ll be tuning in for Christmas now.
Zoe Slater’s return was hyped up as a massive comeback, but some fans have been disappointed with the storyline and how it’s gone so far. What do you think of it?
I think having Zoe back is a fantastic thing. Clever move from Ben. She’s massively iconic and obviously has the iconic ‘you’re not my mother’ scene. Obviously, Michelle Ryan’s a fantastic actress. I think if I had something to say to the fans, just trust what they’re doing. They’re very smart people on EastEnders creatively, they’re fantastic, so stick with it. I think they’ll be surprised once it kicks off.
Max Branning’s return will be huge with a flashback episode on New Year’s Day. Have you spoken to Jake and what do you want to see from him?
Anything! Jake’s not dissimilar to Steve [McFadden]. He’s just him and he’s so brilliant. He’s got it. He doesn’t need to do a lot. He doesn’t look like he’s doing a lot, but I know he is, because I know when Jake works, he’s incredibly intelligent.
I have spoken to him. He was really helpful to me. He gave me a lot of advice about Strictly and he also helped me make the decision with the new project, 2:22 A Ghost Story, because he did the original play with Lily Allen. I think he’s done it twice. I chatted to him about the team and everything, and he was just like, you’re going to have a ball. He’s really amazing to work with. I’ve got a lot of time for Jake.
What was the hardest storyline on EastEnders?
Well, other than dying live in front of millions – that was tricky. That was tricky technically, because it was live, and you only get one go at it. I did it with Lacey [Turner]. We had such an emotional journey and there were moments where we weren’t sure whether we’d be able to get through it. Obviously, it was really tricky. There were definitely moments where we were like, ‘Oh, this might not be the best thing for us,’ but we got away with it. It was tricky because I was saying goodbye to her as a colleague, but not as a friend. I’ve seen her quite a lot.
How difficult was it to learn lines on the show?
One of the skills, and it comes as the longer you do it with soap, is you do need to have an amazing short-term memory. I worked primarily in theater and grew up working in theater, so you spend a lot of time getting those lines in, drilling them in for days, and then they stay in and to the point where I could probably still recite some lines from when I was at drama school. With soap, it’s completely different. You have to sort of pick a script up, scan it, get it in your system, and then just know what you’re doing. What comes from that is you actually forget you have to have a skill, where you then forget it very quickly, because you’ve got another scene to learn.
Once you’ve finished a scene, your brain sort of goes, ‘forget that,’ and it deletes them. And then you take on the new one. It’s very fast paced.
Sometimes we’ve done scenes, started on another scene, and they’ve wanted to go back to a previous scene because we missed a shot and you’ve already forgotten the lines by that point. It’s genuinely gone even though you filmed it like 10 minutes ago.
What was the most challenging thing about Strictly Come Dancing?
The dancing! I did go into the competition with a bit of confidence, but mainly to have fun. I was very lucky to have Amy Dowden, who is a sweetheart, and we got on brilliantly well. She got me from the start. She knew what we were doing, but she didn’t push me too hard. I had a slightly tough time behind the scenes, so she was very accommodating with me there as well.
I was completely out of my comfort zone. I had zero training. I’m obviously a big lad and I’m not very flexible. I don’t really have much in the way of timing, so it was an uphill battle for her from day one, but I had a ball. I generally had the best time. It was so much fun, and I kind of just didn’t take myself too seriously.
What is the results show like behind the scenes?
I’m not giving anything away when I say that the result show is done on the same day. When you finish, you either feel like you’ve done yourself proud or you don’t depending on whether you messed up or not. Everyone’s buzzing. Obviously, if you’ve got a really good score the rest of the night’s brilliant. I didn’t have that luxury many times, but I really enjoyed it the nights I did. The nights I didn’t, it’s pandemonium backstage. Everyone’s running around. Some couples will go off on their own because they don’t want to be around other people. But others are just like, well the job’s done, I don’t care what happens now if I go into the dance off. I have been in many, many stressful situations in my life, and that is right up there.
The Halloween episode, there was a moment where we just got a feeling, like an energy, telling us it was our time. I had stuff going on behind the scenes for me so I sort of had checked out a little bit, but I thought I did a relatively good job. I messed up a little bit, but I was fine. But backstage, I was like, I don’t care if I go. I’ve done my time. But then I had to dance again, and I had to dance with Fleur. I went into a dance off against Fleur. I did my dance first, and it was pretty good, better than the one I did earlier. And when she did hers, she fell over to stop her routine. I’m standing there going, ‘I think we might get through because she’s gone flying. They messed up.’ But they let him do it again. Amy’s saying: ‘I’m not sure that’s the rules!’.
I don’t think it really mattered anyway because I didn’t want to do it. I was kind of done. But all of the crowd were going mental when they got to do it again. So I was a bit like, You know what? That doesn’t matter for me, the right thing happened, because it would be crazy to have taken her out of the show rather than watching me walking around flat footed around everywhere. I remember that hitting the papers, everyone went crazy about that!
Who do you think should replace Tess and Claudia?
It’s really tough. I don’t know how you would follow it. I think there are loads of people who could do it. Personally, I think it would be nice to keep it in the Strictly family. A past contestant would be good. They’ve got a hell of a challenge. And I think they need to get it right. The judges, they kind of keep it going, but there have been different judges over the years, and we obviously had Bruce to start with. But those two are Strictly. It will change. It’s gonna change the show. And I guess, do they try to change it? The format’s brilliant. Do they try to let these new people come in? Do they go young and try to get a younger audience in? Who knows what will happen but they will be very missed.
How much time did you get with Tess and Claudia behind the scenes?
I didn’t think we would get time with them but you do. Even before the live shows, they come in and you have lunch, and they give you a long time. They give you really sound advice, and they’re brilliant in the different ways they do it. Obviously, Claudia is far more like tongue in cheek. But ultimately, they say just to be yourself. Do your best in rehearsals. But ultimately, it will come down to whether the audience gets on your side or not. And that’s all you can do. I tip my hat to the people who do reality TV and do it well, because it is tricky.
Strictly is known for grueling rehearsals – how did you find them? Did you lose any weight while dancing?
I must have done. I did something to my calf when I was doing something like the Fox Trot. It was week four or five. You are going up and down on your toes, so that’s something I’m obviously not used to, but it is grueling, and it’s not always about the jives and the Charleston. We did the backflips, don’t get me wrong, they’ll kill you. But it’s the other things, you don’t realise how fit these dancers are, to be able to sit into these holes and stay there and just go again. They’re very talented.
You do shred the weight. I got the jive on the first week, so that was when you do two weeks of rehearsal for the first dance. So doing the jive for two weeks every single day was a killer and it does take its toll. It does drop off you and then people say, ‘oh it’s cardio’. That’s a load of nonsense. Like, I was doing between 15,000 and 20,000 steps a day without fail. And they were the easy days.
The calories you’re burning, and you don’t eat tons because you don’t want to waste time going for lunch every day. It was precious time. We had to rehearse a lot at Elstree because I was doing EastEnders and the guys there were giving us super healthy food. And so I was like, my god, I feel like a professional athlete. I just wish I could perform like an athlete!
