- 4 hours ago
- #drama
- #short
- #lovestory
#Drama #Short #LoveStory
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00:00Grant, how many pubs have we been in in the East End, do you reckon?
00:04All of them, haven't we?
00:05We're probably thrown out of most of them.
00:07And out of all those places of refreshment, which would you say are the tastiest bars there?
00:11Oh, no competition, Phil, that place in Walford.
00:13The Queen something.
00:15Yeah, the Queen, yeah.
00:17Are the rest of my case?
00:19Well, I'd rather you rest two and twenty on the bar.
00:21So, Phil and Grant are archetypal East End brothers.
00:27They were obviously originally based on the Cray brothers, so nothing will come between them, you know.
00:36The only person that comes between them is their mum, and they're told to do what their mum does in that true East End tradition.
00:44And Grant falls for Sharon.
00:47He works behind the bar.
00:48He does have issues.
00:51No one's going to deny that, but so do a lot of people that exist in Albert Square.
00:55Um, Grant goes to prison.
00:58There's a relationship forms between his brother and his wife.
01:02You're a lovely bloke, Phil.
01:04It will never tell you that.
01:06Yeah, all the time.
01:07You know what I mean?
01:08You're really sweet.
01:10Thanks.
01:10Phil!
01:28Phil!
01:29And so, what happens is that, um, Michelle, who is Sharon's best friend, Sharon is in the triangle, obviously, she is doing a thesis about relationships, and she records, as people did in the old days before mobile phones, on a cassette recorder.
01:48I think it may have been working-class women and their relationships, wide subject, but inside that interview, they get drunk.
01:56They have a couple of glasses and bottles of wine, and Sharon, the recorder's going, and Sharon tells Michelle that she's had an affair with Grant's brother, Phil.
02:07Well, that cassette gets lost, it turns up in Grant's car, Grant pulls it out to play a tune, and suddenly he's listening to his wife, who he's smiling about, listening to her talking to Michelle about being young and then being friends together.
02:20All you see is what he shows everyone else, but he's different with me.
02:25Gentleman, if you say so.
02:27Way to go, Michelle.
02:28I do.
02:30He's my darling.
02:32And you're my darling too, sweetheart.
02:34And all of a sudden, she starts telling Michelle about how she has slept with his brother.
02:41Pure soap.
02:42What about Phil?
02:56Babe.
02:58You slept with him, remember?
03:03Phil was different.
03:04Why?
03:05He just was.
03:07I didn't know that the first time.
03:08In one minute, I was looking at him in the next, ripping each other's clothes off.
03:14And after?
03:17Well, it was like Phil was a nice side of Grant, without the other stuff.
03:22I think that's why I fell in love with him.
03:25I didn't need Tearstick to get into that state, because the emotions and the people that you're working with, you're close with them, and you get rhythms.
03:32I mean, you start working with a new actor on a job, you take time to feel how you pass the ball to each other.
03:40Whereas Steve and I, it was just natural.
03:43And it felt like two brothers.
03:46And many people today still think we are brothers.
03:48I had screen tested for a part in the bill.
03:53I tried to drive a vehicle off with a cameraman still in the back, attached to the leads to a scanner.
03:59So that went against me, and I realised it wasn't going too well.
04:04And the next day I had to put handcuffs on someone, so I was practising.
04:08And as I was absentmindedly snapping the cuffs on, I actually cuffed my wrist.
04:12And when I went to the props guys to get a key, they wouldn't give it to me, because I tried to kill a cameraman the day before.
04:20So I had to do the whole scene with my hand behind my back, a bit like Napoleon.
04:24Funnily enough, didn't get the part.
04:26But they thought of me for the part of Grant.
04:30So I think there was like hundreds of us to start with.
04:32But I got down to the last date.
04:34We screen tested on set at EastEnders.
04:38There were four Grants, four Phil's.
04:40I did an actually screen test with Steve.
04:42Next day I got the phone call.
04:44And within a week I was on set.
04:52Sorry girls.
04:53Didn't mean to scare you.
04:54See you down to Mecca next Monday.
04:57By the second year, I think they'd given us a year with a year option.
05:01And you could, obviously, there was 52 weeks a year.
05:04So 84 shows a year.
05:06And I think I was in 90.
05:08So it kicked.
05:10And within a year, Steve and I had suddenly just taken off inside the show.
05:15And that was that.
05:18We were lucky that the writers, in particular Tony Jordan and Tony McHale, liked the characters.
05:26You know, Steve and I were not long out of drama school.
05:28We looked very similar.
05:30But we both were classically trained actors who were very, maybe overly interested in the method, where a lot of actors have got used to doing it in a very kind of easier way.
05:43We went, you know, if we were doing a scene in the Vic, when you walk in the doors, and we know that we knew that about two weeks before, when you shoot the outside stuff out of continuity, that we were chasing down the road after someone.
05:55We wouldn't walk in like we just had a cup of tea.
05:57We'd do press-ups outside and we'd jog on the spot.
05:59So he came in hot and sweaty.
06:02And I think that, you know, I think I understand when people are in a long-running show, those things don't necessarily are important unless the director tells you to do it.
06:10But we were already on it.
06:12And I think we took it maybe too seriously in places, but I think that also paid off.
06:18You know, the Mitchell brothers have stood the test of time.
06:23Look, whatever I said, it was taken out of context.
06:25You know what the police are like.
06:26They'll take things anywhere they want.
06:27I bet you loved putting a finger on Frank, didn't you?
06:29Look, all I said was he's a bit skint right now.
06:31It's hardly a criminal offence.
06:32Oh, you brain dead, eh?
06:33If you kept your big mouth shut, Frank would be in the clear right now, wouldn't he?
06:35Instead of having the filth crawling all over him.
06:37You know, I never knew you two were so committed to the brotherhood of man.
06:39You're looking worse for yourself!
06:40Grant!
06:41Grant!
06:42Leave it!
06:42This doesn't concern you.
06:44I'm not having this in the victory.
06:45Join me.
06:45I'm not having it.
06:46Like I said, it doesn't concern you.
06:47You'd better have a damn good explanation.
06:50Letitia Dean has always been a powerhouse.
06:54I think of all the people that have been in that show, you've got to look to Tish and Steve
07:00for still carrying a lot of the heavy storylines.
07:05Call them heavy lifters.
07:06That's their nickname.
07:07And I would say Jilly, Talforth and Adam Woodjet over the years, and Jilly and Adam being originals and Tish being an original, of course.
07:19And Steve and I joined like five years into the show's journey.
07:23So I think, you know, Tish, for me, out of all of them, even all four of them, dare I say it, has probably had the biggest storylines over 40 years of EastEnders.
07:36And still does so.
07:39And still pulls it off.
07:41God knows how, but she does.
07:43I'd better go and find Grant.
07:45No.
07:46I can't leave him on his own.
07:47Not after all this, can I?
07:48No, I know what he's like.
07:50He'll be walking around brooding on it, churning it over, then he'll go into one.
07:53Oh, look, she's worried about you.
07:55He'll kill him and me too, probably.
07:57Couldn't happen to two nicer people.
07:59Won't come back here, would he?
08:00And someone described him as having toxic masculinity.
08:04I don't think anyone knew what toxic masculinity was.
08:07And for me, you know, Grant's a veteran.
08:10Grant served in the army.
08:12He was in the Falklands when he was very, very young.
08:14And I researched, you know, PTSD, you know, when people weren't even talking about it.
08:20And having been out to Afghanistan on a regular basis, you know, I've seen PTSD.
08:26And I know what effect it can have on people in so many different ways.
08:29And PTSD is one word for numerous, you know, mental health issues.
08:36So, you know, I've never seen Grant as anything but someone who has many issues.
08:42As many people in EastEnders have many issues because issues create drama.
08:46And it is a big drama.
08:48No one goes into the cap and just orders a cheese sandwich.
08:53They order a cheese sandwich.
08:55And if you think you're doing that, that's why I take my hat off if I have one, to all the people that have been in the show for a very long time.
09:03Because it's an emotional drain.
09:06No, no, you're not, you know, you're not working in casualty.
09:10And, you know, you're not a police officer.
09:12And you're not dealing with life and death situations.
09:15But you're expected to act what it's like to be in a life and death situation on a regular basis.
09:29And that can scoop you out at the end of the day.
09:32And it's a bit of a roller coaster.
09:34I've been worried about it.
09:35Stay away from me.
09:36You come anywhere near me and I swear to God I'll kill you.
09:38I had to keep thinking of sad thoughts for about five hours.
09:50It was freezing.
09:52And I refused to wear any kind of, like, you know, undergarment.
09:56Because I wanted to feel like I was there in the moment.
09:59So I was pretty cold.
10:01I was trying to think of very sad thoughts to make my eyes continue to stream.
10:05And my nose continued to snort and it carried on snotting.
10:08I don't know why it did, but it did.
10:10Maybe because it was so cold.
10:11Move out of my way.
10:13Oh.
10:15But you can't go and not lie to you, shall we?
10:17Give it time, you're hurting now.
10:18Hurting?
10:21I can feel every stroke.
10:25You may as well have had a knife in your hand.
10:28Some of the lines, you know, I can feel every stroke.
10:32You may as well have had a knife in your hand.
10:337.30, Watershed, you know, not many people get away with saying things like that.
10:40And I think, you know, Grant could in that situation.
10:44And I think audiences wanted him to say something.
10:47He wanted to feel that pain that he was feeling.
10:49And, you know, testament to Steve's acting ability to be able to play off that.
10:55Hit me.
10:55Come on, that's what I want, I deserve it.
11:00Come on.
11:02I want it over with and out of the way.
11:04Move.
11:05No.
11:08Come on.
11:09Come on.
11:11Think about what I did, eh?
11:13Come on, I want it out of the way!
11:14Steve and I could both look after ourselves to a certain extent, and we wanted it to be as real as possible.
11:21So it was pretty real.
11:23I mean, apart from, you know, him landing in the pit, I shoved him into those paint cans as hard as I possibly could.
11:33And he pushed me backwards as hard as he could.
11:35And that's why it looks real.
11:37Do you know why?
11:37Because it was real.
11:39But we were both, in those days, particularly rough and tough enough to be able to look after ourselves.
11:44Come on over with!
11:45No!
11:53I remember just at the end of it, you know, you don't normally get applauses because we're moving on.
11:58And we got all the actors that were in the scene got a round of applause, which was nice.
12:04Because we'd all pulled it together.
12:05We'd all worked really hard.
12:07And I think, you know, the great thing about the cruise were we knew that this was a biggie.
12:12And we all felt, you feel that kind of, this isn't a cheese sandwich scene and an egg and bacon in the calf.
12:19This is for opera, big stuff.
12:21This is a combination of a year's storyline.
12:24Tony Jordan's writing was absolutely superb.
12:28He's a very talented writer, but he was particularly on fire when he wrote those and came up with that full storyline.
12:36People loved it.
12:37Millions of people tuned into that.
12:39Big storylines in those days.
12:42I mean, the big one is obviously Den and Angie.
12:44That was 30 million.
12:46But, you know, 25 million people.
12:48You know, that's, that was a massive part of the population at that time.
12:53I think we were about 65 million.
12:56So you're approaching nearly half the country tuned in to watch it.
12:59I think it was the best storyline.
13:02Oh, I had some very good storylines with Steve.
13:04But I spoke to Tish and she, I think she believes that was the biggest storyline.
13:10The one that she's most proud of.
13:11Yeah.
13:11I mean, I, I, I have to say in terms of the numbers as well, the people that tuned in and it was a slow burner.
13:17So that storyline went for over a year.
13:20And that's something that EastEnders is very clever at and very good at in terms of planting something and letting it grow and grow and grow and grow and grow and grow.
13:30And right at the moment, right moment, exploding it on screen.
13:34And then all the ripples that come off that create other storylines.
13:39My first feelings about watching it, and I haven't watched it obviously in 25 years, something like that, is to think, do you know what?
13:47That was quite good.
13:48And, and all the actors were good.
13:52And the quality of the shooting, you know, it doesn't look that dated.
13:58It goes to show, you know, just what an achievement everybody attached to that show managed to pull off because look at other programs out there today being made.
14:11I would suggest that the quality on that show is probably higher than some of the stuff, a lot of the stuff that you're seeing on other channels.
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