Jamie Bamber, best known for playing Archie Hughes in the Death in Paradise spin-off Beyond Paradise, has opened up on swapping Shipton Abbott for Walford as he joins the cast of EastEnders.
The 53-year-old actor is set to make his debut as Ned Roper in upcoming scenes of the BBC One soap. Ned is the brother-in-law of already established character Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) who will soon move to Walford alongside wife Gemma Hawkins (Patricia Potter) and their son Ryder (Felix Ruff). They will be joined by Gemma and Nicola's younger sister Jodie Hawkins (Anna Constable) and their mum Rose Hawkins (Marian McLoughlin).
Emotional admission about new BBC role
Opening up about his new role, Jamie admitted: "This is not something that I ever thought be on my radar like it's completely not the plan. I've lived all over the world but I'm back in London and there's nothing that gives me more of a buzz than realising that I'm working for the BBC. The BBC is under threat, as we all know, and having lived all over the world, I've seen, and felt, first-hand the respect and the love that the rest of the globe have for the BBC. It's a tragedy to me that we don't appreciate it."
He added: "During the World Cup,I was sitting at home and I had no idea the halftime show in Britain was going to be a love letter to the BBC and I just welled up. I've done lots of things but this is genuinely totally different from anything else I've ever done and because I never thought I'd be doing this, I've just had my mind opened to a whole different way of working and to a whole different energy and I couldn't be prouder and I couldn't be more excited."
Character details and connections
Fans will be introduced to Ned viewers in the next couple of weeks and actor Jamie has let slip that his character already knows one Walford resident - Alfie Moon, played by Shane Richie. He explained: "Ned is a former military man. He's from nothing and worked his way up through the ranks. He's become a therapist and which is a strange sort of pairing, a military therapist, but he retrained within the army as a PTSD therapist so he's someone who can talk. He is someone who can listen and used to diffuse bonds so he stays calm."
He continued: "There's extraordinary tense situations and it's quite apparent straight away that there is some tension between the only other character that he really knows on the Square, which is his sister-in-law, Nicola. He's also got a history with Alfie and you find that out very quickly. There's only two people he really knows and that's his sister-in-law and Alfie, but he doesn't know Alfie's a publican, that's a surprise."
Executive producer's plans and actor's background
Executive producer Ben Wadey has revealed that the team have exciting plans for the newcomers. Ben said: "The Hawkins family are a fantastic addition to Walford. While the family share a fierce loyalty to one another, decades of complicated history and Nicola's estrangement from them has left fractures within the family that are far from healed. We’re all very excited for what we have planned for the family, and we can’t wait for the audience to meet them."
As well as starring in Beyond Paradise and EastEnders, Jamie has appeared in Battlestar Galactica, Perception, CSI: Miami, DI Ray and more recently he played Charlie Morgan in Channel 5 drama The Wives alongside former EastEnders stars Jo Joyner and Tamzin Outhwaite. EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer from 6am.
