Zack Hudson (James Farrar) was left a broken man when partner Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) left Walford earlier this year in EastEnders.
The happy life he built with Whit fell apart spectacularly due to him cheating on her with Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa). When the secret was exposed, Whit came to the conclusion she didn’t need a man in her life and left Albert Square with baby Dolly and adopted daughter Britney.
While Zack has been forced to adapt to life on his own, star James Farrar has also had to get used to Shona McGarty no longer being around on the set of the BBC One soap.
‘It’s been hard without her, because you’ve lost your mate everyday!’, he told us during a chat at this year’s Inside Soap Awards.
‘I’m working more with the boys now which is fantastic. I’ve got Aaron [Thiara] and James [Bye] who are my best mates, no relationship as of yet of course, I think that may be the natural progression, however, the next storyline isn’t that!’.
Ever so slightly teasing his next storyline, but being very careful to not give away too much information, he said:
‘It’s clever, that’s all I’ll say. Nobody knows bar Chris [Clenshaw], the press team, my wife and Aaron know! If I was to tell somebody, it doesn’t do the story justice and the story is so clever.’
We also had time to ask James for his thoughts on the upcoming live episode, which will air in February as part of EastEnders’ 40th anniversary celebrations.
He laughed: ‘I’m excited! I want to be front and centre!’.
In a soap first for the big event, the power of deciding the outcome of one storyline will be bestowed onto the audience.
Whilst details are fairly scarce at the moment, we do know that the interactive element will involve your opinion on the desired outcome of a love story – but who?
The outcome will play out during the live episode as those on and off-screen adapt to the result of the public vote.
