'Enders' originals thought it would fail

Gillian Taylforth has revealed that the original EastEnders cast didn't expect the soap to last.

The actress, who appeared in the show's first episode in 1985, told the Sunday Mirror that producers initially wrote six-month contracts as expectations were low.

This Friday, the BBC One soap will celebrate its 25th year with a special live broadcast during which Archie Mitchell's killer will be unmasked.

Taylforth said: "I remember sitting in the green room chatting to ­Letitia Dean, who played Sharon Watts, and Anita Dobson, who played Angie Watts, about what we would do once it was over.

"Letitia said she was going back to dancing and Anita said she’d go back to theatre. I'd been working as a secretary and I was a bit annoyed that I’d find it difficult to get back into it because I’d lost my 90 word-per-minute typing speed!"

Taylforth was 27 and still training part-time as an actress at the Anna Scher school in Islington, North London, when she landed the role of cafe worker Kathy Beale.

"When I got the part I phoned my mum and dad and said, 'I’ve got some great news'. I turned up with a bottle of champagne and said, 'I’m going to be in this new show called ­East­Enders'. My mum and dad’s faces dropped. My mum said, 'Oh we thought you had some good news. That you were engaged or something’," she said.

After 12 years, two husbands and countless heartbreaks Kathy left Walford in 1998. “When I left I took one of her aprons and the ­wedding ring Phil Mitchell had given her. I've still got them at home," she said.