'EastEnders' Jo Joyner: 'British Soap Award nods are a surprise'

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Jo Joyner as Tanya Branning

© BBC

EastEnders star Jo Joyner has said that she is flattered by her string of British Soap Award nominations.

The 34-year-old - who plays Walford's Tanya Jessop - is up for a number of different prizes at the forthcoming event, including 'Best Actress' and 'Best Dramatic Performance'.

Tanya's relationship with Max Branning (Jake Wood) has also been put forward for the 'Best On-Screen Partnership' gong, while the mum-of-three's cancer ordeal has been nominated for 'Best Storyline'.

Joyner, responding to the recognition, told Daybreak today (April 12): "I was surprised. I'll be even more surprised if I win them! It's really flattering, actually - particularly the [public] vote ones. They're the most important, really, because it means that you've done a good job for the audience.

"It's all flattering, it's flattering for your bosses to even put you up for them."

Asked which prize she would most like to win, she joked: "It'd be embarrassing not to win any, wouldn't it? That's always a possibility!

"I'd love to win the 'Partnership', because we've not been up for that before and I really like Max and Tanya. We've got such a good history, and it's a real love/hate thing."

Max and Tanya continue to pretend all is well with their marriage

© BBC

Max isn't impressed to see Tanya making a fuss for Jack.

© BBC



Joyner added that she is glad EastEnders is still exploring a troubled time for Tanya, who was finally given the all-clear from cancer last month.

She explained: "We've all unfortunately got experience of friends and family who've had cancer. Certainly for me with some of the survivors, the thing that's forgotten is that when you've had extreme therapy like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, there are after-effects from that.

"So though you might have been cured of the cancer hopefully, you still then have to live with the consequences of the treatment. Particularly with cervical cancer, because it's at the very heart of a woman.

"I went upstairs to [the producers], they told me that Tanya was going to get an all-clear at this point, and I said to them, 'Can we not leave it there, though? Let's look at this afterwards'."

The British Soap Awards take place in London on April 28.

> EastEnders Tanya worry isn't over, says Jo Joyner
> British Soap Awards 2012: Full viewer and panel shortlist revealed
> Read more EastEnders news and spoilers

Watch Tanya's EastEnders character trail in the video below:

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