Shaun Williamson: EastEnders was sink or swim while acting among legends

Shaun Williamson felt as though he had to "sink or swim" when he first starred in \'EastEnders\' alongside the likes of Dame Barbara Windsor and Mike Reid.

The 54-year-old actor landed his first major TV role in the BBC One soap in 1994 when he joined the cast as Barry Evans, and the star has admitted he and other newcomers had to "just get on with it and prove that you belonged there" while appearing opposite legendary actors, such as Wendy Richard, Barbara and Mike.

He said: "It was real sink or swim. They were lovely people.

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"But when you went on set for the first time you\'d have people like Barbara Windsor, Mike Reid, Wendy Richard - these were huge stars before they went to \'EastEnders\'.

"Then there were people who the show made stars of, like Pam St Clement, and Tony Caunter, and June Brown.

"So, this was no place for a shy, retiring, wall flower.

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"You had to just get on with it and prove that you belonged there."

The BBC have been replaying a classic \'EastEnders\' episode every Tuesday while the main show is off air until September 7th, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Viewers were treated to plenty of fireworks last night (18.08.20) as the show\'s \'Pat and Frank\'s Affair\' episode, which originally aired on Bonfire Night in 2000, saw Frank Butcher (Mike) depart after his infidelity was revealed.

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And Shaun admitted special episodes such as those "didn\'t come along every week".

Speaking on \'The One Show\', he added: "I made about 700 [episodes] and you don\'t actually remember that many of them.

"Episodes like this didn\'t come along every week.

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"This was a special episode. You had four - I mean it in a nice way - the big beasts, big actors performing to a brilliantly written script and doing it fantastically.

"At the time, of course, there were only four channels so they\'d get 20 million people on a Tuesday night, so the show was massive anyway before all the cable channels came in.

"This [episode] would\'ve got 20/ 25 million. It\'s hard to imagine now.

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"The next day when you went out in the street, one in three people would know who you were."