Jo Joyner, who now stars in EastEnders, recently discussed why she doesn’t have any immediate plans to return to the BBC One drama.
Tanya Branning, who hasn’t been spotted in Walford since 2018, was portrayed by the actress.
Tanya made her final appearance when she went back to say goodbye to Abi, who had passed away after falling through the roof of the Queen Vic.
Months later, it was made public that Tanya was being treated for mental illness while trying to come to terms with the death of her daughter.
Over the years, Tanya Branning has been at the core of a number of dramatic plots, many of which revolve on her husband Max (Jake Wood), to whom she was married until their union was strained by his affair with Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
Even though there is never a dull moment in the fascinating world of a soap opera, actor Jo Joyner decided to leave the programme to try something entirely new.
She told The Sun, “As soon as you got bored of one thing, you got a different thing, a new adventure.”
That was a major motivator for me to return to the public eye, and I’ve been fortunate to do the same thing ever since to shake things up.
Variety truly is the flavour of life.
Jo has now gone on to act in other TV shows following her stint on EastEnders.
She is also well known for playing Mandy Carter in the Channel 4 drama Ackley Bridge and for starring in Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators on BBC One, in which Luella Shakespeare teams up with Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton) to assist him investigate peculiar crimes in Stratford-upon-Avon.
