Here Comes Himesh

From EastEnders to this summer’s big Beatles blockbuster, Yesterday, meet Hollywood’s unexpected star, Himesh Patel

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The first thing that Himesh Patel says is that he’s ‘itching to be back home’. It figures since he’s currently in New York on the publicity trail for new movie Yesterday, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis. Patel plays the lead role of singer-songwriter Jack Malik, who discovers he’s the only person on the planet to remember The Beatles. Set to be the feel-good box-office smash of the summer, it’s a far departure from Patel’s other significant role – an eight-and-a-half-year tenure as the affable Tamwar Masood in EastEnders.

Patel’s first gig post-soap was a part in Morwenna Banks and Jo Brand’s comedy Damned, playing social worker Nitin for two series (he hopes there will be a third). But this year, things have really ramped up. As well as filming adventure flick The Aeronauts alongside Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne, there’s a TV adaptation of The Luminaries opposite Eva Green, and he’s just signed up for science-fiction series Avenue 5. But it’s Yesterday that’s about to put Patel, 28, firmly on the map.

‘I was ecstatic to get the part [in Yesterday], but didn’t have time to let it intimidate me,’ he says. ‘A few days after the news, I sat down with Danny and our composer Daniel [Pemberton] to go through which songs we were doing.’ The songs (as you’d expect with a film about The Beatles) were key, and Patel’s voice is impressive, particularly when you consider his co-stars are Ed Sheeran and