I feel like I've stepped into my telly...life as a soap star

A MASSIVE 13 million people watched Albert Square beamed on to our TV screens for the first time on February 19, 1985.

- Mark Jefferies

These days you might be watching EastEnders on your phone or tablet but the shocks and highs and lows remain as big as ever.

Some of the great female actors who have blessed Walford have been speaking to Radio Times about what it is really like to work on the BBC's biggest soap.

And these glamorous pictures on the front of the magazine are a tribute to the four decades of entertainment they have brought.

Scary

Gillian Taylforth, who plays Kathy Beale, described how her character has suffered a lot over the years and it has taken a psychological toll on the actress.

She said: "Some storylines do. I remember going home with the scripts [when Kathy was raped by Wilmot Brown in 1988] and feeling very down and sad about it.