A Spark Into a Flame

Simon Stabler speaks to an EastEnders original

- Simon Stabler

For many actors, one of the biggest hurdles they face is in persuading their parents to let them go to drama school. Not so in the case of original EastEnders cast member Paul J Medford.

"My parents sent me to a stage school when I was five," recalls Paul. "I must have displayed some kind of sense of performance. I think I used to stand in front of the television, so no one could see it. So, they figured: 'Well, obviously he wants to be inside this box, let's send him somewhere where he can exploit all those things that he likes to do."

Originally a pupil at the Barbara Speake Stage School, the independent school run by the formidable team of June Collins - mother of popstar Phil Collins - and the eponymous Miss Speake, Paul would later study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

"Barbara Speake's was a fantastic school. They really did prepare you for the industry. You were out there as a working kid, expected to be professional and you were."

As with any other school, Paul studied the core subjects such as English, Maths, History and Geography but with singing, dancing, acting and music replacing classes such as PE, woodworking and cookery.

Aged 10, Paul played the young tearaway Devon in Black Joy; one of the first black British films to gain widespread public attention, it was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.

"June Collins, who was the agent at the time, sent me for the audition. I had only done, I think, two things before that. The first thing I did was the very first commercial for McDonald's that the UK ever had, then I did an episode of Return of the Saint, and then I went for the audition for Black Joy.