It's Party time for Jack
ENJOYING STAGE LIFE: Jack Ryder went from Woolwich to Walford and 10,000 fan letters a week - yet oddly acting
wasn’t the fresh-faced former EastEnder’s first love.
The south Londoner was, and still is, an avid music fan, thanks partly to his father’s (Jack Hues) exotic career as a
singer in ‘80s pop band Wang Chung.
Despite his phenomenal impact as cherubic Mitchell clan member Jamie during a four-and-a-half year spell on the
BBC soap (before a drunk-driving Martin Fowler brought him to a sticky end), as a child Jack dreamed of following in
father's footsteps, besotted by such rock icons as Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger.
A chance meeting with a BBC producer kickstarted of a new love though and now the 24-year-old - following an
enforced break through illness and the repercussions of family life (he’s married to ex-Hear’Say singer and now
Corrie actress Kym Marsh) - is relishing being back in the saddle.
His latest role in Safari Party sees him arrive at The Lowry on June 5.
He plays wide boy Adam in Warrington-born Tim Firth’s acclaimed comic look at a dinner party in Cheshire and the
skeletons that are coaxed out of the cupboard during it.
I caught up with him on tour for a chat to find out more:
The tour’s coming to end and now - how has it gone so far?
It’s been nice. We’ve been to a lot places, met a lot of people and have generally had good audiences - that’s what
touring’s about - it’s been an interesting journey.
The cast is quite mixed age-wise - how have your enjoyed that?
It’s good. Christopher Timothy (star of All Creatures Great And Small) is great; he’s such a funny character. He’s
got a lot of stories to tell. David and Helen (Adam and Abby from Hollyoaks) are both from TV backgrounds like me
and they’re great too. There’s been no egos or anything like that, it’s just been a really nice vibe all the way through.
You play Adam. Can you tell us a bit more about him and how you landed the part?
I met the director David Taylor about another play and we left the meeting having got on and really wanting to work
with each other, then about four weeks later I got a script through the door for this one. I read it and fell in love with it
straight away. My character is a farmer’s son and when he passes away my brother and me are left with the farm.
My character is a cheeky, Delboy type who isn’t in to farming like his brother and would rather go to Ibiza and earns
loads of money. It’s a great part and I jumped at the chance to take it.
The play looks at dinner parties and the pretence that can go on at them. Have you been at some
strange dinner parties yourself?
Thankfully no! Any dinner parties I go to are with people I know very well. I’ve never been caught in a situation
where I’ve been over to someone’s house and it’s been uncomfortable - luckily!
The last tour you did was with the homage to Morecambe and Wise, The Play What I Wrote - how did it
go?
It was more a cameo role really. My wife Kym did it as well. They basically get different people to arrive as a surprise
each night and I did a few shows and loved it so much I asked to go back. I’m too young to know them really, but I
remember standing at the side of the stage one night seeing the influence they had on the audience and how great
they were and I actually welled up a little bit.
After you left EastEnders you seemed to step out of the limelight for a while. Was that a conscious
decision?
At first I wanted to take a step back a bit. Then I wanted to start work again but became quite ill with food poisoning.
That sort of knocked me out for about 18 months, I was going to hospital regularly and seeing doctors and it got me
down a bit. At the end of last summer I got over it though, got a new agent and started working again. I’ve done a lot
of theatre now, a radio play for the BBC and a film, so it’s been great.
You landed the part of Jamie by accident didn’t you?
My friend was going to an EastEnders workshop and I went down with him and this guy came up to me and asked
me who I was and if it was my stage name. It turned out he was the executive producer and he asked me to read for
the part. I’d just left school and was in shock really. I left the audition and wasn’t expecting to hear anything and then
one night I was playing the Playstation and I got a call - I pressed pause and then he offered me the part. It was hard
to take it all in. He was great though, offering advice and stuff. I’d thought about studying drama at college, so it
made sense just to study it on EastEnders instead.
At a teenage boy, how important was it to have so many season actors around you?
To be with Steve McFadden from day one tutoring me was amazing. Plus there was Barbara Windsor and Ross
Kemp plus Natalie Cassidy, who was in the same boat as me. Jamie was a great character to play and it was
phenomenal experience.
Did you find it quite hard to adjust to becoming famous so quickly?
Yes I did and anyone who says otherwise isn’t telly the truth really. I was a 15-year-old kid who hung around
shopping centres with his friends and suddenly I was getting mobbed. I think I dealt with it well though. I’ve never
been a big going out person, so I didn’t really stray into trouble. When I did go to clubs, you got a lot of unwanted
attention, which wasn’t nice. Although it was obviously very nice to get compliments and things.
You were quite a heartthrob on the show. What was the fan mail like?
I was getting 10,000 letters a week! Bin liners full were dropped outside my dressing room door, it was fantastic that
the character got that response, but it was also a weird time. Luckily I’ve got a great family and a set of friends who
kept me sane.
You’ve been with a Kym a few years now. How good has it been having someone alongside you who has
been through a similar experience?
Great. We were both plucked from obscurity so we both look at things the same way. We’ve been together five
years now. I got married at 19 and I’ve got a proper family, so I had a whole life’s worth in five years. I’ve always
been that sort of guy though. I’ve very chilled out and I like to take things in my stride.
Kym’s got a role in Coronation Street now. Will she be filming while you’re up here?
I’m not sure. We live London and have got the children in school there, so we try to divide our time to be around for
them. Her whole family are coming to see the show though and Kym’s family is massive! I think it might be quite
nerve-wracking actually!
Away from acting I understand your first love was music and your dad was in an ’80s pop group
Yeah. My mum and dad were separated, so I split my time with my mum in south London and my dad in central
London and Los Angeles in music studios. My dad’s influences were the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix and my mum was
into The Who and Led Zep, so I’ve grown up with that while my friends were listening to Will Smith! That sort of pop
stuff doesn’t really interest me.
Do you get to many gigs?
A few yeah. I saw Bob Dylan a while back and the Rolling Stones, plus I’m hoping to catch the Red Hot Chili
Peppers. All the guys I like are either dead or really old though!
Away from the stage you mentioned a film. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah - Popcorn. I did it last year and it’s coming out in July or August. It’s over in Cannes at the moment. It’s set in a
cinema and it’s a teen comedy. Jodi Albert’s (played Debbie in Hollyoaks) in it as well.
Is the plan to try and work across all the mediums over the next few years?
Yeah. I’m a working actor; I’m not a high-profile actor that can pick and choose what I do. Auditions come in and I go
for the ones that I like. I just want to do good work and play good characters that test me - so if that continues I’ll be
happy.
The Safari Party is on at The Lowry from Monday, June 5 until Saturday, June 10. £10 - £20. Call the Box
Office on 0870 060 1768 for tickets