Former EastEnders actress Tanya Franks – known to millions as the soap’s Rainie Cross – may have reportedly found love with Dame Barbara Windsor’s widower, Scott Mitchell, but it’s her first ever role in a musical that’s giving her butterflies as she prepares to strip on stage.
Tanya heads the cast in a new UK tour of the critically acclaimed Calendar Girls The Musical. She is playing Annie Clarke, who has just lost her husband to leukaemia and who spearheads the idea to strip off for a calendar. Emily Atack’s aunt and Coronation Street star, Amy Robbins, is also in the show.
“We met at a photoshoot to photograph the poster,” says Tanya. “And it was one of those moments where you say, ‘Hello we are going to be working together’ and then find yourselves standing together in your underwear! It was definitely a baptism of fire to meet each other!
“I think we’ll all make friends very quickly and say, ‘I am trusting you with my complete modesty.’ It’s a responsibility for us all but this is such a new foray for me. I haven’t done a musical professionally before and I want to channel my nerves and try and do the best I possibly can do. It’s exciting.”
Tanya says she has great empathy with Annie. “It’s someone who is going through a massive loss,” she explains. “So many people find themselves having to go through everything day to day when they’re grieving. We all know what it is to love and to lose. When people pass away, it is never ever easy. You have to take five minutes at a time.”
The 56-year-old is thrilled to be working with the musical’s creators Tim Firth and Gary Barlow, but reveals she has never watched the original 2003 film, in which Julie Walters played the role of Annie.
“I am pleased I haven’t as I can come to it completely fresh,” she adds. “The most wonderful thing about this business is so many things come your way you’ve never foreseen. It’s mad to think I’ve gone from EastEnders to playing in Othello and now the Calendar Girls.”
The friendly star says while she will be grateful for the opportunities playing Rainie has given her, it’s also nice to play other roles. She first joined EastEnders in 2007 and went on to return as Rainie a further four times before arriving again in 2018.
She then stayed for another four years before leaving in 2022. “EastEnders is a show that has been fantastic to me and I have got a lot to thank it for,” says Tanya proudly.
“She is such a wonderful character and I never thought EastEnders would be so prominent in my life. It’s nice to play different characters but the soap is so ingrained in our psyche, it’s natural people will ask if I would ever return.
“People are thinking outside the box a lot more. 60 is the new 40. I haven’t got to 60 yet but I am thinking in my head I am looking forward to being 40 when I’m 60!”
Private Tanya avoids discussing her love life even though she was recently linked romantically with Scott, 60. They reportedly grew close while training for the London Marathon and have been pictured together several times since the story broke in July.
She does, however, admit going on a reality show like Strictly Come Dancing or I’m A Celebrity is also not on her radar, again because she values keeping her personal life out of the public eye. “I don’t actually get asked,” she says. “I think it’s probably because they know I’m not a reality TV girl. I admire people who want to do it and it’s very brave of them but I like being the people who aren’t Tanya Franks. I don’t want to be Tanya Franks on a reality show!”
She confides she is attracted to roles that are different to her. “A lot of them are dealing with addictions or life troubles and you have to look at yourself and look at the stigmas you want to break down,” she adds. “I love playing characters who are thrown into a world I have not experienced in my own life.”
Like many actresses, she doesn’t envisage retiring and reveals it was some advice from the late, great Glenda Jackson when she was 15 that has been her biggest inspiration.
Tanya says, “She told me to be prepared to be unemployed 80 percent of the time. I remember thinking, ‘I am going to try and be employed 80 percent of the time.’ It gave me my ambition. Now if I lost my ambition, it would be the time to give up. And I’d never want to. It’s good to still have ambitions. But I don’t get so frustrated when things aren’t happening like I used to years ago.”
She smiles as she reflects on what advice she’d now give her 18-year-old self. “I would tell myself to not get too hung up about comparing your journey to someone else’s,” she says. “If you put out good energy, then good energy comes back.”
Going back to the subject of Calendar Girls, she hopes it will inspire a generation of younger women to embrace everything that is great about female camaraderie.
“This is a massive celebration throughout the ages of being a woman,” she adds. “It’s great to celebrate each other and it’s great to embrace being a woman. I am so excited to be in this musical.”
The new production of Calendar Girls: The Musical, written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has been reimagined for a UK tour which runs into 2024. For more information, go to kenwright.com.
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