After an illustrious career in TV and film, Annette Badland is no stranger to the spotlight, though her role in EastEnders brought challenges she’d never faced before, as she revealed.
Talking on the Soap From The Box podcast, Annette revealed that fans of the BBC soap would often mistake her for her character, Babe Smith.
Fans of the show will see why this was an issue, as Aunt Babe is one of the show’s most notorious villains, with a lengthy list of crimes under her belt, including drug dealing and baby farming.
‘If you’re in people’s living rooms frequently, they do know you as the character,’ The actress, who has also appeared in Doctor Who, explained.
‘On EastEnders, people actually spoke to me as my character and it certainly was quite freaky.
‘I learned not to go out when schools were coming out because you get on a tube and there would be three classrooms full of people. They do not do their homework, they watch EastEnders, they all pile on and they go “Oh, Babe!”.
‘There’s no use pretending you’re reading your book or you’ve got your earpods in.’
The Ted Lasso star has previously opened up about receiving death threats during her time on EastEnders.
She told Distinct Nostalgia Podcast: ‘Most people loved her and enjoyed the naughtiness of it but towards the end I did have death threats which is very shocking and frightening so it is a tricky thing that you go: “Oh this is wonderful that people think she is real,” and then there are people who go with it and don’t enjoy it or it offends them as they think it is real and they want revenge.’
Annette left EastEnders in 2017 after three years on the show, when character Babe was disowned by her family after leaving Sylvie Carter by the canal.
Despite her dastardly ways, fans are always eager for Aunt Babe to return to Albert Square, with many taking to Twitter to campaign for her return.
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