Tracy-Ann Oberman on EastEnders, Doctor Who & Toast of London

She killed Dirty Den and buried him under the Queen Vic. Then she ran Torchwood, got turned into a Cyberman, and lost a soap award to a small dog in a bow tie.

Tracy-Ann Oberman has been in more of the things you love than almost anyone alive. EastEnders, Doctor Who, Toast of London, Friday Night Dinner, After Life, It’s a Sin, The Witcher, The Sandman, Ridley Road, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the new Harlan Coben series on Netflix.

She joins Martin Deeson, who has known her since they were teenagers, for a very funny and occasionally jaw-dropping hour on fame, tabloids, antisemitism, Matt Berry, and why the best thing that ever happened to her career was being told she did not look right for the part.

In this episode:

Why the head of her drama school told her to change her name, and what she said back

Reading the Toast of London pilot script and immediately ringing her agent to turn it down

Matt Berry, Mrs Purchase, Clem Fandango, and why the dads at the school gates suddenly wanted to talk to her

Auntie Val, Friday Night Dinner, Auntie Val Core trending on TikTok, and the dog cage she refused to come out of

Ten days from audition to Albert Square, and the Selfridges spree with an unlimited budget

What Leslie Grantham said to her in the EastEnders chemistry test, and what she said back

Being told she was the Katharine Hepburn to his Spencer Tracy of Walford

Killing Dirty Den, burying him under the Queen Vic, and then acting opposite him while he was under it