Original EastEnders cast member Susan Tully won’t be reprising her role as Michelle Fowler after leaving in 1995 – but you will have seen her work on your screens
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Michelle Fowler returns to EastEnders
Susan Tully will forever be remembered as the original Michelle Fowler – but now her career has gone down an exciting new path.
The 54-year-old actress was only nine when she first popped up on our TV screens in live kids programme Our Show before working with Bill Oddie on The Saturday Banana.
Having started out her acting career as Suzanne Ross in Grange Hill, she secured the iconic part of Michelle on EastEnders at the age of 17.
Bosses were initially hesitant of casting someone who was already widely known for another acting role, but they were impressed by Susan and believed they could use her fame to pull in younger Grange Hill fans.
One of the original cast members when the BBC soap first started in 1985, her character was involved in many huge storylines that were front page news.
This included a teenage pregnancy and that controversial affair with her best friend’s dad, Dirty Den Watts, as well as a shooting and her daughter’s kidnapping.
After a decade on EastEnders, Susan decided it was time to leave Albert Square and Michelle left for America with daughter Vicki, having discovered she was pregnant with Grant Mitchell’s baby.
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Susan wanted to give up acting altogether to start working behind the camera as a director and producer.
She has directed episodes of EastEnders, The Story of Tracy Beaker, London’s Burning, The Bill, Silent Witness, Lark Rise to Candleford and Stella.
Most recently, she has turned to gripping drama and been director for instalments of police corruption drama Line of Duty, Tim Roth’s series Tin Star and ITV thriller Too Close.
Despite leaving EastEnders over a quarter of a century ago, Susan is still close friends with Letitia Dean, who still plays Michelle’s best friend Sharon Watts.
They are so close that Susan was actually a bridesmaid at Letitia’s wedding to Jason Pethers in 2002, with the pair having since divorced.
When Michelle returned to EastEnders in 2016, she was played by a completely different actress.
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In the 20 years before, Susan had been approached several times by a number of EastEnders bosses to come back to Walford but had always turned down the role.
These included offers to return for major Fowler events, including the funerals of Arthur, Pauline and Mark, as well as the weddings of Mark and Martin.
When Michelle made a shock return to the Square on Christmas Eve 2016, the move to cast a brand new actress, Jenna Russell left many long term fans underwhelmed.
“Of course if you’re considering bringing back Michelle Fowler you’d have to consider talking to Susan Tully about it,” said Sean O’Connor, the soap’s then executive director.
“But she is now a well-respected, hugely experienced TV director. Her acting career is part of her past, really a closed door for her.
“But of course I contacted her immediately when I thought about bringing the character back.”
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However, Susan did offer to give her blessing for Jenna to take on her role and advice on how to play the character.
“It was important to me to make sure Susan gave the idea her blessing and it was really delightful when she did,” added Sean.
Award-winning stage actress Jenna, admitted that she was hesitant about taking over from Susan in the iconic role.
“It took me quite a few days to get how I felt about it,” she confessed. “I know the audience loved her and, even though she hasn’t been on our screens for over 20 years, she is still an iconic character in the fans’ psyche.
“That scared me but sometimes it’s good to be scared. I thought ‘Take a deep breath’ and decided to jump up and go with it.”
“As a young actress I loved Susan Tully. In some ways it’s fortunate for me that the character has been absent for 20 years – that’s a long time and life changes people. I just have to do my own version of her and hope that the audience goes with it.”
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But the move didn’t prove to be a winning formula and Jenna only lasted 15 months on the soap.
Her departure was reportedly a mutual decision between the actress and EastEnders bosses.
An EastEnders spokesperson said: “Jenna is a terrific actress who has loved her time on the show playing Michelle and it was a mutual decision to write the character out. We wish Jenna all the best for the future.”
It doesn’t look likely that the character will be returning any time soon – and even more doubtful that Susan will ever go back to the role given her incredible directing success.
*EastEnders airs tonight on BBC One at 8pm
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