Golden Years

EastEnders star Christopher Timothy on a career which made him both Frank Spencer’s stooge and Britain’s most famous vet…

- Johnathon Hughes

Christopher Timothy may be retired on screen as Walford pensioner Ted Murray, but, at 76, the actor won’t even contemplate retirement. In fact, as we chat between scenes, he’s unfazed by the soap’s hectic filming schedule, suggesting this is clearly a man who still relishes a challenge!

EastEnders has scored a casting coup in signing the star, but it was the chance to work with fellow telly favourite Maggie Steed, 70, who plays Ted’s wife Joyce, that sealed the deal.

‘I’ve admired her for years, but we’d never met,’ says Christopher. ‘When I knew she’d been cast, I screamed, “Yippee!” She’s a delight.’

Happily married, Ted and Joyce have been rehoused on the Square because the block of flats they lived in for 40 years is being demolished, but it’s clear there’s more to the Murrays than meets the eye.

Although Christopher is keeping quiet about the couple’s dark secret, he’s only too happy to reminisce about his own past, as he takes us back to where it all began...