Former EastEnders star Jo Joyner joins upcoming Channel 4 school drama The ABC
The soap actress, who played beautician Tanya Branning for seven years before quitting in 2013, will star as a strict headteacher
TANYA Branning was a Walford favourite during her seven years in EastEnders.
But actress JO JOYNER is transforming from Albert Square’s resident beautician to a strict headteacher for her next role.
She has jumped ship to Channel 4 for a brand new school drama, The ABC, which she started filming this week.
But Jo, who plays Mandy Carter at Yorkshire’s Ackley Bridge College in the six-part series, isn’t the only soap star to have signed up.
Fellow former EastEnder PAUL NICHOLLS will play her long-suffering PE teacher husband while ex-Casualty actress SUNETRA SARKER is dinner lady Kaneez Paracha, who is also a single mum to new students Nasreen, Razia and Saleem.
Joining them in the British cast is Four Lions’ ARSHER ALI, Liz White from Life on Mars and Citizen Khan’s ADIL RAY.
The weekly 8pm hour-long show will air later this year and promises plenty of drama.
The college is formed from two merging schools which causes plenty of problems for headmistress Mandy who has to deal with explosive fall-outs and problem pupils.
But the programme is in good hands, being produced by Alexander Lamb, who previously worked on another long-running school drama, Waterloo Road.
If it has half the success of that, it’ll be a huge hit.