Jo Joyner interview
Jo Joyner talks to British Comedy Guide about her role in the sitcom Marley's Ghosts...
Hi Jo. Could we start off by asking you what Marley's Ghosts is about?
Marley's Ghosts is about a lady called Marley whose lover, husband and the local vicar - whom she barely knows - die within a week of each other and all end up living with her as ghosts. As you do!
My character - the vicar - just prefers the soft furnishings, huge TV and company at Marley's and so opts to live there rather than at the vicarage.
Your character looks like a lot of fun to play?
I really enjoyed playing the vicar, she's one of those characters that jumps off the page at you. I found myself reading her and thinking 'I have to have a play with this'.
She's a vicar but I get the feeling that she only does it because she's caring and harmless, and someone suggested it one day. The thing is, she's never actually read the book, THE book that all vicars should know inside out! Or if she has, she hasn't retained any of it. She's nice but dim and not at all glamorous, so it's been a nice departure.
As you say, the vicar is now a ghost... Do you believe in ghosts?
Who knows?! I've never seen one but I know plenty of rational people who say they have and I've certainly been spooked before...
If you could talk to the dead, who would you like to chat to?
Ooo, I'd like to clear up a few conspiracy theories. I'd chat to Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Kennedy and get the true stories!
EastEnders has played a big part in your acting career... is it nice to take on something a bit 'lighter'?
It's just nice to have a bit of variation. I was very lucky - for the five years before I went into EastEnders I had a very varied career: nice bits of telly, great theatre and radio. Variety is the spice of life and so, although I'm very proud and grateful for my time at EastEnders, it really is nice to be out and working in various projects with different people.
I came straight out and into the comedy Trying Again with Chris Addison and that was a relief, I was very much ready for some lighter material. But it's been nearly three years now so it was nice to work on some comedy after having filmed Ordinary Lies and The Interceptor, which were great dramas. I like to purposefully look for whatever is different to the last job.
You've got a good handful of comedy roles across your career; we thought you were particularly good in Swinging for example. Is comedy a genre you've always wanted to work in?
I won the Rose D'or for playing Patty Edwards in Swinging and, to this day, I think she's my favourite character I've ever played.
I was class clown at school, so I suppose comedy is an area that I'm most happy and at home in. I do seek it out a bit; for instance I chose to do Swinging on a smaller channel over a drama part I'd been offered at the time in a much bigger show. So it was a conscious decision to enjoy my work and challenge myself with playing something different to the last job.
I did the same with Marley's Ghost, I wanted to play the vicar as opposed to a different job I had been offered that was for a role that I felt I'd already played really. My children are young and I love to be with them... so in order to go away to work, the part and writing need to be really attractive.
Coming back to the topic of Marley's Ghosts, what attracted you to this project then?
I just loved the vicar initially, I thought she had such a lovely, annoying quality and it made me giggle. Then the whole idea and possibilities that abound from three people living with someone who doesn't want them there and whose friends cannot see them. It was complicated and fun at the same time.
The show has such a great cast. It looks like a very tight knit group. What was it like to work with Sarah Alexander, Nicholas Burns and John Hannah?
It was a very brief shoot, just three weeks to do three episodes so we all really felt like we were just getting going as we had to leave! They are a really nice lot and we did have a lot of fun making it.
As you say, the series is only three episodes long but, presumably if audiences like it, Gold will order more...
I think there is plenty of room for more capers. Three episodes is really perfect as a taster/pilot to see if an idea has potential and to see what you could do differently, what works and what doesn't.
I'm sure Daniel [writer Daniel Peacock] has plenty of ideas up his sleeve. I'd like to see the vicar getting wilder and wilder, I get the impression that she is enjoying being dead more than when she was alive. She's spent years being good and virtuous and now no one can see her so the possibilities are endless.
What's up next for you Jo?
Well I'm just in the middle of a major house renovation which is all a bit scary! So this month I'm looking to moving house and settling the kids back into school. Then there are things in the pipeline but nothing that I can talk about just yet, watch this space...