If you’ve had trouble watching Denise Fox’s cancer battle without reaching for the tissues, spare a thought for actress Diane Parish, who plays the beloved EastEnders regular.
Denise’s story feels like one of the most raw, genuine, and true-to-life portrayals of cancer ever to grace Albert Square; and for a story that includes the return of a serial killer and the introduction of long lost family, that’s saying a lot.
Since her diagnosis with acute myeloid leukaemia, Denise has seen less and less of her beloved Walford. Instead, she has been confined to the four walls of a hospital ward.
Even when she was allowed to come home, Denise couldn’t go the Vic or the Cafe or Fox & Hair or any of the places on the Square which she would usually frequent. She was trapped in her house with her illness.
It’s often easy to forget how difficult being restrained to one or two rooms would be for an actor, deprived of the friends and colleagues they would usually film with in the name of good story.
In a recent Metro interview on Albert Square with Yours Truly, Diane Parish shared the toll Denise’s isolation has taken.
‘It has been gruelling.’ Diane admitted. ‘It is tough, as with the illness, because we’re in continuing drama, so we play it in real time. If I was doing a film, if I was doing a TV drama, it would have been over a long time ago. I would have shot it maybe in 6 to 8 weeks. That would be the end of it.’
‘It’s rewarding in some ways, and in other ways it can be quite devastating to play some of those moments because I love Denise. You don’t play someone for 20 years and then not love them. I love her, and it breaks my heart sometimes being out on the Square. I was saying to someone when we just turned up, ‘I don’t know the last time I’ve been out here’.
Such an ordeal is hard enough on Denise. We’ve seen that for ourselves. The only people she sees these days are her family, namely her partner Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) and her sister, Kim Fox (Tameka Empson).
Gone are the days that Denise is having it out with Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) or Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) or Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) or whoever else is unfortunate enough to cross her path.
Even when she left hospital and returned to the Square, she couldn’t leave the house. All she had was her family, which to be fair, is all Denise has ever needed.
Diane admitted just how hard being confined to a handful of sets has been, leaving both character and actor out of the loop.
‘Denise is in a hospital bed, she’s quarantined when she’s at home, she’s quarantined in her house, so I’m in the studio.’ Diane shared.
‘I don’t get to go to the Vic, I don’t get to go to the cafe and have a coffee. I don’t see everybody, I never thought I’d say that I’d miss those long days standing out on the Square, but I really, really, really do.’
Rest assured, Diane. It’s all been worth it.
The story has attracted praise from Blood Cancer UK, as well as offering comfort to millions of cancer survivors. Diane Parish is more than aware of the story’s impact, and why it’s so important to tell it.
‘We’re months in, so we can’t skip ahead and go ‘right, she’s all better’. We have to do it justice, not just for the show, for the people who are actually suffering’.
‘They want to feel seen, and I’m determined to make sure that they feel seen in the most genuine, honest way that we can. And be as unflinching with it with the details as we can.
‘We are a 7:30 show, And you can’t visit every aspect of this condition. But we try as much as we can to tell the story, otherwise we would never have taken it on.’
