Harry talks Ben and mum Kathy: 'She reminds me of my mum!'

Talking to Fiona on The Lorraine Kelly show this morning, Harry Reid explained how Gillian Taylforth is the perfect on screen mum for him.

He said: "We've met a couple of times, [she's] a perfect on-screen mum for me, really is, reminds me of my own mum in many ways, very down to earth, just a very normal person, a really lovely person. I felt a real nice connection as soon as we met."

Today marks a year since Harry first started filming as Ben Mitchell, his family are still adjusting to his new fame: "Obviously, it's still quite weird for them. My mum, she's dealing with it, but now she's the local celebrity at work and she just wants to get on with her life. But she loves it at the same time," he said.

"They're obviously very excited for me, they knew I wanted to do this. My nana Pearl made a public announcement in Tesco, she asked someone to announce it on the tannoy, so the whole of Ayr in Scotland know about it, apparently."

 

Being his first big acting gig, Harry said: 'big gig and it's been amazing. I'd only been out of uni for a year and then I stepped into this..."

"Steve [McFadden] is a great bloke to work with. The character he's created with Phil is amazing. It's a beautifully rounded character. Obviously Jamie Borthwick, who plays Jay, and Letitia Dean, who plays Sharon, I'm surrounded by the heads of EastEnders, which is great for me because I'm learingng off of them."
He added: "Steve is timid. He's lovely, a bubby, happy bloke who loves his art, loves his craft, who's very method in his ways, but look at what he's done with Phil, incredible."