“He told me it was the best thing he had done.”

EastEnders actor Shona McGarty has revealed that one of her co-stars influenced her decision to take on her latest role.

The star, best known for playing Whitney in the BBC One soap, is currently appearing in the play 2:22 A Ghost Story, acting on-stage alongside Jay McGuiness, Laura Whitmore and Colin O’Donoghue.

The show casts celebrities and actors best known for TV shows, with Jake Wood, Louisa Lytton and Ricky Champ as EastEnders stars who decided to get spooky. Champ convinced her to take on the role, as revealed in an interview with RVSP Live.

“I spoke to Ricky Champ, who played Ben in the West End,” she explained. “He told me it was the best thing he had done, he enjoyed it so much and I’d be silly not to do it.

“We’ve had some really great audiences so far. They all laugh and get shocked at different things in the show, which keeps us on our toes – you never know how they will react. It’s scary.

“No matter how many times we do it, I always get butterflies in my stomach and think something could go wrong. But when we get into it, it is great, and I’m really enjoying it.

“I’ve never felt such adrenaline before. If you make a mistake, you can’t go again, so you are constantly in flight or fight mode, but it’s a great feeling, and I enjoy the buzz. My ritual after each show is that I go to Spar, get a bag of nachos dip and go back to the hotel to wind down. I love it.”

She states that while the script and character of Jenny are quite different from what she’s used to, she humorously noted that she’s “crying, screaming, kicking and shouting [and] still wearing hoop earrings.”

EastEnders airs on Mondays – Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.