Jo Joyner can currently be seen playing the part of a doctor in the Paramount+ thriller Little Disasters, which is interesting, because she says that had she not made it as an actor, she could see herself doing something in the world of medicine. “My friends joke that I’m their doctor; they’ll often come to me with ailments, and ask for my advice… We used to live in a block of flats in London, and there was an eye surgeon who lived upstairs, and he moved out, but he used to have the British Medical Journal delivered still, and he wasn’t having it, and it wasn’t forwarded, so I’m afraid I did steal it every time it came, because it’s fascinating, and I genuinely enjoyed it!” she laughs.
Medical research’s loss is our gain. After getting her big break over two decades ago as Beth in Channel 4’s comedy drama No Angels, Jo went on to become a household name as Tanya Branning in EastEnders, before making the notoriously difficult jump from soaps to serious drama. Now, with a CV that includes iconic shows such as BBC’s Doctor Who and Netflix’s Stay Close, she is very much a staple on British screens.
Jo wears: coat by Ashlyn; top by Joseph; trousers by Lauren Manoogian at Couverture & The Garbstore; and ring by Dinosaur Designs
And that is not a surprise, because, for Jo, it was only ever really about acting. “It’s funny, because my kids are both 15 now, my twins, so it’s all about options, and what their next move might be. And I’m realising that I was so lucky, because I just knew I wanted to be an actor,” she tells me. “I remember when I was five years old, there was a programme on called Let’s Pretend. These people would open up a trunk and they’d get out a couple of props – maybe a top hat and a feather boa – and they would make up a story with the props and just tell the story. And I remember thinking, I want to do that; I want do Let’s Pretend. And luckily, I was from a family who are supportive and positive and open minded, and didn’t laugh, and just went ‘OK, if that’s what you want to do, then I’m sure that’s what will happen, I’m sure you will’. And they encouraged me every step of the way.”
With their encouragement, that did indeed happen, and that breakout role in No Angels will always hold a special place in Jo’s heart. “I think I will always have a real soft spot for Beth,” she admits, “because that was the role that took me from jobbing actor to working, at least for three years, consistently, and kind of getting a bit more of a name for myself, and getting my teeth properly stuck into a series, and a character. And I have, for sure made lifelong friends from that – Sunetra Sarker, Kaye Wragg and Lou Delamere, we’re all still extremely close after allthese years. You know we were young; I was 25, living in Leeds, working hard and playing hard and forming these friendships that would take us through births, deaths, marriages, divorces…”
In the light of building real-life friendships, her latest role is not dissimilar. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Sarah Vaughan (author of Anatomy of a Scandal), Little Disasters centres on a decade-long friendship between four women (played by Jo, Diane Kruger, Shelley Conn and Emily Taaffe) who, despite having been thrown together in antenatal classes with little in common apart from their due dates, have been there for one another throughout motherhood. “It’s very rare that you get a cast where you are all of a similar age,” Jo tells me when we talk about the show. “There was something really bonding about that – we all have very similar things to talk about. And we were living away from home, so rather than being out drinking every night, we were all doing crosswords on set! It was what you’d expect from a load of 40-something-year-olds – fine wine, really good food, and good conversation and crosswords – it wasn’t that rock’n’roll really, I’m afraid, but it was a real pleasure! And they are honestly such a hugely talented, brilliant cast, and so it was it was a real pleasure to get to know them. I think one of the best things that ever comes from a really great job is that you make friendships that you weren’t expecting, friendships that will continue after the job, which is really special.”
Jo wears: blazer by GAUGE81; top by Vince; trousers by Chinti and Parker; and shoes by See by Chloé
While Jo and the cast might have been forging friendships, the relationship between their fictional counterparts was fracturing. “It’s about a group of women who met in an NCT class, so they’re bonded by the fact that they all became parents at the same time,” Jo explains. “And they’re all very different parents, and characters, and we meet them when my character, Liz, is put in a very difficult position, when one of her best friends from that group – Jess, played by Diane Kruger – comes into A&E with her baby, who has a very suspicious injury, an injury that doesn’t quite make sense. Liz, who is on duty in A&E, has to make a really difficult call about her very close friend, who is also a model mum – the kind of mum that Liz has always wanted to be. And she has to follow her work protocol, which is to flag her concerns to social services. And from that point on, things very much spiral, and the whole group is torn apart.”
When Jo was first sent the script, it was the opening scene, depicting the antenatal class where the women first met, that sold it to her. “They all went through their birthing plans, and every one of them was so individual. You know, some of them wanted water births with music, and one wanted it to fit in with work, and my character, the doctor, just wanted all the drugs and knew there was no point in making a plan,” she recalls. “I thought what a great way to describe so many different characters and show how different people can be – and yet they can still become friends, even though they have got such different views and ideas… If they hadn’t all given birth at the same time, would they actually be friends? And what really bonds you after all this time? All these things are explored.”
Jo wears: dress by Philipp Plein Official
What the series does very well, Jo thinks, is building depth in each character. “In the novel, each chapter gives the first-person viewpoint of a different character. So, you’re in the head of Liz for a chapter, and then you’re in the head of Jess for a chapter,” she explains. “And I think we’ve kept that quality, we’ve used a device where we’re actually being interviewed by social services, but as a consequence we get to break the fourth wall and talk to the audience. And what’s interesting about those pieces is that you actually get a real sense of the characters outside and away from the group. You know, they’re able to say things to the audience that they might not actually be able to say to each other.” All in all, it is, she promises, “a fascinating watch.”
Illustrating the incredible breadth of her work, next up for Jo, later this year, is a fifth series of Shakespeare & Hathaway. The BBC’s quirky, crime-fighting romp first came to screens in 2018, and is all corpses, comedy and cracking mysteries. Jo and co-star Mark Benton play Luella Shakespeare and Frank Hathaway, a mismatched private detective duo. “I went straight into filming that,” she recalls. “I got back from filming Little Disasters, and then I had a week off, and went straight into Shakespeare & Hathaway, and I’d had one week off after The Wives in Malta before Little Disasters, so it was a really hectic year and a half. I’ve just gone from one thing to the next, which you cannot complain about! But at one point I was kind of doing the press for The Wives on the phone, whilst having a wig fitting for Shakespeare & Hathaway on set at Little Disasters. I remember thinking, this is definitely spinning plates!”
Jo wears: top by Rachel Comey; trousers by Lauren Manoogian at Couverture & The Garbstore; and ring by Dinosaur Designs
Though being busy with work is undoubtedly amazing, being away from home can be tough. “It can often be lonely,” Jo admits. “But I’ve got very well-travelled children…My husband is fantastic, they come out and visit whenever they can, and I come home as much as I can. My daughter and I were joking, because some evenings I’ll FaceTime her and I’ll just put her on in the flat with me, wherever I’m filming, and she’ll have it on in her bedroom, and she’ll be chatting away while she’s doing a facial or whatever, and I said to her, ‘I think we talk more when I’m away, because if I was home, I’d be cooking the dinner downstairs, you’d be upstairs FaceTiming your friends instead!’. Thank God for the modern world – it does make it easier. And actually, Shakespeare & Hathaway is filmed from home, so that’s wonderful.”
Out of all her work, it is this show that people most want to talk to her about, she reveals, and that is, she believes, because of its broad appeal. “You know, you can have a seven-year-old watching it, and a 70-year-old, and then my brother in between, and they all know they’re going to get a good mystery to solve, but it’s not going to depress them,” she explains. “It is going to cheer you up, and you’re going to be with people who you consider good friends now. I think a lot of people consider Sebastian and Frank and Lu as really good friends of theirs, and they can’t wait to see what they’re up to next!”
So, what will they be getting up to next? “One of my favourites this year is a shopping channel we have to investigate, and obviously Frank ends up live on air, and it’s just really good fun,” Jo laughs. “We laughed so much making it! This series has real heart to it. I think the world needs this sometimes; it’s two extremes for me, having come from this thriller, and having done quite a few thrillers lately.”
Jo wears: top by Joseph; trousers by Reiss; shoes by Loewe; and bracelet by Coeur De Lion
It is clear that Jo has a soft spot for comedy. “Looking back, my highlights are always comedy,” she admits. “I think there’s a kind of lightness that you carry with you onto set when you’re working with comedy, that you don’t necessarily have when you’re filming a thriller, or a serious drama. A highlight for me would absolutely be winning the Rose d’Or,” she tells me, recalling the award she received for Best Female Comedy Performance in sketch show Swinging, in 2006. “That year I was up against some fabulous people, Catherine Tate not least of all.”
It was receiving this award that really brought home to Jo that she had achieved her dreams. “I would sit in make up every morning, and we’d look at the sketches that we had to do, and we would go, ‘Oh so we’ve got this person and that person, what do we want them to look like?’,” she explains. And I remember that make-up artist, she was a wonderful make-up artist, and she was doing me one day, and I thought, oh my goodness, if my five-year-old self could see me now, she would say: ‘yes that’s it, you’re doing Let’s Pretend, you did it!’ You know, I’m making a living from it – how amazing, how lucky!”
Lucky, yes, but also, the result of decades of hard work. What does she think is the secret to her success? “A thick skin?” she laughs. “I didn’t get a job today that I really would have liked, and, you know, it hurts. But at the same time, I know that I was at least in the running for the job, and taken seriously for the job, and that there will be other factors that might mean that I couldn’t have done it, and so I can’t take it personally. You just put it behind you and move on… And it’s easier said than done, and I think the reason I can do that, is because if it all failed, and fell apart tomorrow, I have got such a great family behind me, that the worst-case scenario would be that I would just be with them, and that’s not bad! It’s very lucky.” She is so right.
