Martin Kemp reflects on the impact EastEnders had on his life
The soap celebrates its 40th anniversary
Last updated 28th Mar 2025
All this week (17th - 21st February), EastEnders is celebrating its 40th anniversary, so we thought we'd catch up with our very own Martin Kemp, who starred in the iconic soap as Steve Owen from 1998 – 2002.
Martin, who presents The Mix Tape every Friday from 7pm, on Greatest Hits Radio told us what being on the show meant to him. Martin appeared on the soap after recovering from treatment for a brain tumour, and admitted it has been one the darkest moments of his life, before he started working on EastEnders.
He told us: "This was a strange period of my life, I have to say. For you to understand what EastEnders was to me, you have to understand what I'd just been through, and that was a four-year period of getting over brain tumours.
"I'll give you an example, I was still in absolute recovery, if I wanted to walk left, I probably would have walked right. And if there was a door over there, I would have walked that (the opposite) way."
The Greatest Hits Radio presenter continued: "How I remembered the lines in the first place, let alone what I was going to wear, I do not know. But some way I got around it and I've always looked at Albert Square and EastEnders as a period of my life that was so good for me, that you cannot imagine.
"All of my friends, all of them said when I got offered the part in EastEnders as Steve Owen, they all said: 'Don't do it, it'll ruin our career.'
"But what they didn't understand was then I didn't have a career. It was coming out of a four-year period that was probably the darkest moments in my life and this show saved my life."
On Wednesday 19th February, EastEnders viewers will get the chance to vote, making a decision which will go down in Walford’s history. The results will be revealed in a special 40th anniversary live episode on Thursday 20th February.
The cast will then have just 20 minutes to prepare for the live episode, with the vote closing at 7.10pm on the day of the show!
When can you hear Martin Kemp on Greatest Hits Radio?
Get ready for the weekend every Friday from 7pm with Martin's hand-picked greatest hits on The Mix Tape with Martin Kemp.
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