Eastenders Jo Joyner opens up on the question of a return to Albert Square

Life outside the soapy bubble.

After more than a decade on our screens, it’s easy to think we know Jo Joyner.

Surely she’s feisty Tanya from EastEnders? Or maybe it’s Beth, the car showroom boss tempted by new love in Ordinary Lies? And now she’s a cop’s wife in the BBC’s big new drama The Interceptor.

But what about the deep thinker with a passion for psychology, the country girl who loves long walks and log fires and the talented cook?

She might be one of our best, and best-known, actresses but within minutes of catching up, it’s obvious there’s a lot more on the go with Jo.

The Interceptor, which has just started, is an eight-part series about a crack team hunting down Britain’s most wanted crooks.

We’ve seen Jo as the loyal wife Lorna, keeping her childhood sweetheart, copper husband Ash (O-T Fagbenle), on the right side of the line.

“Right through the series we’ve got this conflict,” says Jo, 38.

“The man I fell in love with is slightly dangerous while I’m trying to change him as that doesn’t suit our life now we’ve got kids.

“It’s quite high action but because I’m the domestic life of the show I didn’t get involved with all that, which is a real shame.

“I’d loved to have done a bit of a car chase and been out there shouting into a radio, but it sadly wasn’t to be.”

It’s Jo’s second big series of the year after Ordinary Lies. And she’s among the millions hoping there will be more secrets to come out in a second series of the hit show.

“Everybody involved would love the chance to take it further.

“They’re having a little shift round at the top at the BBC so that’s possibly what’s delayed things.

“It’s a waiting game but hopefully we’ll know this month.”

Ordinary Lies, packed with surprises and characters you wanted to know more about, was like a soap escapees’ reunion.

Ex-EastEnder Jo was joined by former Coronation Street duo Michelle Keegan and Sally Lindsay. And she reckons it was proof there is plenty life outside the soapy bubble.

“Years ago it used to be that soaps were a big career decision,” say Jo, who admits that if she were ever to train to do something different it’d be in her passion of child psychology.

“You were effectively accepting it was going to be very difficult to work outside of a soap.

“It’d be a long time before people would take you seriously.

“But now the industry has moved into a different area. Being known is a better thing now. You take that profile forward and it has a bearing on getting other jobs.

“And they don’t patronise people as much. They realise the audience are going to know you’re an actor and aren’t going to sit there and go, ‘That’s Tanya’ and not get past it.”

Ah Tanya, the Walford character Jo played from 2006.

While she’s tactful enough to say “never say never, it’s a great show”, it seems Albert Square is a destination you would no longer find tapped into Jo’s sat-nav favourites list.

“You know, it’s like a whole other lifetime for me,” she says quietly, making it clear that EastEnders was just another job. “It feels like a very different area because so much has happened in the last two years.

“I’m fond of every character I’ve ever played on any job to be honest.

“They’re all so different and I want to enjoy what I’m doing at the moment.”

What she’s enjoying more than anything is the role that’s closest to her heart mum.

After the heartbreak of feeling it was never going to happen, following four years of trying, she and actor husband Neil Madden turned to IVF.

Twins Freddie and Edie were the joyful result and, like any mum, the first few crazy, messy, stressful and wondrous years have shot by in the blink of an eye.

They’re now five and Jo treasures every moment, adjusting schedules to ensure she’s there to savour it all.

“The balance has been really good, outside of soap,” she confides.

“That was one of the reasons I left. There are no three-day weeks on something like EastEnders.

“What’s so lovely now is that I can go and do things like Ordinary Lies and The Interceptor and balance it much easier with my home life.

“The twins are in school now and I’m glad they’re happy there. It all goes too quickly doesn’t it?

“Neil works close by, so he’s there all the time which is great.”

And it’s patently obvious that home is really where Essex-born Jo’s heart lies.

“I’m a country girl at heart,” she reveals. “I come from a really small, tight community in the country and I’ve moved back there now I’ve got young kids.

“For me, feeling relaxed is immediate as soon as I drive down into the valley I grew up in.

“My chilling out is being back in the countryside with all the very old fashioned stuff. Walking, log fires, gardening, cooking for the family, all very basic.”

Cooking? Are you any good Ms Joyner?

“Good? I’m a great cook!” she chortles.

“No, I’m a good family cook. I do a good Sunday roast, a good fry-up and I like to experiment.”

Conceding that “if you’re on a soap you’re asked to do most things”, she admits that Celebrity MasterChef tried to tempt her into the world of invention tests.

“They’ve asked me but the dates didn’t quite work. I’m probably not brave enough to put my cooking under such scrutiny. I was really tempted, though.”

What won’t tempt her, she insists, is putting on her dancing shoes for Strictly, despite heading to the studios last year to back pal Jake Wood.

But she does enjoy a bit of telly escapism.

“I like Prey and Happy Valley but when I’m filming high dramas myself I tend to need a lot of light relief, so I do a lot of TOWIE and Made In Chelsea.”

And there’s one more thing that’d be on Jo’s telly wish list a bit of Poldark-style period romping.

“I’d love to do more period,” she adds. “I’ve only ever done one, North and South, and I really enjoyed that.

“Recreated period streets and those big dresses, it’s a real thrill. What’s not to love!”

The Interceptor, BBC One, Wednesdays, 9pm.