Jamie still focussed on films

EastEnders actor Jamie Foreman has revealed he hopes to keep making films, despite becoming a soap star.

Jamie - who has had big screen roles in Nil By Mouth, Layer Cake and Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist - reckons playing a soap villain could boost his film fanbase.

The actor - who plays Albert Square's Derek Branning - said: "I'm contracted to EastEnders for a year, and I'll stick to doing the best I can with the time I've got there. "I've got a couple of movies coming out, including a psychological thriller called Hard Shoulder, and a movie called St George's Day, in which I play a police officer, and I'm very excited about seeing that.

"I don't want to lose sight of my film career - I've built a new audience with EastEnders, and I'll bring that audience to the films that I'm in, so I'm very happy about that."

He added: "I've made over 40 films, and if 10 million people went to see one of them, it would be a box-office smash. EastEnders gets that four times a week.

"I've always had a fanbase, I've always had people stop me in the street and we'd have a chat, but this is completely nuts. It's bizarre but lovely. The wonderful thing is that when people see me they always smile first and then say, 'Oh, you're that really nasty man', which means they are enjoying the character. They always go, 'You're wicked, you're evil' and I say, 'Thank you very much'."