BBC Sports presenter Gabby Logan has addressed her recent cameo in EastEnders.
Walford residents Jay Brown, played by Jamie Borthwick, and Honey Mitchell, played by Emma Barton, ran the London Marathon both in the soap and in real life as their characters paid tribute to Danielle Harold's character, Lola, Jay's wife. Last year, Lola lost her battle with cancer after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Emma and Jamie ran the marathon on Sunday in a soap first and the BBC quickly edited in real footage of the pair running with several of their on-screen friends and family supporting them from the sidelines. Ahead of the event, Jamie and Emma spoke to presenter Gabby about the complicated process of filming while also taking on the challenging race.
Gabby noticed her name appear in the credits of EastEnders following the London Marathon footage and took to Instagram to share the achievement. She wrote: "Now I can retire."
In the interview, Jamie explained how the decision to run the race came to be: "We're doing this onscreen in memory of Lola, my wife who sadly passed away from a brain tumour in the storyline. Herself and Honey, before she passed, put Jay up to do the marathon.
"So our exec Chris Clenshaw said we're going to do it for real. Sprung the idea on us, 'How would you feel actually doing the marathon?' We stupidly accepted and here we are!
"But we're working today so we've got our camera crew set up at four points. Here, Cutty Sark, London Bridge and the finish line were we need to be at marks and film a little bit of footage."
Emma admitted the process was made harder by the direction they needed to follow in order to capture footage. She said: "Yeah we had a sort of meeting yesterday, like 'Can you be on the left side of this area, the right side of this' and we're like oh my goodness!
"It is bonkers because we're going from enjoying this and running for our charities, but it's a work day." After they completed the race, EastEnders announced the episode would be released a little later on BBC iPlayer instead of it's usual early morning drop.
The BBC soap wrote: "Emma Barton and Jamie Borthwick have just completed the London Marathon for an upcoming storyline that will see their characters, Honey and Jay, take on the event in memory of their beloved Lola.
"As well as running on behalf of their chosen charities, Emma and Jamie run parts in character to film various scenes along the route... These scenes will be edited into the main show this evening and viewers will be able to watch the special scenes tomorrow (Monday 22nd April) from 1300 on BBC iPlayer and at 1930 on BBC One. @londonmarathon #LondonMarathon."
Revealing why they wanted to take on the challenging event, Jamie said: "Over the last 18 months, we have seen a storyline where my [Jay's] wife Lola, had developed a brain tumour... We just really tried to make it as real as we could and our lovely boss dropped the idea to us that maybe our characters would run the marathon."
Emma added: "I think it's a really clever idea that EastEnders have done to show what a lot of the people all over the country are doing. And that's raising money for their charities or in memory of a loved one."
Former Strictly Come Dancing star Emma raised money for BBC Children in Need, whilst Jamie ran on behalf of Prostate Cancer UK in memory of his relatives.
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