Walford womaniser Max Branning took the square by storm when he arrived in June 2006.
Jim Branning’s wayward son joined EastEnders with wife Tanya and kids Lauren and Abi – and it wasn’t long before he was causing trouble on the show. He quickly became embroiled in affairs, was buried alive and dominated the business world in Albert Square.
As actor Jake Wood celebrates his 52nd birthday, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside his forgotten role on the BBC soap. Almost two decades before Max was introduced, Jake appeared on screen as a completely different character when he was just a teenager.
The young actor made it onto EastEnders after small parts in Only Fools and Horses, The Bill and Red Dwarf, reports the Irish Mirror. In a brief but crucial role, Jake featured in EastEnders’ first ever flashback episodes during a hard-hitting storyline in 1990.
It wasn’t until two unique flashback episodes that viewers discovered exactly what happened. This was when viewers first met a fresh-faced looking Jake, who sported a full head of red hair.
During the flashbacks, Diane befriended a homeless girl called Disa (Jan Graveson), who introduced her to other kids living on the streets. One of those was a young lad named Jackson, who happened to be none other than Jake when he was just a teenager himself.
It would take another 16 years before the actor returned to the EastEnders set as the cheeky chappy with a wandering eye. Reminiscing about his teenage role, he explained on EastEnders: Secrets From the Square: “I was a jobbing actor, I think it was when Diane Butcher ran away.
“She met this other girl called Disa who was living on the street. [My character] was Disa’s boyfriend. That was 30 years ago, so I was probably 17, 18.”
Jake had been in the acting game since he was a teen, appearing in all sorts of shows before hitting it big in Walford. He went on: “I started working professionally when I was about ten and I was just a jobbing actor for years and years.
“I’d do bits in EastEnders, The Bill, Casualty,” he shared. He even landed three separate roles on Casualty. Jake chuckled: “I think I died three times on Casualty in the space of about four years.”
The soap star seemed proud of his past soap role when a fan tweeted about it earlier this year. While his first character Jackson didn’t stick around for long, Max has been on the square for more than 14 years.
Despite his major red flags, including his inability to remain faithful, Max became one of the soap’s most popular characters. Over the years, he has been involved in some of the biggest storylines in the show’s history.
He famously tore apart his marriage to wife Tanya, was wrongfully imprisoned for Lucy Beale’s murder and helped villain James Willmott-Brown take down the Square. The former car dealer also painfully lost two children, Abi and Bradley, who tragically fell to their deaths off the roof of the Queen Vic.
Yet, it was Max’s steamy secret with Stacey Slater that really hit the fan during the explosive Christmas episode of 2007. In February 2021, the star left the soap after his relationship with Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) broke down.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
