EastEnders actor knits charity bags between scenes

Gillian Wright crafts bags and sells them at fairs to raise money for MS charities

An EastEnders actor who started crocheting while "hanging around" between scenes is now selling the bags she created in aid of charity.

Gillian Wright, who plays long-standing character Jean Slater, took up the hobby during a West End theatre stint.

"I had to do something to keep me calm and still be able to listen to the show without missing my cue, so I made these bags," the Hertfordshire actor told Andy Collins on BBC Three Counties Radio.

Wright, whose sister has multiple sclerosis (MS), sells her wares at craft fairs to raise money for the MS Trust or the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

She finds time to knit between shooting scenes for EastEnders - where she plays the character Jean Slater

Talking about her sister, she said: "I've watched her decline. It's a wicked disease.

"She has secondary progressive MS – she's had it for about 30 years.

"I've watched her go from being someone who was an actress and dancer to now in an electric chair. She still manages to teach in the mornings."

Wright was looking for something to occupy herself backstage while acting in a play alongside Matthew Cottle.

"Matthew and I weren't on stage for the first half hour. Half an hour multiplied by eight shows a week, across eight months, is a lot of time.

"I make the bags at the TV studios as well.

"There's a lot of hanging around – you can be doing a scene and then they have to shift a wall around, move the camera, and that time all adds up.

"It keeps me busy," she said.

'Flown off the shelves'

Wright, pictured with her sister, started taking her work to craft fairs

For her bags, Wright learned a technique of using large knitting needles and thick wool, and then would "boil wash it to shrink" it into the finished bag.

Her creations were starting to pile up at the bottom of her wardrobe until a friend suggested she exhibited them at a craft fair.

She said many items had flown off the shelves, meaning she was now having to make extra.

"There's a blanket which took me a year to make - hundreds of little crochet circles.

"Some things take a long time, but with big fat knitting needles and big fat wool, you can do some things quite quickly."