Ex-EastEnders star's son bags new role for semi-retired 'nepo dad'

Forget nepo babes: in Gary Webster’s case he is a nepo dad.

For ex-EastEnders star Gary, 61, is about to star opposite his son Freddie, 22 - after the young actor put him forward for a part.

Father and son will both appear in the play Blessings at London’s Riverside Studios, from September 30 to October 26.

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Speaking alongside Freddie and his wife, TV presenter, author and animal welfare campaigner Wendy Turner, 58, Gary laughs: “I’m the nepo dad. When Freddie landed the part, he said something to the effect that his father was sitting around on his backside doing nothing. Perhaps they could have a look at him.”

Gary - whose TV credits include Ray Daley in Minder and Graham Clark on EastEnders - is used to acting being a family affair. In fact, it’s what brought him and Wendy together.

In 1997 they were cast as Robin Hood and Maid Marian in a panto in Cambridge - meeting for the first time at the photo call to publicise the show.

Gary says: “Wendy had flown in overnight from New York; I’d been up until the small hours on a bender. We were both dog-tired. But, fortunately, the theatre had laid a car on. After the photographs had been taken, we were driven back to London and both fell asleep.

“Upon waking, I quipped that, ‘We'd better keep quiet about this as we don't want it to get out we slept together on our first meeting!’”

Married in 1999 and proud parents to Freddie, who graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in May, and Jack, 26, who works in corporate finance, Wendy is sure her husband and son will both shine in Blessings.

She says: “I’m assuming they’ll be brilliant on stage together. When I heard the news, I had no misgivings. I was thrilled, doing cartwheels around the kitchen.”

And Gary who has been in a number of plays recently, including Dial M for Murder and 12 Angry Men alongside Patrick Duffy from Dallas, and has also written a film - says the story, about the everyday life of a working-class family in 1969, is reminiscent of most families.

But, for Freddie it was an open mic night rather than his parents’ showbiz credentials that inspired him to go into acting.

He says of playing acoustic guitar at the open mic night: “That’s when I realised I wanted to be in front of the camera.”

Now he’s excited about acting opposite Gary, who will be playing a familiar role - his dad! Freddie says: “To me, having Dad playing my father is just the icing on the cake.”

Meanwhile, Animal Aid patron Wendy is about to start working with her sister Anthea Turner on an Amazon documentary about alternatives to animal testing, in association with the charity.

Recalling how her dad Brian unwittingly brought them together in 2021 after a rift - by mastering WhatsApp on his new mobile phone - Wendy says: “I was teaching him how to send photos via WhatsApp to Anthea.

“She called immediately to find out how he'd managed it. They then had a conversation that caused so much confusion, I said to him, ‘For God's sake, pass me the phone!’

“Suddenly, Anthea and I were chatting.“

Soon they were exchanging pictures of their docs and discussing a present for their parents’ 67th wedding anniversary. Soon after, they both visited their mum and dad in Stoke-on-Trent and Wendy says: “When we saw each other, the years apart just melted away.”

Sadly, they lost their mum, Jean Turner, the same year to pneumonia, aged 91.

Reluctant to discuss the cause of her fall-out with Anthea, Wendy - whose dad now lives nearer the sisters in London - continues: “What family, from princes to paupers, doesn’t have dramas along the way? We’re no different.”

For more about Blessings go to riversidestudios.co.uk