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Rose Ayling-Ellis, star of Strictly and EastEnders, dropped by for a chat on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Thui 8 Dec 2022.

Rose celebrated victory in 2021's Strictly Come Dancing along with her partner Giovanni, and played Frankie Lewis in EastEnders, the 麻豆官网首页入口 One soap’s first ever deaf character.

Below we present a full transcript of Rose's chat with Zoe, as she speaks to him about her life and acting career.

ZOE - I am so happy to see our guest this morning and the last time we spoke she was wowing us all in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. She's the current reigning Champion of ‘Strictly’, and she's here to talk about something very special that she’s performing on-stage at the moment. Rose Ayling-Ellis….!

ROSE - Hello.

ZOE - ….welcome to the Breakfast Show!

ROSE - Hello.

ZOE - Hello darling – how are you?

ROSE – I’m good thank you, yes!

ZOE – Yes.

ROSE – It’s Winter here so I’ve got a bit of a cold coming on…

ZOE – Oh goodness me. I tell you what, it’s like a sick ward here at the moment. We're all snotty.

ROSE – Oh don’t worry, I’ve caught them all by now.

ZOE – I know, you're strong. You're strong Rose. Tell me about ‘As You Like It’. So you’re two nights in to ‘As You Like It’ , which you’re performing on stage. Your West End debut and the first time you've done Shakespeare…?

ROSE - Yeah. It’s the first time I’ve done Shakespeare, first time I’m doing the West End, so yeah, but I've been loving it so much. I really love being back in the Theatre again. I haven’t been to a theatre since, I think, before COVID.

ZOE – Yeah

ROSE – And I really missed that. Performing in front of an audience, and if anything goes wrong, you have to keep the show going. Whereas with filming you stop and film it again. But no, the show must go on…!

ZOE - The show must go on whatever’s happening. So did you do Shakespeare at school..? I think I did ‘As You Like It’ at school with my English teacher Mrs Smith.

ROSE – Did you..?

ZOE - I remember it. Sort of…

ROSE – Yeah I've only seen Romeo and Juliet, but I didn't really pay attention. But no one really encouraged me to learn Shakespeare. But turns out, actually, I now have a job with Shakespeare….

ZOE - Yeah. Yeah, know I know. It's incredible. I saw you talking about it on The One Show. How have you got on with it? I think the thing with Shakespeare and the key often with Shakespeare is once you understand the story and the drama, we realise that so much of our language has come from William Shakespeare, and we understand why he is the best playwright we ever had.

ROSE – Yeah and it's interesting when I'm watching TV and watching shows and films and stuff, I have really noticed that there are a lot of “Shakespeare moments”. Yeah and I think once you understand it, you fall in love with it.

ZOE - I know you do. And once you understand that language it's wonderful. So how have you got on with the cast and how were the rehearsal rooms…?

ROSE – Well everyone is so lovely. They’re such good actors. And everyone’s really upped their game which made me go “okay I really need to act” just like them. Everyone's so kind, and they’re really clever people. And I'm loving it. It’s very diverse as well. So yeah I just love every single person in the cast.

ZOE – Fantastic. And you're not the only person signing in the cast either are you…?

ROSE - No, and I'm not the only deaf person in the cast too. There’s Gabby who is also deaf, and she’s in it and she’s also understudy for my role too, which we don't see very often in theatre – having a deaf understudy for a deaf actor. So I'm really excited, and Gabby is wonderful and her character, she plays Audrey, absolutely hilarious. Really funny!!

ZOE – Fantastic. If anyone doesn't know the story of ‘As You Like It’, what can you tell us…?

ROSE - So it's about.. So there’s a two-female-friendship and they’re very close. They’re cousins. But then the father banishes them. Because you know, in Shakespeare there’s always somebody banishing somebody, and then they’ll go off and run in the forest. But then in Shakespeare everyone falls in love within 8.5 seconds. A LOT of people fall in love. A lot of them. Which changes everything. So suddenly the whole friendship has been affected, and I think that’s what we all do. Our best friend, when they get married or have children, there’s part of the relationship that we’ve lost, but we still love them a lot.

ZOE - Yeah. It does actually sound very similar to EastEnders plots. Everybody coming in and falling in love and then being banished when they have to leave the Square, and then they come back and they’re with someone else…

ROSE – But weirdly enough in ‘As You Like It’ there's no affair. No one is having an affair or cheating on each other. That’s good. In EastEnders everyone’s having an affair.

ZOE – It’s hard to keep up. But you know what real life is quite like that. Yeah. Around my parts you’re like, what’s happened now…? It’s unbelievable. So, apparently, your outfit has been described as “Shakespeare. Slash. Catwalk”.

ROSE – Yes…

ZOE - I am intrigued Rose - what do you get to wear...?

ROSE - So I’m proper corset-ed, in a big black dress with a ruff…I have a ruff!

ZOE - Wow

ROSE - And it’s got lots of beading. It’s very grand and very hard to move about in. So I’ve really learned how to live with a dress on. But then, when we go to the forest, everybody gets changed. And it’s a weird thing, there’s no time period because there’s no time in the forest.

ZOE – Okay. Ooh I like that. Right okay. It sounds intriguing. Honestly. It sounds wonderful. You've had two nights. I think it was your second night last night. How's it gone so far...?

ROSE – It’s going great. Just about. There was a bit of a hiccup last night. The speaker broke. But we kept the show going and that’s what I love about the Theatre. When thing goes wrong, you make it work and the audience seem to love it. They’re loving it. So that’s good. If they’re not laughing and there was dead silence then we should worry but they are laughing so that’s good.

ZOE – And your mum’s coming with Dan Walker this evening..?

ROSE – Yeah! Tonight, they're coming, so I’m really looking forward to it. THE Dan Walker. Can't wait for him to come and see it.

ZOE – Quick, get your tickets. Quick! Because it sounds absolutely amazing. And also Martha Plimpton…?

ROSE – Yes!

ZOE – Isn’t it? I love her.

ROSE – She was in ‘The Goonies’..!

ZOE – I know, she was!

ROSE – She’s wonderful. She’s got such a strong voice, and she’s singing in it. She’s got a really lovely voice.

ZOE – See, there's love, there's banishment and there's Martha Plimpton singing.

ROSE – Yep

ZOE – And there’s Rose, what more could you want Ladies and Gentleman..?

ROSE – ‘As You Like It’..!

ZOE – ‘As You Like It’…we love it. Of course we touched upon the fact that Dan Walker, your friend from Strictly, is coming to see you tonight with your mum. Give my love to your mum by the way. She’s wonderful. And he wrote a really wonderful chapter about you and your mum..

ROSE – Yeah he did

ZOE – In his book, ‘Standing on the Shoulders’. What did that mean to you and your mum..?

ROSE – It’s really lovely because it’s nice to have someone like Dan Walker, though isn’t it…? Because he was there, he watched my journey from beginning to end and he’s seen how my life has changed so much. And I feel very privileged that he wrote about me in his book, and that I’m one of those inspiring things that happened to him. I love that. And he’s such a lovely person.

ZOE – I know, he is. He’s wonderful isn’t he?

ROSE – And very very tall!

ZOE – VERY tall he is. I feel sorry for anyone sat behind him at the Theatre tonight.

ROSE – I know

ZOE – Dan you’ll have to do the slouch

ROSE – I know. He’ll probably have some objects thrown at his head.

ZOE – It’s awful being tall in the Theatre. You feel so guilty. I’m a fidget as well. So, sending love to Dan and to your mum. You have your own Barbie, Rose..?

ROSE – Yes!

ZOE – Come on, this is amazing. Where do you keep her?

ROSE – Where do I keep it? I’m keeping it on my shelf at the moment, but I’m always a bit spooked by it. What if she moves and goes to a different place, you know? So far it’s been well behaved and it’s stayed in that spot, so I’m happy it’s not a scary Barbie.

ZOE – Keep an eye on it. Keep a close eye on it. Also we are not alone in the studio this morning, we have the wonderful Tobie who’s here signing.

ROSE – Say hello Tobie. No? Okay

ZOE – Tobie gets very shy. Hi Tobie!

ROSE – She’s too shy.

ZOE - But you also have an incredible team who are making a 麻豆官网首页入口 documentary with you ‘Signs for Change’. Morning to Rob on sound, and Ted here who’s filming. You’ve known Ted for a long time..?

ROSE – Yep I’ve known him since I was 16 years old, and he was one of the first people that helped start my career, and is the reason I have my career, because I went to a filming weekend and he organised that, and then asked me to be in his short film. And from there I had people contacting me, thanks to Ted. So it’s really nice that he’s now doing the documentary. So he’s known me literally since the start of my career.

ZOE – Fantastic, so we have Ted to thank. Ted, I knew I liked you. When are we going to be able to see this documentary that you're making?

ROSE – Well it’s gonna come out at some point next year I think, but at the moment we’re trying to make it as real as possible. So we’re not putting anything on. We’re literally filming as it is, and hopefully meet all the people in the community. So really I’m going on my own journey with this. There’s no result. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I'm literally going on a journey and hopefully it will stand for change.

ZOE - Yeah. Fantastic. We can't wait to watch it as well. You know, you've done so much for the Deaf community. It's so wonderful. And I think you know, showing us that anything is possible for everybody.

ROSE - Yeah, but I still feel like there's so much work needs to be done, because I'd been doing a lot of positive stuff and it’s great but I feel like there needs to be a balance, to see the reality and the harsh side of it. I feel like that’s something really important that needs to be spoken about and talked about, so hopefully it’ll be shown in the documentary.

ZOE – and keep that conversation going…

ROSE – and keep that conversation going…

ZOE – That’s the way change happens.

ROSE - Still doing all the positive stuff like ‘As You Like It’, the Barbie, I love all this happy stuff, I wanna keep doing that too.

ZOE – Oh Rose you are so brilliant and such an amazing actress as well. We can’t possibly let you go without mentioning ‘Strictly’. Giovanni danced with Richie. You gave him some top tips this year.

ROSE - Yeah

ZOE - Who would you like to see take your crown. You are current reigning champion. Who do you think will lift the glitterball trophy this year?

ROSE – Ooh I feel like I can’t. Helen last week was wow. Her dance was amazing.

ZOE – Yes, Cabaret. Made me cry - I thought she was so good.

ROSE – I thought “good for you” – that’s a strong woman! You know? We need to see more of that. But then I love Hamza. Oh my god they’re all getting really good. Molly as well. Will. Now I’m like I don’t know. Who do you think..?

ZOE – It’s impossible. Well, I have a favourite, maybe…but I do love them all, because you know as well how hard they have all worked, and each week they all blow it out the back. They were incredible.

ROSE – It’s such hard work to do, and I think they all deserve it, because I know how much work goes into it.

ZOE – And is Giovanni coming to see ‘As You Like It’..?

ROSE – I think so. I think he will.

ZOE – He better!

ROSE - I’m not sure. I’m going to text him and say “come on are you going to come and watch my show?”..

ZOE – Come on Giovanni! Fantastic. Well listen, thank you for everything you do Rose. And also for the positivity and the love you share, and I’m so glad you’re enjoying ‘As You Like It’.

ROSE - Thank you very much.

ZOE – Get your tickets quick.

ROSE – Thank you for interviewing me.

ZOE – I’m going to come and see it!

ROSE – Oh please do!

ZOE – Must come and see it I know.

ROSE – Oh do let me know!

ZOE – Okay, I will. I’ll try to sit in a different seat to Dan Walker otherwise there’s too many tall people.

ROSE – Don’t sit behind him.

ZOE – Definitely do not sit behind Dan Walker. You can see Rose as Celia in ‘As You Like It’ at Soho Place in London until January 2023. We love you. Thank you so much to Tobie as well for signing. Good luck Ted. Wonderful to meet you. And Rob. Rose we adore you. You take care darling.

ROSE – Thank you!