WHEN we last saw Jo Joyner in Warrington she was working in a pink taxi office and running around The Halliwell Jones Stadium in a lion costume.

The former EastEnders actor starred in BBC One’s Candy Cabs which was based on the Pink Ladies in Warrington.

It was set at the former post office in Lymm which has since become the home of Lymm Brewing Company.

Jo, mum to five-year-old twins Freddie and Edie, said: “We had the same unit base that we had for Ordinary Lies at the big car park near Tesco, opposite the stadium that I’d run around four years ago in a lion outfit.

“It’s a bit of a blur for me because my twins were five months old when we filmed that.

“I remember weaning them in a car park in Warrington giving them their first taste of a strawberry. The glamour eh?”

From Candy Cabs to life in a car showroom, we are now about to see a different side to Jo in Ordinary Lies.

Her story is probably the most heart-wrenching of the series.

Jo added: “Beth is a good, hardworking, honest girl who is head of admin at the car showroom and when we meet her sadly her husband has been missing for more than a year.

“I always think Beth is a real coper because she’s got two kids and she’s still been keeping the home fires burning.

“She has been getting herself to work and hasn’t fallen apart in the face of a very strange time for her.”

Jo told Weekend that Beth’s story weaves through the show before being the focus of the final episode.

The 37-year-old said: “The programme is about a lot of lies that spiral out of control so in the first week you meet all these different characters in this showroom.

“Every week we dip into each person’s life and find out what their secret is and what they’ve been lying about and follow their story.

“Every episode is in its own little entity but Beth’s story does weave throughout the series.

“When we meet her she’s kind of in this limbo.

“Her husband just went to the shops one day and never came back so she doesn’t know whether he’s dead, whether he’s been murdered or whether he’s genuinely left the family and if he has then why?

“So she can’t really move forward with her life. She’s in a torturous place.”

Jo reckons Danny Brocklehurst’s drama works so well because the car showroom team offers a reflection of society.

The actor, who has won The British Soap Award for best dramatic performance twice, added: “There’s this great microcosm of society here in this showroom.

“You’ve got the mechanics out the back, you’ve got the secretaries, you’ve got the admin, you’ve got the flashy salesman and you’ve got the management.

“So it’s quite diverse characters and you think you know them but actually what goes on behind closed doors is quite different.

“It’s really fabulous writing by Danny and it was a fantastic cast to work with.

“Max Beesley was the big boss of the place. Jason Manford is brilliant.

“He opens the first episode with one of the worst lies that you can tell really – which is his wife’s dead when she isn’t.”

All these scenes were unfolding in front of the real employees of the John Stuart Car Superstore in Orford Lane.

Staff continued to work in one corner of the showroom while the actors pretended to do what they were doing in the other.

Jo, who was filming in Warrington five days a week for five months, said: “It was very strange and it must have been very strange for them as well.

“We would have the odd person who would come through the doors in the middle of a scene and ask us about the Toyota at the front.

“I don’t know what they thought the cameras were doing there.

“We didn’t get any discounts either which was a shame.

“The highlight of the whole experience for me was working for Red Production Company and for Danny.

“I’ve worked for Red in the past before I did EastEnders so it’s really nice to come full circle.

“I’ve got huge respect for the shows they put out.

“I think the team at Red are at the height of their game and Danny’s writing is just so honest and so brilliant.

“It makes all our jobs easy when the writing is at such a great standard.

“He really will have you laughing one second and crying the next and that’s the true sign of brilliant drama.”