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EastEnders Tanya Branning actress looks unrecognisable with red hair

Actress Jo Joyner looks very different as a red head!

Hanna Fillingham
US Managing Editor
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They say blondes have more fun, but EastEnders star Jo Joyner proved that this isn’t the case! The actress, who played Tanya Branning in the BBC One soap, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a throwback photo of her as a red head, joking that it was in the days when she was in charge of her own hair. In the photograph, Jo's hair was a gorgeous deep red hue, and was styled with a sweeping side fringe and choppy layers. "The red head days….when I owned my own hair," she captioned the post. Jo's former EastEnders cast mate and fellow red head, Patsy Palmer, was one of the many people to compliment her hair, telling Jo: "Love that look."

jo joyner red hair

EastEnders star Jo Joyner as a red head

Prior to returning in December for the Branning's shock Christmas special – which saw Lauren and Abi plummet from the roof of the Queen Vic - Jo was last seen on EastEnders in 2013. Since then, the talented actress has gone on to star in a number of high-profile drama series, including Ordinary Lies, alongside former Coronation Street stars Sally Lindsay and Michelle Keegan, as well as Channel Four's Ackley Bridge – a drama centred around a multi-cultural academy school in Yorkshire. The programme proved so popular when it aired in 2017, that a second series is currently being made. The show - due to air later in the year - will see Jo reprise her role as the school's headteacher Mandy Carter.

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eastenders tanya branning jo joyner

Jo is renowned for her blonde hair

Jo has previously opened up about the pros and cons that come with acting, describing fame as the "necessary evil of the job" during an interview with The Sun. Jo said: "It never occurred to me when I set out to be an actor that someone would want to take my photo. Sometimes you forget, then other people put it into perspective. You’re with a friend in Sainsbury's and you get stopped four times for photos and they go, 'My God, does this happen all the time?' and you’re like, 'Well yeah, actually it does'".

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Jo also confessed that while she enjoyed working with the rest of the cast in EastEnders, she doesn’t miss being part of the long-running soap "at all". "I don’t miss it at all. I miss working with Jake Wood – the people you work with make or break any job, but I have control over my life now. I can choose not to work for three months so I can be at home with the kids. EastEnders is just all or nothing so that bit I don’t miss, being owned," she said.

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