Actor Cliff Parisi, who played Minty in EastEnders and is back on our screens in the new series of Call the Midwife, and says he feels the best he has in years
Call the Midwife actor Cliff Parisi is looking and feeling great after losing an incredible five stone on weight loss jabs. “Mounjaro – it’s incredible, magic. When you’re heavy, exercise is painful and bad for your joints. So losing the weight is double hard. I tried everything before,” says Cliff, 65, who has played fan favourite Fred Buckle in the BBC show since 2012. “I’m springing up the stairs again. I feel 30 years younger. And I’m still going. It’s quick too – I lost a stone in a month. The downside is that it’s expensive.”
And that’s not his only costly hobby. Cliff, recently announced as an ambassador for Optegra Eye Health Care after having lens replacement surgery, has been learning to fly. “I don’t like flying so I tried to conquer it by learning. It’s helped,” says Cliff, who played Minty Peterson in EastEnders from 2002 to 2010. He says: “Having my eyes done has been a game-changer for both my life and my career.”
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But there’s one person who you’ll never catch on his plane – his wife of 15 years, TV producer Tara Wyer. The couple live at home near Saffron Walden, with his two youngest children, Patrick, 10 and Indigo, 16. He says: “I used to fly over Elstree, and over EastEnders, and text Perry (Billy Mitchell) and say, ‘Look up!’
“When I first started flying, I surprised Tara with a trip to France. But we had to do an emergency landing at Manston, near Broadstairs. “There were protesters on the runway, arguing about the airport’s closure. So when we landed, surrounded by fire engines, we were live on the news. It didn’t impress her at all. She never went flying with me again.”
The latest series of Call the Midwife began in January, and Cliff says it’s the best yet. “It just gets better, doesn’t it? People used to shout ‘Minty’ in the street, but now they ask me about Fred Buckle. It’s comforting, warm, with toys that you remember as a child, cars that your dad had.
There’s a familiarity of that point in time. If you’re old enough to remember the 60s and 70s – everything was so much simpler. We didn’t have as much – and there wasn’t as much to have!”
Cliff entered the jungle in 2019 on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, admitting later that his appearance was to pay a hefty tax bill. “It was kind of weird for me, and I didn’t give the best of myself. I had whiplash and on strong pain killers.
That, coupled with the lack of food, I was off my nut. The whole time I was having a sort of outer body experience, like being at a weird festival. But I loved it. You could tell what time of day it was by what animals were making noises. And everything bites.”
Slimmed down Cliff is waiting for the Strictly call. “Two years ago I’d have said no, but I could keep up now,” he says. And there may well be a Minty return on the cards. “Of course I’d return to EastEnders. There’s nothing wrong with revisiting something that you love – and seeing all my old mates! I’m still friends with Steve McFadden. We had a lot of fun. Who knows what the future holds.”
*Cliff had his lens replacement surgery at Optegra Eye Health Care which has 19 hospitals around the UK offering vision correction and cataract surgery. Find out more at optegra.com or call 0800 054 1971
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