Eldorado hunk Marcus Tandy actor Jesse Birdsall unrecognisable – 30 years since soap flop
The 90s TV soap flop Eldorado introduced us to hunk Marcus Tandy, played by Jesse Birdsall, who looks completely unrecognisable 30 years later.
And the star is now married to an Only Fools and Horses icon.
The BBC soap was seen as the UK's answer to Dallas and Dynasty, as it followed a group of Brits living in a mini town in Los Barcos, Spain, navigating their new lives abroad.
Eldorado first aired in 1992 and reportedly cost the BBC around £10 million to make. But it was on our screens for just 156 episodes before it was axed after ratings dropped and the hyped-up soap was slated by critics despite its prime time spot.
While it was short-lived, viewers may remember shady wheeler-dealer Marcus, who was never far away from trouble in Spain and even had the honour of closing the soap's final scene.
Before sailing off into the sunset on the very last episode of Eldorado in 1993, Marcus told his girlfriend Pilar: "You can't trust anyone these days, can you?", and that was the end.
But it wasn't the end for the actor, Jesse who went on to star in a series of TV shows including BBC's adventure drama Bugs where he played Nick Beckett from 1995 to 1999.
He appeared in several episodes of ITV's The Bill in 2003 playing the role of Ron Gregory before starring as a regular on Footballers' Wives from 2004.
Jesse played the role of football manager Roger Webb on Footballers' Wives before his character was killed off two years later after he was shot and left blind, and later fell down an elevator shaft to his untimely death.
In 2006, he made a brief appearance during two episodes of Holby City as a patient called Dillon Ellis before appearing in 2018 as Steven Fletcher, the estranged father of Adrian Fletcher.
Continuing in soaps, Jesse had a small role in EastEnders in August 2012 as John Hewland, the fiancé of Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) for just two episodes.
Fans may commonly recognise Jesse from playing ruthless gangster Fraser Black in Hollyoaks from August 2013 where he was later involved in the three-month ongoing storyline, Who Killed Fraser Black? after making countless enemies.
His last appearance was on 21 July 2014 when it was finally revealed that his killer was in fact his stepson, Freddie Roscoe who shot him dead.
While it looks like he's taken a break from soaps, Jesse is famously married to Only Fools and Horses icon Gwyneth Strong, who played Cassandra Trotter in the famous BBC sitcom.
Similar to her husband, Gwyneth went on to soap stardom having appeared in the likes of EastEnders, Casualty, New Tricks and Doctors.
The pair tied the knot in 2000 and share two children together – Oscar, born in 1988, and Lottie, born in 1991.
They tend to keep their relationship out of the spotlight, but in 2015 appeared on ITV's All-Star Mr & Mrs.
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