Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper make their ITV debuts on Thursday. "It would have been hard for me not to write it," says creator Tony Jordan, who spent 18 years at EastEnders.

Hugo Speer plays Mark Penwarden, the controlling husband of Martine McCutcheon's Susan. "He's sort of the bad boy," says Speer, best known for playing Guy in The Full Monty.

McCutcheon admits Susan is "a bit mumsy and a bit frumpy", adding: "The characters I play usually wear their heart on their sleeves, but Susan is a woman of great mystery."

Jason Donovan says the soap is too adult for his children. "There's a difference between me flying around the Palladium in Joseph and their father kissing someone else on screen."

The events in Echo Beach are manipulated by ruthless TV producer Jonathan Pope, played by Ben Miller in sitcom Moving Wallpaper. "It almost felt like it was written for me," he says.

Pope is courted by acting wannabe Suzie Amy - played by Susie Amy. "I hope people realise that it's not serious," she says. "I've never gone in and begged someone for a part."

Echo Beach's writers are loosely based on people Tony Jordan has worked with in his television career - one is even called Gillian McGovern in tribute to Cracker's Jimmy McGovern.

The soap features several familiar faces - Johnny Briggs plays caravan site owner Fin Morgan, while former Grange Hill headmistress Gwyneth Powell is pub landlady Ivy Trehearne.

Hannah Lederer Alton is teenage love interest Abi Marrack. Marcus Patric's character Ian Brenton faces the chop after he sleeps with one of the soap's production staff.

The cast found filming in Cornwall an unexpected ordeal. "We were all in our summer clothes and there'd be a gale force wind on the beach," laughs Chandeep Uppal (centre).