BBC EastEnders’ Ricky Butcher’s real life from drug bounceback to career change and massive loss
EastEnders actor Sid Owen is perhaps best known for playing Albert Square icon Ricky Butcher, but there's plenty about the soap legend fans may not know, from his drug bounceback to his devastating loss
He’s played Ricky Butcher in EastEnders since 1988, and Sid Owen has had plenty of soap-worthy moments in his own life.
Indeed, there’s plenty fans may not know about the 51-year-old, from his determination to overcome a dangerous drug habit to his tough childhood filled with trauma and grief.
On top of his prominent acting roles in EastEnders and The Bill, multi-talented Sid has also enjoyed plenty of success in various other career paths and has a little-known gift that has served him well away from the world of soap.
Overcoming drug abuse
During an interview with The Sun back in 2021, ahead of the launch of his autobiography From Rags To Ricky, Sid opened up about his past difficulties with drugs, admitting: “I’m proud I’m still alive.” At the height of his addiction, Sid would snort 20 lines of cocaine per day, once even driving to the EastEnders studios “coked up to [his] eyeballs and way over the drink-drive limit”.
Sid, pictured with costar Patsy Palmer, realised his EastEnders career meant far more to him than drugs (
PA)
Sid, who would snort his way through £200 of cocaine a night back in the 1990s, began to realise that he couldn’t balance the work he loved with his risky extracurricular activities, and decided to seek professional help. He confessed: “It’s recreational then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Hang on, I’ve got to get through pages of scripts, and then go to work’. You think you can do it and get away with it. I thought I could juggle the two, but I soon realised it was a silly idea.”
Thankfully, Sid, now 51, was able to get the help he needed, and, after undergoing plenty of therapy, nowadays focuses his energies on fitness, with running and swimming being two of his favourite physical outlets.
Tragic loss
Islington-born Sid tragically lost his mum Joan to cervical cancer when he was seven years old, and had no contact with his abusive dad, who had already left the family home a year earlier. Opening up about his loss during an interview with The Guardian, Sid shared: “My eldest brother took it worst. When it happens when you’re younger … that becomes the norm. People felt more sorry for me than I felt for myself.
“I accepted pretty early on my mum dying. I’d learned to get on with it and not be ‘poor me’. Obviously, subconsciously, deep down I was hurting. I remember fighting at school because you’d get the p*** taken out of you because you didn’t have any parents. So sometimes I would not even tell people, because I wouldn’t want people to judge me.”
Sid, who moved in with his aunt after his mother’s death at just 35, ended up becoming disruptive at school on account of his bereavement, and even ended up getting arrested for stealing at the age of 10. He credits his love of acting as having helped him escape a life of crime, admitting that he’d likely have ended up in prison had things worked out differently.
Different career direction
A keen foodie, in 2002, Sid took a very different new career direction after purchasing a restaurant in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, an idyllic village in Western France frequented by A-listers. During an interview with the Sunday Mirror back in 2007, Sid revealed: “I went to France to escape the attention. And I loved it. The restaurant just happened. I called it Fortuno, Latin for good luck. It went well – we made money. One night we even had Ken Livingstone in.”
Sid, who has previously studied cookery in Thailand, sold Fortuno in 2006, and went on to write his own cookbook Life on A Plate: The Journey Of An Unlikely Chef, containing 80 of his favourite recipes.
