Sir Brian May's wife Anita Dobson had no idea he was a famous rock star when they first met

During an appearance on Lacey Turner's 'We Started Here' podcast, Anita explained: "I went to a ¬preview of the film 'Down And Out In Beverly Hills' with my then-agent and a kind of boyfriend - I'm not sure if we were on or off at the time.

"Brian turned up and that was the first time we met. He was married at the time - I didn't know that - but he was with his wife.

"She said: 'I think you're marvellous in 'EastEnders'' and then he said: 'I think you're marvellous too. You should come along and see us at Wembley.'

"I turned round and went: 'Who the hell is that?' And a person behind me said: 'Don't you know who that is? It's only the lead guitarist with Queen'."

Anita went on to become good friends with Queen's lead singer, the late Freddie Mercury, and eventually got to know Brian but they didn't strike up a romance until the late 1980s following his divorce from Christine and they married in 2000.

The actress added: "As a result of that [first] meeting [with Brian] I came to be friends with Fred, and I didn't really get together with Brian until much later - until all the stuff of life had happened with his ¬marriage and whatever.

"It was Fred I used to hang out with a lot, and Brian kind of introduced me to Fred and Fred kind of gave me back to him, if you like."