Tracy-Ann Oberman has said she is helping orphans flee Ukraine

British actress Tracy-Ann Oberman has spoken about the work she is doing with a Ukrainian orphanage to help children escape the “terrible” war in the Ukraine.

Oberman, 55, is best known for her roles in Friday Night Dinner and EastEnders.

She told the PA news agency: “It’s terrible. Every year we go into a new year thinking it can only get better.

“But I have a lot of Ukrainian friends and there is an orphanage over there that I am involved with called the Tikva orphanage, which is in Odesa, and we have been working very hard to get those children and everyone in Odesa out.”

On whether their efforts had been successful, she added: “So far not bad, but it has been really hard to get everyone out of Odesa that we can.”

Oberman recently starred in Channel 4’s hit drama It’s A Sin, which follows a group of gay friends living in London as the HIV/Aids crisis unfolds.

The series, which starred Olly Alexander, was awarded the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) award for best drama series, with its writer Russell T Davies winning the award for best writer.

Speaking about the success of It’s A Sin, she said: “I remember those boys, that was part of my growing up.”

In the series Oberman played Carol Carter, the acting agent of Alexander’s character Ritchie.

After winning the BPG award for best entertainment series for Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Whitehouse revealed he was content during the pandemic lockdowns.

Whitehouse, 63, told PA: “People couldn’t really go anywhere. That’s been my motto for years, by the way – don’t go anywhere. I quite liked lockdown.

“We did get a bit of a free pass because we were halfway through filming the series when lockdown kicked in. We were allowed to continue to do that. We were in a very strong bubble obviously.”

He added: “It was nice. People were reluctant prisoners but perhaps saw a little bit of England, Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland that they weren’t really aware of.”