Heather Peace is a firm-favourite on EastEnders playing Eve Unwin – but it turns out she was offered a role in Coronation Street only to turn it down to star in a steamy show
Eastenders icon Heather Peace could have had a very different career if she’d accepted a role in a rival soap.
The actress, 48, plays Eve Unwin on the BBC One soap. Lawyer Eve rocked up to Walford in 2021 as the wife of soap legend Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
The pair got married while incarcerated – and after getting released, Eve moved in with the Slaters. And it didn’t take long for her to get involved in several big storylines.
From her affair and relationship with Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) to being kidnapped and nearly murdered by Suki’s evil husband Nish (Navin Chowdhry), Eve’s time in the famous square has not been short of drama.
Especially at the moment, as last week, bad guy Nish made his shock return. Fans will recall he was kicked out of the Panesar home, with Eve having since moved in. But last week he made his comeback – and shared some big news with his family: he’s dying.
Due to Heather’s stint on EastEnders, she’s become a firm-favourite with fans. However, it turns out Heather could have actually made it big on rival soap, Corrie – only for her to choose a racy BBC cult-classic show.
EastEnders was not Heather’s first big TV role. As well as stints on Waterloo Road and The Chase, she also famously had a role in BBC’s saucy series Lip Service.
The show, which premiered in 2010, followed a group of 30-something lesbians in Glasgow – including Heather’s character, Detective Sergeant Sam Murray. And it’s fair to say the series had several saucy racy moments.
But Heather’s career could have taken off in a completely different direction had she not chosen to star in Lip Service.
Talking in AfterEllen in 2010 about her time on Lip Service, Heather described it as her “favourite job ever.” She explained: “It’s about a group of gay girls but ultimately it is a love story.”
And it turns out Heather was super keen to star in the show – so much so, that she turned down a role on ITV’s Coronation Street.
She recalled: “I had actually just been offered Coronation Street, but I really wanted to do Lip Service, so I called Harriet [Braun, the show’s creator] to get an answer early and I ended up being the first person to be cast.”
Despite not going for the Corrie role, Heather did actually star in the soap back in 2208. But her career in television took off in 1997 with a role in Emmerdale.
Heather played Anne Cullen on the ITV soap, a teacher at Hotten County Primary School, educating characters like Andy Hopwood, Robert Sugden, and Donna Windsor.
Eagle-eyed fans may also remember her from her role on Coronation Street, where Heather portrayed a character named Ali, a member of a mountain rescue team instrumental in saving Liam Connor’s life during a harrowing incident in 2008.
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