Doctors Valerie is a murder suspect
DEBRA STEPHENSON GUEST STARS IN DOCTORS AS A WOMAN PREVIOUSLY ACCUSED OF MURDER – AND LETHERBRIDGE HAS A TESTING TIME IN STORE…
Of course, I know all about what it’s like to be in jail – although not from personal experience!” jokes Debra Stephenson, who arrives in Doctors this week to play Charlotte Hill, a woman recently released from prison. Fortunately, Charlotte is very different from Debra’s ruthless Bad Girls character Shell Dockley, whom she played from
1999 to 2003. But as to what Charlotte’s about, Debra must keep us hanging…
“It’s tricky to explain the kind of person Charlotte is,” teases the star. “She has to remain a bit of a mystery as she’s part of a ‘whodunnit?’ story. She was imprisoned for the murder of her husband, Grant, but her conviction has been quashed because of a forensics mix-up. So she’s lonely and vulnerable and desperately trying to clear her name.
“Over the next few weeks viewers will probably be going backwards and forwards with what they make of her. Is she capable of having murdered her husband, or is she a completely innocent woman who’s been hard done by?”
Debra’s Doctors stint will run for the next few weeks, during which time Charlotte is set to cause quite a stir at
The Mill. Not least because Valerie is dragged into the reinvestigation of Grant’s murder case, and ends up being a suspect! In a series of flashbacks, we’ll discover that Valerie was a former work colleague of Grant – played by ex-eastenders star
Jack Ryder (Jamie Mitchell) – and harboured a major crush on him.
“Valerie’s in the frame and Charlotte’s absolutely furious – she believes that Valerie killed Grant,” shares Debra. “Filming the flashbacks was great fun, as we see that Charlotte was a real high-flyer before prison – she’s had a lot of money and success, and she power-dressed!
And now she’s lost everything – her money, her power, her friends…”
As well as playing an unforgettable inmate of HMP Larkhall, acclaimed impressionist Debra is also well known