My husband and I split up after 17 years but we are still pals and go out together
It does seem to be a bit of a thing, where kids want to be famous for the sake of it
heartbroken, as she wanted me to come with her, but I wanted to stay at the school.
“Money was tight. I got a scholarship but I had to keep working to pay for my uniform and books.”
Lucy admits she felt like jacking it all in at 17. She left drama school, moved to Birmingham to finally be with her mum, enrolled in a local comprehensive and got a job as a Mcdonald’s party host. But her agent kept calling and it wasn’t long before she was acting again.
“I never made my first day at that other school,” she smiles.
In 1998, she joined Eastenders, winning legions of fans thanks to Lisa’s toxic relationship with Phil, played by Steve Mcfadden, whom she dated for four years in real life.
The “who shot Phil” storyline in 2001 was one of the biggest in the soap’s 39-year history.
More than 22 million tuned in, and a UEFA Cup semifinal between Barcelona and Liverpool was delayed to allow viewers to see Lisa unmasked as the shooter.
Lisa then went on to marry Mark Fowler but ended up walking out and briefly returning to Phil.
Since leaving the show in 2003, Lucy has returned to Albert
Square several times.
Most recently, last year,
Lisa embarked on a blackmail plot in order to fund a gambling addiction.
She also took part in a Christmas storyline dubbed
The Six, in which she and five other Eastenders women were under suspicion for the murder of a man. Lucy says: “If you get stuff written like that, you take it.”
On the ups and downs of soap fame, she says: “There were times when I thought, ‘I wish I hadn’t worn that outfit’.
“But I’d never let it diminish the love I had for what I did.”
Look To The Light is released digitally on streaming services on Monday, May 27, and will be screening at Chiswick Cinema, in West London, from June 14.
Missing cat Nev sparked celebrations when he returned home two years after disappearing.
Owner Sian Williams, from Begbroke, Oxfordshire, said it was out of character when the moggie went missing in May 2022, adding: “I never gave up hope that he would return.”
She spotted him outside her house last Friday, saying: “I had opened the door to put something in the bin and it was quite dark.
“I saw this figure lying on the floor about 20 steps away from my front door and realised it was a cat.
“His behaviour seemed familiar and I said, ‘Nev Nev?’. He came running to me and meowing so I opened my arms and gave him a big cuddle.
“He knew who I was.”