EastEnders star Luisa Bradshaw-White has praised the BBC soap for its portrayal of her character's sexuality.
In an upcoming episode of behind-the-scenes series Secrets from the Square, the actor – who has played Tina Carter since 2013 – says she thinks it's "really important" for British soaps to represent LGBTQ+ people on screen in a non-sensationalist way.
"I think EastEnders does it really well, but I think it's important that it is the norm and not the doof-doof – it's just there and part of it. It's there."
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Later, Bradshaw-White recalls how she had stepped away from the limelight, following a stint in Holby City, in order to start a family with wife Annette Yeo. After a little while though, she remembers being keen to get back in front of the camera again.
"I just decided I wanted to come back here [BBC Elstree Centre]. I love the studio and I did Grange Hill here as well. I thought: 'I want to do a long-running drama, so that I don't have to be the actor who's always out of work,'" she tells host Stacey Dooley.
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"I got called to go in for a part and when I read the breakdown, I was nothing like it. So I just thought: 'I'm going to go in and be myself'. So I just went in and said: 'Look, I know I'm not going to fit this, but I thought maybe you could find me another part.'"
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Then, she details how she forged a quick friendship with executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins after the audition, and the pair created Tina (aka Shirley's sister) especially for her.
"They offered me the job and about a week later Dom rang and said: 'So, I was thinking of making her gay. But for it not to be the doof-doof.' I remember talking to him and thinking: 'If we could just make this character be gay, be out, be proud and it not to be an issue, I want to be the one to do it.'"
Elsewhere in the episode, Bradshaw-White notes how co-star Linda Henry (Shirley Carter) "cries about everything" as the latter becomes teary while talking about her two-year-old grandson.
EastEnders: Secrets from the Square continues on Monday (August 24) at 8pm on BBC One with Linda Henry and Luisa Bradshaw-White discussing the Carter family, and then Tuesday at 7.30pm with Plummer and Lorraine Stanley.
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