EastEnders star Heather Peace has heaped praise on the BBC soap’s lesbian storyline as her character Eve Unwin prepares to tie the knot with Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal).
Eve and Suki’s love story has been playing out for a long time, with the couple having faced numerous obstacles along the way.
It began as a very slow burn, as Suki came to terms with her sexuality and feelings for Eve, and has now blossomed into a beautiful relationship.
With Suki and Eve set to tie the knot this festive period, there are certainly still challenges ahead, with Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) lurking in the shadows and plotting his revenge.
However, actress Heather is keen for the couple to go the distance, as she revealed in an Instagram post reflecting on their journey.
‘It’s been a long arc,’ she began, alongside a carousel of promo pictures for the wedding episodes.
‘Two and half years for #sukeve to get to this point. A love story. A story that resonates with all people regardless of gender, race, religion, sexuality. It’s about love. Connection. It’s about meeting your person.
‘And for EastEnders to allow the space for this story to evolve has been quite something. It’s happened in real time. And as an actor who has never been involved in soap, long term, it’s been the thing that I take away as what’s precious about the genre. The time. The history. The space for nuance.
‘I want Suki & Eve to make it. I always have done. It’s representation across cultures. It’s just human in nature.
‘As a lesbian, married to my wife for many years, we exist, in successful partnerships that last forever. Our families matter.’
The comments of the post were instantly flooded with support and love heart emojis from Heather’s EastEnders co-stars, while countless fans opened up about their own experiences.
Heather previously spoke to Metro about the importance of telling Suki and Eve’s story in a mainstream show like EastEnders.
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‘I think it’s a massively important platform. I’ve played lesbian characters before on slightly more niche shows, like Lip Service. I played a lesbian in Waterloo Road as well. Prior to that, I didn’t. Believe it or not, I didn’t for the first 15 years of my career!
‘But it’s really important to make it mainstream. And that’s why we want it to be portrayed as a love story, because it doesn’t have to be titillating or, I don’t know… Everybody understands a connection of hearts, a connection of souls.
‘So, if that means that somebody’s grandma who previously was a bit “ew” is not like that anymore because she understands the humanity of two people coming together, then brilliant, we’ve done our job!
‘We just want to change a few hearts and minds.’
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