EastEnders star Laura Doddington has opened up about the growing friendship between her character Nicola Mitchell and Eve Panesar-Unwin, played by Heather Peace, and has not ruled out the possibility of a romance between them.
Speaking to Metro, Doddington said she is enjoying the new dynamic: 'Yeah, really nice, really lovely. To come out of that blackmail, shall we say, that Nicola performed, to move forward and put it behind them. To have two women of a certain age – they're definitely over the age of 30 – but to be able to sit down and chat and be there for each other, I think is really lovely. I hope it continues.'
Fans question friendship
After the chemistry between Nicola and Eve became apparent, some fans began to wonder if there could be more than friendship. Doddington responded: 'Who knows? I just don't know. But it's a really lovely sort of working environment to have, you know? We kind of work well together. And it's EastEnders! Anything could be in a very different place next year. Who knows?'
The friendship seemed unlikely at first. Nicola had previously sabotaged the Panesar-Unwins' adoption panel meeting with harsh comments aimed at Suki, leaving her distraught. Later, a drunk Eve confronted Nicola in Harry's Barn, and after more provocation, slapped her across the mouth.
Past conflict resolved
Despite her bleeding lip, Nicola grinned after capturing the attack on CCTV, planning to use it against Eve and Suki. However, Eve soon discovered Nicola's fiancé George Knight had confessed to letting his racist father Eddie die in front of him. Eve struck a deal: she would keep quiet if Nicola deleted the footage of the assault, which Nicola agreed to.
Since then, the feud has faded, and Nicola has helped Eve bond with her adoptive daughter Ria Virdi, while also confessing details about her own difficult upbringing with her mother and abusive father – just weeks before her mother's arrival.
Doddington also spoke about the upcoming introduction of the Hawkins family: 'Well, they said that there was going to be some family arriving and obviously I was like, oh, okay and then they told me how many! I was like, this is incredible! This amazing. I think it's really going to show different sides of the character. There's something really interesting about us as humans when we're with our family – as opposed to the chosen family we've made – but the one you were born into, it brings up a lot of different things. I'm really looking forward to kind of delving into that with them. And they're all so amazing and lovely.'
