EastEnders Nicola Mitchell star Laura Doddington reveals she ‘burst into tears’ after ‘amazing’ accolade
Fans have become huge fans of the character since her introduction last year
EastEnders Nicola Mitchell star Laura Doddington has revealed that she ‘burst into tears’ after receiving an ‘amazing’ accolade.
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The former wife of Teddy Mitchell was introduced to the BBC soap in November last year, several months after her family arrived, making an instant impact.
Viewers soon learned that Nicola was hiding dark secrets from her past, including that she killed her son Harry Mitchell’s girlfriend Shireen Bashar, who had been missing for three years.
Currently running wine bar Harry’s Barn, Nicola recently began seeing George Knight after they shared some of their past troubles.
However, their union doesn’t appear to be going in a healthy direction, with Harry involved with drug dealer Ravi Gulati, who has brought George’s brother Kojo Asare into the fold.
After just 10 months in EastEnders, Laura was named Best Newcomer at the Inside Soap Awards ceremony on Monday night (September 29).
She told BANG Showbiz: “I’m so over the moon. I cannot explain how much of a privilege it is to win this because it’s voted for by the fans, and that’s just incredible.
“It blew my mind like it absolutely blew my mind, and I burst into tears. But it’s amazing, and like I say, it’s voted for by the fans, and that just means so much that they have taken to her and to my portrayal of her. That is just wonderful.”
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Laura faced stiff competition to win the award, with Coronation Street’s Ryan Mulvey, Emmerdale’s Bradley Riches and Hollyoaks Zak Sutcliffe also nominated.
While Laura’s co-star Alice Haig, who plays Vicki Fowler, was on the category’s long list, the actress insisted there was no rivalry between them.
She explained: “No, not at all! I adore Alice. I sent her a text message when it first came out, and I put the [strong] arm emoji, and then I freaked out and thought, ‘Oh my God, she’ll think I meant a fight!’
“And then I left her a voice note, being like, ‘Babe, I don’t mean a fight, I [meant] like congratulations, so strong, well done!’ So yeah, I adore her.”
Meanwhile, Laura revealed that she had to say the line ‘put your willies away’ about ‘36 times’ while filming one scene.
The 44-year-old actress shouted out the memorable words during a big showdown in the May 29 episode of the hit BBC soap when her alter ego Nicola Mitchell stepped in to stop a fight between Teddy and Zack .
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“The scene where I shouted, ‘Put your willies away.’ That was probably the toughest line because it was night shoot. It was really late and, just technically, little things kept going wrong.
“I shouted, ‘Put your willies away,’ about 36 times! My vocal chords started to really hurt. So I’d say that is the toughest to recreate that.
“We took a lot of takes with that, and normally, we don’t do that many. I loved it because I got to shout it loads of times,” she joked.