B&TF: Well, before we get to “Lip Service”, pretend that you met me for the first time and I know nothing about you. How would you describe yourself to let me know about yourself?

Photo courtesy of Heather Peace

HP: Me, personally? Well, I’m a Northern girl. I’m from a little place in Yorkshire. I had a dream being an actor and you don’t do that when you came from Bradford. And I was very, very lucky and had supportive parents who said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from.” I didn’t have anybody else in a family who was doing this. I left to live the dream and worked hard so I’m a British actress and singer with about 15-year career. I’ve not had to do anything else other than what I do. I’m not very wealthy, it’s not that, but I’m certainly been able to make my hobby my job and this is pretty much where I’m at. And I’m an out gay woman.

 

B&TF: Where did you get your training in acting and music?

 

HP: I started piano from the age of eight. Again, I was very lucky. My parents had no family and there was a lady who advertised in a church bulletin – I was a Catholic girl – and it was music for free basically. She lived on benefits and taught 20 kids who could not had afforded piano lessons. She taught those kids for free and I’ve been very, very blessed and studied the piano. I did lots of musical theater with council own groups, again not paid for. I was just pretty blessed.

 

I did Westminster Law research, and this was before Google, to find out where I could go and then I went to Manchester Poly (Manchester Polytechnic School of Film, TV & Theatre) and did three year drama training, formal drama training and the theater. I’ve had three major BBC series and then “Lip Service”. I mean, viewing figure-wise, “Lip Service” is obviously the smallest thing I’ve done. “London’s Burning” used to be the biggest drama on ITV here in England with 13 million viewers and it was crazy. I was in my early 20’s.

Heather Peace in “London’s Burning”

B&TF: How many seasons were there?

 

HP: They did 13 in the end and I did the last five. Each series had 16 episodes and it was on every Sunday night, which was kind of prime-time viewing. I’ve taken ups and downs. I’ve had really major TV and you think you made it and then your career goes a little bit awry for awhile. Then “Lip Service” had taken me down a whole different road. I’ve been doing the music since I was nineteen but because of “Lip Service”, people became aware of this and began to come and hear me.

 

B&TF: Will they make Sam sing sometime? Like maybe she’s drunk in a bar or something in the second season? That could be fun (laughing).

 

HP: Yeah (laughing). They did actually suggest to me that Sam maybe should serenade Cat and I just said that it’s a bit too much. No offense to any detective-sergeants out there but I don’t think being a jazz singer and being detective-sergeant goes hand-in-hand, so I turned it down. But I’m hoping to get some of my new songs on the actual soundtrack for the series.