Eighties icon eyes up huge EastEnders return and reveals one soap she turned down
EXCLUSIVE: Eurovision Song Contest winner Cheryl Baker confessed she would love to return to EastEnders after she joined Walford for a Eurovision special last year
Eighties icon Cheryl Baker has begged BBC bosses to EastEnders as a regular character after Eurovision stint.
The Bucks Fizz star catapulted to fame when her band won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1981with her hit Making Your Mind Up. After their success, the 70-year-old singer went on to launch a successful presenting career and even competed on Dancing on Ice in 2018.
Last year, the blonde bombshell starred in a Eurovision-themed special of EastEnders to mark the European competition coming to Liverpool. Celebrating the festivities, landlady Kathy Beale (played by Gillian Taylfort) threw a Eurovision party at the pub.
But it’s fair to say Rocky Cotton (Brian Connolly) outdid her when he invited the Eurovision legend to make a special appearance. It was at this point that the hitmaker joined a makeshift Bucks Fizz tribute act on stage alongside Jean Slater, Harvey Monroe and Honey Mitchell.
“Honestly to walk onto the set and to go along to Walford and the Albert Square sign and to go into the Queen Vic. Oh I loved it, I loved it. And I wish I could take that back, I’d love to be on it.
It was at this point that she revealed that BBC bosses offered her a permanent role on the soap as a Walford resident. Cheryl went on: “Actually the director said to me, ‘Would you like to do a bit of acting then on EastEnders?’ and I went, ‘Oh no, I’d be terrified’.”
Reflecting over her time on the show, she shared how starstruck she felt meeting Gillian and Brian on set. She squealed: “I love Gillian and at the time Brian was in it, Brian Connolly, so he was absolutely lovely.
“And he was showing me around saying, ‘Come on, we’ve got to do a photo of you with the statue or Queen Victoria in the Queen Vic’. And he was great showing me around everywhere, it was wonderful.”
Looking back over her time on the show with fondness, the musician confessed she would love to go back on the show again in the future. Cheryl added: “I was such an idiot, I really shot myself in the foot with that one.
“I would love to be [on the show] even as a guest. It was an absolute thrill, it really was.” However, the Making Your Mind Up singer clarified that EastEnders is the only soap she would say yes to because she “can’t do accents.”
She chuckled: “I can’t do Corrie, I can’t do a Mancunian accent. I was asked once if I would do Blood Brothers, but I can’t do the Liverpudlian accent. I just can’t do accents.”
EastEnders airs on weeknights on BBC One from 7.30pm or catch up on BBC iPlayer
