EXCLUSIVE: EastEnders star Alice Haig has lifted the lid on the lengths the BBC soap went to to keep her arrival as Vicky Fowler shrouded in secrecy, including being given a code name
Joining the iconic Fowler family has been a dream come true for EastEnders actress Alice Haig. Stepping on to Albert Square as the new Vicky -the love child of teen mum, Michelle Fowler and Dirty Den Watts – she knew she was instantly becoming part of a huge soap legacy.
And her big arrival in Walford, as she tells New!, was such a huge event, totally shrouded in secrecy, that her character was actually given a code name – and Alice was only told two days before filming who she was actually playing, she has revealed. Lifting the lid on the lengths EastEnders went to to keep her entrance under wraps, Vicky tells: “I knew I was in it. I knew what the scripts were, I knew who the character was for me. But I didn’t know my name.
“It was a code name. It was Sammy. I didn’t know until about two or three days before I started filming. And then they tell you at a certain point, and then they give you loads of information about it at that point, when you know you’re in and you’re in proper. And then it happened.
“When I found out, I was like, ‘This is amazing’. It couldn’t have been better. I have the best parents, the legacy. It’s so good.”
It was announced that Alice had joined the show back in February and she first appeared on screen in April, when she arrived in Walford for the funeral of her uncle Martin (played by James Bye). She is now the fourth actress to play Vicky – the daughter of Michelle (Susan Tully) and Den (Leslie Grantham) – who was at the centre of a controversial storyline about teenage pregnancy, with viewers initially kept in the dark about who her dad was.
A big fan of the BBC soap since she was a child, Alice reveals that the part felt like it was meant to be. “I have always watched the show, and I was born in February 1985, so I’m the same age as EastEnders!” she previously said.
Vicky is back on the Square after 20 years, bringing her new boyfriend Ross (Alex Walkinshaw) and his son Joel (Max Murray) with her. She had been living in Australia with long-term love Spencer Moon, where they ran a bar together. So, when she arrives in Walford with a new man on her arm, it comes as quite the shock to sister Sharon (Letitia Wright) and Spencer’s brother Alfie (Shane Ritchie) – who had no idea they had split.
The couple are keen to ingratiate themselves with her family in E20 and have quickly become firm favourites on the show. And Alice says she still can’t believe she gets to work with her soap idols every day.
“I pinch myself all the time on set,” she admits. “Being around Adam (Woodyatt), and Tish (Letitia Wright). My first scene was with them. Tish is amazing, Adam’s amazing, Steve’s (McFadden) amazing. When they’re in the scene we just aired this week, I had to pinch myself when Phil Mitchell was stopping me from going somewhere. I was like, ‘What the… This is amazing!’ My family, they’re really proud. They’re watching it for the first time in ages. We used to watch as a family and now they’re watching it again. Honestly, it’s the nicest place to work.”
After graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, south London-born Alice, 40, went on to appear in various television and stage roles. She played journalist Sophie in the comedy Rain Dogs, and a nurse in This Is Going to Hurt. She also secured a role on Disney+ series Andor – a Star Wars spin-off – before announcing her Walford debut.
Alice says landing her part on EastEnders, however, has been her biggest role to date – and she’s loving being part of such a huge show. “It’s been totally lovely,” she said at the British Soap Awards. “Anybody who’s come up to me in the street has been really nice.
“It’s all new for me. I did a lot of theatre and TV before. But TV was just one episode of a drama or something like that. So it’s very different to this, which is on in everybody’s living rooms every night.”
Alice certainly seems to have acting in her DNA, too. She comes from an acting family, her dad being David Haig, an actor and playwright who’s best known for his role as Bernard in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Alongside penning plenty of successful plays, he’s also starred alongside Rowan Atkinson in The Thin Blue Line, and has also had roles in huge shows including Doc Martin, The Thick of It and Downton Abbey.
Most recently he was in Killing Eve, where he played Sandra Oh’s spy colleague Bill – who was brutally killed off by Jodie Comer’s character, assassin Villanelle. David, 69, was awarded an MBE for his services to the arts.
