As we enter spooky season, Lacey Turner is sharing a story about a ‘supernatural’ event she experienced on the EastEnders set.
While our Stacey Slater has been a part of some of the biggest plots the soap has ever seen, she’s yet to venture into a storyline involving ghosts.
Lacey, however, who’s played the iconic character on-and-off since 2004 reckons that, off-screen, the ghost of a former co-star paid her a visit, and made her presence known in a very unique way as she contemplated a smoke break.
‘Back in the day, it was always me, Wendy Richard and Laila [Morse], who’d go for a cigarette together,’ Lacey explained.
‘One day, after Wendy had passed away, I was standing by the back door debating whether to have a cigarette break when suddenly I felt a great big whack on my bum, I turned and laughed, thinking it was a runner, but there wasn’t a soul there.
‘It was only Barbara [Windsor] in that day, but she was down the other end, I was standing in the studio where the Fowlers would film, and I’m convinced it was Wendy telling me to go for a cigarette like she used to.’
During her chat with Heat magazine (via Yahoo news), Lacey added that Laila still reckons that it’s ‘got to have been Wendy’ to this day, while confirming that she’ll: ‘never forget it.’
Wendy Richard, of course, played the indomitable matriarch Pauline Fowler from the soaps very first episode, through to the character’s death in 2006.
While Stacey has been missing on EastEnders for a while now, Lacey’s been incredibly busy as a cast member in the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing alongside professional partner, Vito Coppola.
Her former on-screen beau, James Bye, who played Martin Fowler, recently took to Instagram to pay tribute to her, having previously competed on Strictly himself, appearing in Series 20 and ultimately being eliminated fifth, sharing an image of the two of them together alongside a shot of Lacey dripping in the Strictly sequins, he wrote: ‘Properly proud of you as you start your Strictly journey.
‘I know you’re going to be brilliant — mainly because you’ll have everyone laughing, keeping everyone’s spirits up and, obviously, making sure every surface in Elstree has been wiped within an inch of its life.
‘I’ll be shouting at the telly every Saturday like I know what I’m talking about, despite the small matter of me being voted off when I did it. So probably best you don’t take any advice from me.
‘We’ve shared a fair few adventures over the years and I couldn’t be happier watching you take this one on.
‘Go smash it, Lace. We’ll be cheering you on every Saturday.
‘So proud of you, you little legend.’
Lacey previously explained to Where to Watch how she thinks she’ll battle the nerves on the dancefloor: ‘I’m excited to learn something new and to be a part of this whole glittery shenanigan.
‘But I am absolutely terrified and hoping that will go once I’m in the training room and I can get into it. I’m going to create a character that I can play on a Saturday night, as that’s the only way I’ll get out there I think!”
‘I’ve always wanted to do it, but I’ve just never been brave enough; a lot of my friends are physically fit, and they have been exhausted, so, whilst I’m not working on EastEnders this year, I thought it might be a good time to do it because I’m not sure I am physically or mentally fit enough to do both jobs at the same time as well as run a household with three feral children!’