Former EastEnders actress Lacey Turner returns to our screens next week in Switch, a new ITV2 drama about a quartet of young witches living in London. TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with her to find out more... Tell us about your character, Stella... “She works in advertising and is quite organised and a bit of a control freak. In order to cast a spell, or ‘switch’, the girls need all four natural elements – earth, fire, water and air – in one place, and Stella represents earth because she is quite grounded. Of the four girls, she really is the mother hen and looks out for everyone.” What was the appeal for you? “It is just light-hearted and it’s great because everything is about vampires or ghosts now and there hasn’t been much about witches for a long time. I also liked it because it is more about their friendship, they just happen to be witches. They are four normal girls trying to live normal lives and every now and again they just use a spell to try to help things along.” Did you do any research for the role? “I did a bit of research into witchcraft, but also I did some into some office life because Stella does presentations, which I have never done, and I have never worked in an office and never worn a pencil skirt – and never will again because I can barely bend over.” What was it like doing the spells? “They were really hard because we all speak them together and at one point I was reduced to tears trying to get through it, so my co-star Phoebe Fox kindly stepped in and sellotaped the lines to her forehead. We would have been there all day otherwise.” You’ve done Being Human, Bedlam and now this. Are you a fan of the supernatural? “I am a massive fan of the film Practical Magic, but I wasn’t into things like Twilight. But then Being Human came up and I did it and loved it, and since then I have become a bit of a fan, I am on a roll with the supernatural.” Have you worked with any of the other three girls before? “I worked with Nina Toussaint-White on EastEnders and I have known Hannah Tointon since we were 11 or 12 and did Whistle Down the Wind together. Phoebe Fox was the only one I didn’t know previously. When we all met, we said that the most important thing was that the girls’ friendship seemed real and that was easy because we all clicked straight away even though we are all so different.” Do you still watch EastEnders? “To be honest, I don’t watch any telly at the moment. I don’t have the time so I have lost track of what is going on, but when my little sister was in it as Shenice, she recorded the bits she was in and made us sit and watch them. It is just nice working on new things now though and branching out and seeing what is out there.” Switch begins on ITV2 on Monday, October 15 at 10pm
