The soap star, who plays Janine Butcher, says she will continue to fight

to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds breakthrough

through her talent agency project sideline

Charlie Brooks is best known as her character Janine Butcher in Eastenders
Eastenders actress Charlie Brooks says there is still a snobbery in the acting business with soap stars seen as lesser quality performers.

The soap star, best known as Janine Butcher, said she will also continue to fight to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds breakthrough through her talent agency project sideline.

Charlie, 43, said: “There might be still be a bit of snobbery around it, but we’ve got so many brilliant success stories and it’s such a wonderful place on any of the soaps really to learn how to work with cameras and discipline, and especially for younger actors sort of coming into the industry, you know it’s a gift of a training ground really.

“And I think if you can do soap you can do anything because the workload can be so intense, you know anything after that feels… you know, you get so much more time, it’s a luxury that you don’t have on soaps. So yeah, I think maybe those stigmas are slowly dispersing but there may still be a bit of snobbery around it.”

Charlie is currently on stage in a touring production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, where she plays the Childcatcher, but she could follow the mass of returning characters to Albert Square at some point in the future. She said of EastEnders : “It’s a bit like a home, to be honest. You know, I’ve kind of been back a few times, so it’s always really lovely to see everyone. It’s one of those places where lots of people stay so it’s nice to catch up with people again. I’m not very good at staying still for very long so I like to sort of keep doing different things, but yeah it’s always interesting with the character to see what she’s been doing and what she’s up to.”