Balvinder Sopal has revealed she was worried about her future on EastEnders when she got the call for Strictly Come Dancing.
Sopal, who has appeared on the soap as Walford matriarch Suki Panesar since 2019, said in a new interview that she feared her character was being killed off when the EastEnders executives asked to have a conversation with her out of the blue, which was actually about whether she was interested in Strictly.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield, Sopal explained the Strictly producers had gone directly to the EastEnders executives to gauge her interest in the BBC dancing show, which culminated in the meeting with her executive producer Ben Wadey.
She said: “We were trying to get a conversation for quite some time, and then Ben had to go away on holiday, so they were like, ‘we really need to get this conversation in before Ben goes away on holiday.’”
“Then my heart dropped and I was like, ‘Oh no.’”
Admitting it was a “horrible” feeling, Sopal continued: “Ben starts the conversation with, ‘So Bal, how are you feeling, you all right?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m grand, I’m grand.’”
“He says, ‘Look, Suki is a brilliant character, the audience love her, you’ve done really well with her, we love her she’s just been great….’”
“And I’m like ‘no, no, no, no. Please don’t.’ And he went: ‘And you know, Strictly’ and I went, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’”
When Sopal learnt that the Strictly team were keen to sign her up to the 2025 series, she began discussions with her agent and secured her place on the show.
Sopal appeared in the show’s launch programme last month, alongside her professional partner Julian Caillon.
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But just days before the opening night, Sopal sustained an injury when she heard “something pop” during the first day of rehearsals.
She later told fans that she was “all good” after a physio assessed her left glute and hip during her second day of practice.
“Day three training done!” she said. “Hip/glute all good – just tight. Thank you for all your messages of love and support. We kept dancing.”
During the first live show on 27 September, Sopal danced a samba to “Shake Your Booty” by KC & The Sunshine Band, for which they were awarded 17 points from the judges.
During the episode, footballer Karen Carney and her partner Carlos Gu topped the leaderboard with 31 points overall for their jive to Blondie’s “One Way or Another”.