Eastenders actress, Cheryl Fergison has praised the BBC One soap for tackling the subject of ’sizeism’ when they cast her for the role of Heather Trott. She also revealed that she thinks its about time that other TV soaps did the same.

She told The Sun: “Hollyoaks is full of tiny blondes, but people like the fact Heather’s normal and we haven’t seen that for a long time in soaps.”

“A lot of big women and men get that attitude – it’s about how you deal with it.

“You have to portray it as long as you can redress the balance in some way at some point.

“That didn’t happen straight away and people said to me, ‘Oh my God, she’s just the fat person they take the mickey out of’.

“But it’s about taking away what Heather looks like, taking away the layers and finding out what she is like underneath. I think that’s what EastEnders is doing, and that’s a good thing.”

Heather revealed that she has had a number of offers of blind dates since starting on the show from people who want to fix her up.

“Everybody wants to see her live happily ever after,” she said.

“When people come up to me on the street they want to cuddle me or pair me off with their uncles!”