Cheryl Fergison comforted heartbroken EastEnders boss amid her axing
Former EastEnders executive producer Bryan Kirkwood wasin floods of tears when he told Cheryl Fergison that her alter ego Heather Trott would be killed off in 2012.
Cheryl Fergison comforted former EastEnders boss Bryan Kirkwood after he emotionally told her she was being axed from the soap.
In September 2011, the star was called up to his office, and she walked in on Bryan, 50, clutching a "box of tissues" before he dropped the news that her alter ego Heather Trott would be brutally killed by Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) in March 2012.
The 60-year-old actress recalled to Brian Dowling, 47, and Katja Mia, 27, on Virgin Media One's The Six O'Clock Show: "We have this thing where you can go up on certain days, and they tell you what your next storyline is going to be, and people get taken during the week to find out what's going on.
"And we would always used to have this thing going on, 'Oh, don't get called on a Friday, you could be the culling.'
"So Friday came, and I thought, 'Oh, I've got a big storyline!' So Linda [Henry (Shirley Carter)] was in the car, and we were going to go home.
"And I was called up to the office, and I literally walked in, and the executive producer was there, and he had a box of tissues. "And I could see he'd been really upset, and I thought, 'I shouldn't be coming into this meeting. Maybe something's happened to him.'
"And then that's when he said, 'Look, Cheryl, we're really sorry. We're gonna let you go - it's nothing to do with you, it's just we want to see other characters evolve.'"
However, Cheryl was quick to comfort Bryan, telling him that she was OK about leaving EastEnders.
She continued: "And he was so visibly upset, and I handed the tissues to him. I said, 'It's OK. Thank you. I was only supposed to be in four or five episodes. I've been here five years. Thank you so much.'"
Cheryl previously said the BBC soap's producers wanted to see how her character's best friend Shirley (Linda) dealt with grief, meaning Heather was going to be killed off.
And her alter ego's harrowing storyline ended in March 2012 after Ben attacked her with a photo frame.
In February, Cheryl told the Daily Star: "He [Brian] explained that the higher-ups – the Powers That Be – had decided they wanted to explore Shirley dealing with grief, which meant Heather was going to die."
