EASTENDERS’ Luisa Bradshaw-White has opened up about her character Tina Carter’s sudden death in EastEnders this week.
Monday’s hour-long episode began by showing murderer Gray Atkins (Toby Alexander Smith) killing Tina – his second victim – after she confronted him about the murder of his wife Chantelle.
Threatening to tell everyone in Albert Square, Gray stopped her from escaping the house before being shown shouting over her limp body.
Moving her from the sofa, scenes showed him wrapping Tina up in a large cloth before placing her in the boot of his car to go and bury her body.
The murderous lawyer convinced Tina’s family – Mick and Shirley Carter – that she had taken some time away from the Square after she was wrongly accused of attacking Ian Beale.
Fans of the show were expecting a departure from Luisa, but the dramatic ending that saw her killed off came as a surprise – a “bittersweet” moment for the actress.
“Tina is a character I have invested a lot in and a character that I really love, so to see that end is quite sad,” Luisa told Digital Spy.
“When you do an acting job, you usually know the ending. This is the only job where you don’t really know. So after all those years in character, then you find out the ending, it’s quite a strange experience.”
The actress acknowledged that it was “weird” to film Tina’s death scene, but enjoyed the “drama” of the gruesome moment her body was shown.
“A character that you love, a character that you’ve invested in and you played for seven years [dying] – it’s odd,” Luisa continued.
“It felt like the end of an era, so it was sad in some ways, but really exciting in others. It’s an exciting storyline to get as an actor. It was nice to play the drama of it all.”
She added that while she will “miss” her EastEnders co-stars, she’s “excited” to open up her career beyond Albert Square.
Luisa hasn’t left without a reminder, and admitted she had taken Tina’s tiger-print trainers as a souvenir to reflect on in the future.
Bradshaw-White revealed that she had taken Tina’s tiger-print trainers home as a souvenir, while also reflecting on her proudest moment from her time in Albert Square.
EastEnders continues tonight at 7:30pm on BBC One.
