EastEnders’ Laura Doddington is not ruling out a Nicola and Eve romance

Are we stanning #nicoleve? (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron) Fans salivated when two of EastEnders’ most fatal femmes, Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) and Suki Panesar-Unwin (Balvinder Sopal), finally went head to head. Both are known as two of the toughest, most vitriolic divas to have ever terrorised Walford with their take-no-prisoners attitudes, their unwavering dedication to getting what they want and, at times, their straight-up cruelty. It was only natural that viewers wanted to see a clash of titans and the prospect of a blood feud between them was absolutely delicious. Only, we got something arguably better from what transpired: a friendship between Nicola and Suki’s wife, Eve Panesar-Unwin (Heather Peace). When asked if she’s enjoying the new friendship, Laura told Metro: ‘Yeah, really nice, really lovely. ‘To come out of that blackmail, shall we say, that Nicola performed, to move forward and put it behind them. ‘To have two women of a certain age – they’re definitely over the age of 30 – but to be able to sit down and chat and be there for each other, I think is really lovely. ‘I hope it continues.’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video After the unbelievable chemistry between Nicola and Eve became apparent, a few fans began to question whether or not there could be something more than friendship between them. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. ‘Who knows?’ Laura I just don’t know. But it’s a really lovely sort of working environment to have, you know? We kind of work well together. And it’s EastEnders! Anything could be in a very different place next year. Who knows?’ It seemed impossible at first; Nicola went out of her way to destroy the Panesar-Unwin’s meeting with the adoption panel with some truly heinous barbs tossed at Suki, leaving her emotionally fraught and unable to complete the process. Later, a distraught and drunk Eve found herself drowning her sorrows in Harry’s Barn, and when Nicola spat even more venom, she wound up backhanding her across the mouth. Nicola and Eve went from enemies to friends (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron) Despite her bleeding lip, Nicola was left grinning like a Cheshire cat, having captured the attack on CCTV and now armed with enough ammunition to destroy both Eve and Suki once and for all. Still, she wouldn’t get chance to use the information that she had, when Eve stumbled across Nicola’s drunk and traumatised fella, George Knight (Colin Salmon), who confessed to letting his vile, racist dad Eddie Knight (Christopher Fairbank) die in front of him. Now possessing her own ammunition, Eve struck a deal with Nicola: she’d forget what she’d heard as long as Nicola deleted the footage of the assault, a deal Nicola was more than happy to agree to. Not only did the feud seem to die, something even more interested grew in it’s place when Nicola stepped in to help Eve bond with her adoptive daughter Ria Virdi (Aaria Sharma), before confessing all about her charred relationship with her mum and abusive father… …just weeks before said-mum’s arrival! Laura spoke on her reaction to Nicola’s family arriving (Picture: Jack Barnes/BBC/PA Wire) ‘Well, they said that there was going to be some family arriving and obviously I was like, ‘oh, okay’ and then they told me how many!’ Laura said of learning about the introduction of the Hawkins clan. ‘I was like, ‘this is incredible! This amazing’. I think it’s really going to show different sides of the character. ‘There’s something really interesting about us as humans when we’re with our family – as opposed to the chosen family we’ve made – but the one you were born into, it brings up a lot of different things. Deals of the Day Shop MySweetSmile's biggest Bank Holiday offers before they end Back-to-school shopping just got a lot cheaper thanks to Primark The back-to-school essential parents forget every year – and it could cost them Simba's cooling mattresses are now up to 30% off ahead of the bank holiday The best hosepipe ban-friendly products to protect your garden this summer ‘I’m really looking forward to kind of delving into that with them. And they’re all so amazing and lovely.’ Arrow MORE: All EastEnders spoilers for next week as Priya and Max are ‘caught out’ Arrow MORE: EastEnders star reveals ‘power struggle’ with Nicola as she vows to expose a shocking truth Arrow MORE: EastEnders’ Hawkins family return with a bang and Nicola is utterly horrified The Soaps Newsletter – Daily All the latest soaps spoilers and gossip, in your inbox every morning.