Speed: 'I prefer The Bill to EastEnders'

Lucy Speed has admitted that she prefers being on The Bill to EastEnders.

The actress, who plays DC Stevie Moss in the ITV1 police drama, said that she gets less attention now then during her time in Walford.

"EastEnders and Corrie and those guys, the attention is just incredible. Everyone watches it, but whoever you speak to will always say, 'I never watch the show, but weren't you in EastEnders?" she told Metro.

Speed, who played Natalie Price in the BBC soap from the age of 17, revealed that she struggled to deal with the pressure of fame at such a young age.

"I found it very difficult. I've always said I admire the teenagers in soaps a lot because of how they're able to deal with it now. I just left because it was scary," she said.

"As a teenager, you don't want people looking at you all the time. It's fair enough when you're on screen, but when you're in the pub or walking down the road, you want the world to open up and drop you through the middle of it. It was just teenage temperament, really, but I wasn't great at dealing with that attention."

Speed added that working on The Bill is "such good fun" and she plans to stay "for the foreseeable future".

> Click here to read our interview with Lucy Speed