Martine had doubts over 'Echo Beach' part

Martine McCutcheon has admitted that she had doubts about her role in Echo Beach when she was offered the part.

The actress was asked to play "repressed" millionaire housewife Susan in the new ITV1 soap, as well as a neurotic version of herself in its sister show Moving Wallpaper, a comedy which follows the soap's fictional producer Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) and his team.

"I didn't understand the concept of the show very well," Martine told the Daily Record. "I also wondered why they wanted me to play this repressed, woman in her mid 40s - 10 years older than me."

However, Martine was immediately persuaded to accept the part when she discovered that Tony Jordan, who created her EastEnders character Tiffany, had written the scripts for both shows.

"When I realised Tony wrote Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper I wanted to be a part of it," she explained. "Especially because Tony gave me the opportunity to play Tiffany - which is a part people still talk about. So I embraced it, although this was quite a frustrating character to play."

Moving Wallpaper starts on Thursday at 9.00pm on ITV1, with Echo Beach following at 9.30pm.