Alex Fletcher has been taking acting tips from her seven-year-old 'Hollyoaks' co-star Lacey Findlow.
Alex Fletcher
The 41-year-old actress has heaped praise on the youngster, who plays Dee Dee Hutchinson in the Channel 4 soap, and admitted she once thought Lacey was at fault for forgetting a line but the former 'Brookside' star turned out to be the culprit.
She said: "Young Lacey Findlow, who plays Dee Dee, is such a fantastic little actress that me and Nick [Pickard] are just reacting off the back of what she's doing.
"She's giving us tips, actually. The other week, we stalled in the middle of a scene, and I said to her, 'Lacey, you forgot to say your line,' and she said, 'No, Alex, you forgot to say yours.'
"And she was right. Seven years of age."
Alex has shot some hard-hitting scenes recently with her daughter Dee Dee undergoing treatment for autoimmune encephalitis, and some of her scripts are so emotional she breaks down in tears while reading them in bed.
She said: "I was reading the scripts in bed. I was a week ahead of myself. With the really heavy stuff coming up I like to be prepared. With one scene, I sat and cried in my bed.
"I then tweeted the writer, 'Cheers for this - I'm actually sitting at home sobbing.' "
Alex has found some of her 'Hollyoaks' scenes to be "hard work", but she loves playing Diane, even if she thinks the character might be a bit over the top at times.
She added to Inside Soap magazine: "Diane doesn't hold back how she feels does she? I kind of think, 'Oh Diane, just wind your neck in sometimes.'
"Even I get the scripts and wonder how I'm going to make it work. It's actually not that depressing when we're shooting, because we have light moments within it.
"It's hard work, but it's good."