Actress Heather Peace hopes to ignite her career after landing a major role on the hit TV series London's Burning.

She will star as one of three new characters in the new series of the smash show due to begin next month.

Bradford girl Heather, 23, was chosen to play a feisty new female firefighter called Sally "Gracie" Fields.

"Sally is a great character to play - she's really strong. She's also exceptionally good at her job which means that she doesn't have to prove a point to the lads," said Heather.

She says she is delighted with the opportunity the role has given her to shine before a big audience - London's Burning has attracted ratings as high as 16.5 million.

"I can't think of many other television series where, as a woman, you would play such a diverse role unless you were Helen Mirren or Amanda Burton," said Heather. "This has really given me a chance to show what I'm made of."

A former pupil of St Joseph's College in Bradford, she had an early grounding in acting as a member of Bradford Catholic Players.

Her parents Brian and Barbara Peace, of Beechwood Avenue, Wibsey, said they were very proud of their daughter's success.

"She's done very well because this is a big part," said Mr Peace, 50, a technical sales representative.

Heather was in repertory theatre, playing in The Tempest in Stoke, before landing her part in London's Burning.

"I missed the first week of training as I was doing The Tempest," she said. "So I joined the lads on the second week and had to get straight in. I was told to put a ladder up to a six-storey building and climb onto the roof. I was terrified.''

No date has been announced for the start of the new series of London's Burning but it expected to begin in September.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.