Off-screen, however, actress Babita Poohoomull, who plays the stunning beautician, reveals that she has more experience of having her heart broken than being a heartbreaker.

"I had a really bad six months and was just about to jack it all in," admits the pretty 26-year-old. "I had my heart broken and wasn't getting any jobs. I really was at an all-time low."

"I found rejection really difficult to deal with because I would get close and really want it. Then they would turn round and say 'oh you are too short' or too light or too dark or whatever.

I must have been walking into auditions being a right miserable git, not on purpose, but people must have been able to tell that I wasn't happy."

Babita remembers landing her dream job. "I was at Euston station," she laughs. "I had just been to meet Kate Harwood who was the executive producer at the time and started crying as soon as I came out of the audition because I thought I had done so badly and was having a breakdown.

"And then about an hour later they called and I was in the middle of the station and I just started screaming. Everybody at Euston knew before any of my friends or family."

Babita has been on our screens since October and has won over thousands of male admirers with saucy scenes involving Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky, 23) and Mickey Miller (Joe Swash, 25).

Next week she even locks lips with young businessman Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements, 19). She's had her eye on him for a while and arranges to take him to see Star Trek at the cinema.

But Babita refuses to accept she could be a Walford sex symbol and the suggestion makes her blush as we chat over coffee in north London. "My legs aren't long enough," she smirks. At 5ft 2ins Babita is very pretty and petite, with flawless skin and a winning smile. She is relaxed and down-to-earth, admitting she spends her days off at home watching Deal Or No Deal. But she recoils when asked if she is anything like her alter ego.

"She will go for anyone who shows her any kind of attention and feels that if she sleeps with them then she will be loved back. I hope I'm not as naive when it comes to men as she is. She's a lot more happy-go-lucky than I am. I am a bit more serious."

Of her own singleton status, she shrugs: "I'm OK about it now. You have your down days don't you, but I'm happy and feel very lucky at the moment.

When she was three her family moved to Madrid for five years for dad Vinod's business. The family then moved back to Manchester for three years before Vinod, 60, moved his business to Bangkok.

She said: "Before I moved to Bangkok I thought my parents were ruining my life and I had like a mental breakdown when I was 11. I just thought I was never going to make any friends again.

"The grass is always greener," she smiles. "I would come back to England quite a lot to see my grandparents and I loved it and thought it was a really cool place so when I was 16 I told my parents I wanted to go but looking back, I feel a bit silly."

After A Levels she took a year out and went to Botswana to teach English before a three-year education degree at York University and then going on to drama school in London for two years.

Babita admits she drove herself sick with worry when she started at Albert Square. She said: "I feel a lot more settled now but at first it was really scary. I was nervous for a long time.

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