Eva Pope

Eva Rebecca Pope born 16 November 1967 is an English actress best known for her portrayal of longestserving headmistress Rachel Mason in Waterloo Road and appearances in Coronation Street Dream Team Bad Girls and Hetty Feather Eva Pope was born in Appley Bridge Wigan Lancashire on 16 November 1967 She trained to be an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art graduating in 1988 Popes first major role was playing the villainous Tanya Pooley in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 1993 to 1994 Since then she has made appearances in Cold Feet The Bill Heartbeat Peak Practice as Claire Brightwell Men of the World Holby City Casualty Strictly Confidential Adventure Inc Vincent as Cathy Gallagher Bad Girls as prison governess Frances Myers Life on Mars Sorted Spooks Code 9 and the film Shadow Man From November 2007 to July 2010 she appeared as headteacher Rachel Mason in the BBC One schoolbased drama series Waterloo Road Popes theatre credits include roles in The Comedy of Errors Turkey Time and Hobsons Choice She is a regular performer and was part of the original cast of Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners and in November 2007 appeared at the Théâtre Princesse Grace Monte Carlo directed by Marc Sinden as part of his British Theatre Season Monaco In March 2011 Pope starred as Ellie in the BBC One daytime drama 32 Brinkburn Street She starred in Being Sold the Movie which premiered on 19 June 2011 On 13 August 2011 Eva Pope starred as policewoman Simone Grayson on Casualty in the first episode of series 26 She appeared in the third series of Moving On on 16 November 2011 playing Michelle In 2017 she appeared in Season 20 Episodes 5 and 6 of the BBC forensic drama series Silent Witness as DI Heather Ashton From 2015 to 2020 she played Matron Gertrude Bottomly in CBBCs adaptation of Hetty Feather based on the book of the same name by Jacqueline Wilson In 2019 Pope appeared in Deep Cuts as Bridget McFadden Pope is also a noted voiceover artist whose credits include Raymond Blancs Kitchen Secrets and a number of audiobooks