Rachel Shenton, who plays Mitzeee in the television series Hollyoaks, adores playing a character so different from her. By Alice Lagnado.

Rachel Shenton, the almost impossibly beautiful young actress who plays Mitzeee in the popular television series Hollyoaks (external link, opens in new window), loves playing the part of a girl who is so different from her.

Mitzeee, the girl who spells her name with three ‘e’s so she doesn’t seem so plain, is a gift of a role.

She’s a sexy, ruthless femme fatale, plotting and scheming her way to the top in the way that women have done so often over the centuries, in literature and in film – except that unlike some of them, Mitzeee (real name Ann Minniver) seems to get away with it.

Down-to-earth

Rachel, on the other hand, is a down-to-earth girl from Stoke-on-Trent who prefers to go without the multiple layers of make-up Mitzeee wears, or her enormous Cheryl Cole blow-dry and skintight clothes.

Rachel, 24, has been involved with charities related to hearing loss for a number of years, and is a qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

That would be hard for Mitzeee to understand. “She couldn’t get her head around doing something for somebody else,” said Rachel in an interview with us. But “it’s great to play someone who is not like you,” she says.

“There are physical similarities but not in terms of character. I don’t dress like her – I don’t like her style,” admits Rachel.

And she and fellow Hollyoaks star Bronagh Waugh, who plays Cheryl Brady in the soap, went make-up free for a photoshoot for Heat magazine earlier this year, to show fans they didn’t need a lot of make-up to look good.

Gumption

Rachel admires Mitzeee’s gumption. “You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity of the girl, she has no shame,” says Rachel.

After all, Mitzeee is the girl who is described as a ‘WAG-Supreme’ and who forms close partnerships with murderous gangsters in order to get her wicked way!

Rachel has strong links to the deaf community because she encountered deafness in her family at an early age. When she was 12 her father Geoff lost his hearing overnight, due to chemotherapy he had for cancer.

Rachel remembers how quickly her father became deaf, and it made her aware of the lack of awareness people generally have of hearing loss.

“I always say it’s so silent and easily missed,” she says. If someone is obviously physically disabled, she says, it may be hard to miss, but hearing loss is less obvious.

Raising awareness

“I’m not sure it’s taboo, but it’s overlooked. It’s awareness that needs to be raised,” she says. People don’t realise that someone with hearing loss is just as capable as anyone else, she says.

“Deaf people can do every job [that there is]. People are quite ignorant.”

If someone sees a deaf person and realises the person cannot hear them, they won’t always make the effort, she says.

“I think people go right, okay, I won’t then, and leave it. It’s easier to turn away.”

We take our hearing for granted, says Rachel. “We take everything for granted. We get very bogged down with life and mundane things. It’s human nature, it’s normal,” she says.

Her father’s experience did make her think again. “It made me take stock and try to be grateful for having my hearing,” she says. “I certainly make a conscious effort to value it.”

After her father died (of causes unrelated to his cancer, which he recovered from) Rachel trained as a BSL interpreter.

Many people find it tough to learn BSL to the level required for interpreting – but Rachel took to it easily.

“I enjoyed it. It was not a chore!” she says. “I got involved in a local charity, Deaflinks, and because I was using BSL a few times a week, and have deaf friends and went to deaf clubs, I found it quite easy to pick up!”

A sense of community

“Getting involved in signing was one of the best things I’ve done. The deaf community is very inspiring,” she says. “There is a sense of community in the deaf community that we [hearing people] don’t always have.”

Hollyoaks is one of the few TV soaps with BSL interpretation. Would Rachel like there to be a deaf character in the soap? “It’s definitely something that I would want.”

It would also be interesting, says Rachel, if a character like Mitzeee was to show she happened to know some BSL, for example, by signing one day.

There could be a character on the show who just happened to be able to communicate in BSL, showing that it’s part of UK culture, without making a big song and dance about it, she says.

And there’s no doubt that this approach can be more effective than heavy-handed messaging.

But Rachel’s quick to be considerate towards the writing team on Hollyoaks: “We have a great writing team here, and it’s not my job [to decide those things],” she says.

Working 9 to 5?

Rachel worked as an interpreter when she first qualified, as well as acting, but that’s not something she can do any more due to a gruelling work schedule. She’s working on Hollyoaks 12 hours a day, five days a week – “it’s very full on,” she says.

But she has no plans to move on. “I’m very happy at Hollyoaks, the storylines are great,” she says.

Hollyoaks is the latest in a line of TV appearances; Rachel first appeared on our screens aged 18 in the medical soap Holby City and went on to appear in Waterloo Road, Doctors and more.

Despite her busy schedule, however, she is making time next year to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) (external link, opens in new window). She starts training in January, which will be challenging on top of her television work, but she sounds very upbeat about it.

In fact, it’s hard not to catch some of Rachel’s sunny enthusiasm and energy when you talk to her. She’s without doubt a fantastic ambassador for the hearing loss cause, and there will be plenty of people hoping she can influence what we see on our television screens.

What do I do if I lose my hearing suddenly?

If you experience sudden hearing loss in one or both ears, see your GP as soon as possible. Unless the problem is just a blockage caused by a wax build-up, which can be removed in some GP surgeries, you should ask your GP for an urgent referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist. This is particularly important if your GP also discovers that you have a perforated eardrum, discharge from your ears or if you are feeling dizzy.

If you cannot see your GP and have severe sudden hearing loss, you should go to your nearest accident and emergency department. It is very likely that the hospital will have an ENT department. An ENT specialist should carry out detailed tests to assess the degree and type of hearing loss you may have. You may need to stay in hospital for appropriate treatment or you may be treated as an outpatient. Write to us for our leaflet, Losing your hearing suddenly, or visit www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/losingyourhearing and scroll down the page to find the leaflet online.

Further information

This article is also published in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine.

If you would like to read more news, interviews and features linked to hearing loss, you can become a member of Action on Hearing Loss.