EastEnder handed honorary doctorate

7:18pm Friday 18th July 2008

EastEnders soap star and former drama teacher Pam St Clement has received an honorary degree - in education.

The 66-year-old actress, who has played Pat Evans in the soap for more than 22 years, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Education from Plymouth University.

St Clement, who grew up on a Dartmoor hill farm, qualified as a teacher at Rolle Teacher Training College in east Devon.

She joined hundreds of students from Plymouth University at one of a series of three degree ceremonies at Exeter Cathedral.

Before the ceremony she said she originally wanted to be a vet, but failed Latin, which was required for the profession. So she went to Rolle College and qualified as a drama teacher, but realised by the end of her finals she was interested in performance.

"I did teach drama at secondary level in London very briefly, then went to drama school," she said.

Of her long career in EastEnders she said: "It is almost like having a doppelganger - my life is going along, and the other character's life is going along."

She said of her character: "I just put it on like an old sock on a daily basis."

But she added: "As far as my desires are concerned I have always said I think there is a lot in the character to go. I think I would like to go on exploring it while it interests the audience and while it interests me."

She said she did not have any regrets about not following a career as a teacher. "I do not think I was a good teacher, so I do not think I was a loss to the profession."