Kate Odey, The Sun, The TV Mag - February 10 - 17, 2001.
Lucky Star
A freak accident led Kate Odey to acting.
London's Burning new girl Kate Odey only became an actressafter a terrifying canoe accident wrecked her childhood hopes of becoming a dancer.
Kate was studying contemporary dance at college when she went on a boat trip with friends. She had learnt to canoe in a swimming pool, but when her boat flipped over on a weir she was trapped under water.
"I wasn't strong enough to roll it over," she says. "I damaged my knees really badly trying to get upright. The guy we were with was very experienced and he rescued me. To him, it's probably a little incident he's almost forgotten but it changed a lot of things for me.
"I had to have time off dancing classes and I did a couple of plays and really enjoyed it. My knees were a bit weak so I continued acting.
"I'd been so determined to be a dancer, Then, at 20, I had to rethink my career. Now I can't imagine doing anything else."
Now 28, Kate joins ITV's long running drama as Melissa, a temporary crew commander who upsets Hyper because he thinks Pearce has brought her in to replace him. That's not true - but there is a reason Melissa is at Blackwall that the rest of the crew don't realise.
"She steps on a fewc toes just by being a bit too keen and eager.," says Kate. "And she's one of those people who is good at everything."
It's Southend - born Kate's first big Tv role and, although Melissa is only in seven episodes of the current series, she hopes she will be brought back again in the future.
Kate's following a family tradition as Melissa - her grandad Alfred Gibbs was a fireman in Rochford in Essex during the Blitz.
She says: "He died when I was a teenager but i've seen pictures of him in his uniform. He looked very dashing."
Sporty Kate, who lives in London, loves rock climbing, windsurfing, running and swimming and is learning to scuba dive. Her daredevil attitude has come useful while filming London's Burning.
"We had to do some underwater stuff for when one of the watch is swept away in a pumping station," she says. "It took two days and it was really hard. We were wearing wetsuits plus all our other gear which was soaking and very heavy.
"But I've always been a bit of a tomboy. I like taking risks and getting adrenalin rushes, so it's been great."
