Heather Peace got her break playing TV action girls; fighting fires and leaping around disused buildings with the SAS.

The Bradford actress is currently on our small screens playing no-nonsense English teacher Nicki Boston in BBC1 drama Waterloo Road – and reveals that she will continue filming the popular series once it transfers to Glasgow later this year.

She is also busy showcasing her lesser-known talent of singing. Heather’s debut album, Fairytales, is released next month on her own label, Kaleidoscope Records, and shortly afterwards she will be in Bradford for a homecoming concert.

Fairytales is a collection of self-penned tracks set to acoustic, jazz, gospel and classical arrangements. Raw and painfully honest, Heather’s lyrics reflect difficult relationships and battling demons.

“I wrote it when a relationship was breaking down and I spilled my guts out,” says Heather. “There are some quite dark songs, so the title Fairytales might be misleading, but my favourite fairytales are the Brothers Grimm versions. I think everyone writes better songs when they’re miserable.”

Heather, 36, funded the album through online networking and good old-fashioned live shows. Last year, she packed up her guitar and piano and drove around the country playing 60 shows, and through online Pledgemusic page, offering merchandise, she raised enough to make an album.

“It was a great way of involving the fans and funding things like a string section or gospel choir,” she says.

“I’ve always written songs, but when the acting took off it became something to unwind with after a day’s filming. To have done this on my own is really down to the relationship I’ve built with my fans. They’re brilliant.”

A former member of Bradford Youth Players, Heather started singing in church. “Through a church bulletin, I heard about free piano lessons from a lady called Ireleen Cockroft,” says Heather.

“She taught about 20 kids in her council flat. Piano lessons were expensive, but she taught us for free. She took me through all my classical grades, she was amazing.”

Heather’s album is produced by Oscar-nominated Nigel Wright, who has worked with Madonna and Barbra Streisand.

“I’ve known him for 15 years, from when I was briefly signed by Simon Cowell,” says Heather. A self-confessed “opinionated northerner”, she wasn’t interested in miming other people’s ballads and being told what to wear or say, so she parted company with BMG, but remained friends with Nigel.

“He came to my London show last year and said, ‘This is what you’ve dreamed of – your own sell-out show’. I asked him to produce my album and he agreed.”

A former pupil of St Joseph’s College in Manningham, Heather shot to fame in Nineties drama London’s Burning, as Blue Watch’s female firefighter, then played an SAS sergeant in Ultimate Force.

“I loved doing my own stunts. My mum would say, ‘you’ll be typecast as the action girl’ and I’d say ‘what’s wrong with that?’ There aren’t many women’s roles like that on TV, and I’ve always been a tomboy and into fitness,” says Heather.

Once she hit 30, she found the roles weren’t coming in so fast. “It’s a funny age for an actress because you’re not the romantic lead anymore, but you’re too young to play the matriarch. Casting directors don’t know where to put you,” she says.

“When I wasn’t getting interesting offers of work, I started texting mates asking if anyone wanted any cleaning doing. It was quite a dark time. I just wrote song after song.”

In recent years, she has been in dramas including The Chase, filmed in Otley, and BBC3’s Lip Service.

“I’ve shown that, as a gay actress, I can play both gay and straight roles. It doesn’t matter to me,” she says. “Nicki in Waterloo Road is tough but vulnerable, and there’s a frisson with her colleague, Tom. I don’t think we’re so hung up on sexuality these days. The world has moved on.”

As a child, Heather appeared at the Alhambra in a Catholic Players’ production of The Pyjama Game. Next month she’s at the Alhambra Studio, performing Fairytales. “It’s full of music I’ve always liked – quite theatrical, with jazz and gospel,” she says.

Heather Peace’s debut single Better Than You is released on Monday, April 30, followed by Fairytales on May 21. She is at Bradford’s Alhambra Studio on Thursday, May 31. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.