Actress Heather Peace is the latest Bradford name to join the cast of popular TV drama Waterloo Road.

Heather, a former pupil of St Joseph’s College, plays Nikki Boston, a teacher with a military background, who adopts a firm but fair policy when it comes to dealing with Waterloo Road’s challenging pupils.

Viewers of the show, set in a Rochdale school, saw Heather’s first appearance this week, when her character applied for the head of English job and was called in for a day’s trial with another candidate.

Heather started out with small roles in Emmerdale, The Bill and Dangerfield before getting her break in London’s Burning, playing the show’s only female firefighter.

She went on to play the first female member of the SAS in TV action drama Ultimate Force and played a deranged mother in Kay Mellor’s drama The Chase, partly filmed in Otley. More recently she starred in BBC Three drama Lip Service.

Heather, who is also a singer, is not the first St Joseph’s College girl to appear in Waterloo Road. Fellow past pupil Sophie McShera was also in the drama. Sophie, who trained at Footsteps Theatre School, Eccleshill, plays kitchen maid Daisy in Downton Abbey.

There has been a long line of Bradford talent appearing in Waterloo Road, which is watched by more than five million viewers.

Darcy Isa, a pupil at Idle theatre school Stage 84, plays amiable Lauren Andrews in the show. Other Stage 84 pupils who have appeared in it over the past eight series include Katie Griffiths from Kildwick, playing feisty Chlo, Scott Kay, Philip Hill Pearson and Nikki Patel, who plays Amber Kalirai in Coronation Street.

Tom Milner, a pupil at Stardom School of Performing Arts in Shelf, appeared in several series as a pupil and Bradford actresses Sarah Jane Potts and Vinette Robinson played teachers.

Waterloo Road is on BBC1 on Wednesdays at 8pm.