EastEnders child star unrecognisable as she makes BBC return nearly 20 years after axe
EastEnders star Shana Swash is best known for playing feisty teen Demi Miller, having been axed from the BBC soap back in 2006 - however, the child star is back in Stacey and Joe
Shana made her mark as Demi Miller between 2004 and 2006 on EastEnders (Image: BBC)
The final episode of Stacey and Joe airs tonight on BBC One, with fans checking in on Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash’s famous family at Pickle Cottage one last time this series.
However, there’s a treat in store for EastEnders fans – with Joe’s former co-star and famous sister Shana Swash also making an appearance.
In tonight’s episode, Joe invites his family over for dinner while Stacey is in Lake Como for work – and they soon open up about his parenting style. Being interviewed on camera, Joe’s sisters Shana and Casie speak about how their brother Joe juggles his brood of four kids and two stepsons.
“Joe is almost on the level of the children,” Shana says, while Casie adds: “Yeah 100%. But that’s what’s great about him. I think that’s why our children love him as well because it’s fun. He’s like that all the time and if he tries to be strict, it doesn’t really work.”
Shana Swash with her sister Casie on Stacey and Joe
For Shana, her Stacey and Joe appearance marks her first return to BBC One since she took on a guest role in Doctors back in 2018. It’s almost 20 years since she left EastEnders, having played Demi Miller from 2004 until 2006. She joined the soap aged just 14, overlapping with her brother’s time on the show as her character’s older half-brother Mickey Miller.
Joe appeared on EastEnders as Mickey from 2003 until 2008, returning briefly in 2011 and then later 2024 ahead of the soap’s 50th birthday celebrations. While Joe stayed on EastEnders two years after his sister, Shana and her co-star Gerry Cowper were axed from the soap by producer John Yorke in 2006.
“Gerry and Shana have been enormous assets and go with our best wishes,” a spokesperson for EastEnders said at the time. Shana went onto quit showbusiness and set up a coffee stop with her carpenter partner, Nick Jones.
In December 2023, the couple welcomed their first daughter – Kitty Frances-Swash Jones. Since Shana’s time on EastEnders, she has appeared in guest roles on After You’ve Gone, Doctors, Top Boy and film Love Without Walls. She also stopped by All Star Family Fortunes, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! NOW!, Your Face or Mine? and Loose Women over the years.
Stacey and Joe’s show has been a huge hit with fans (Image: BBC)
The first series of Stacey And Joe launched in April and followed the couple and their children, as well as their ducks and two dogs, during their day-to-day life at their Pickle Cottage home in Essex.
Across six episodes, viewers watched Stacey, 35, win a National Television Award (NTA) award for her reality show Sort Your Life Out, and Joe grapple with his ADHD diagnosis.
Joe and Stacey have been together since 2016 after they met in 2010 when Stacey was competing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Joe was co-hosting the spin-off.
The couple, who married in 2022, are parents to Rex, who was born in 2019, Rose, born in 2021, and Belle, born in 2023. There is also Zach (Solomon’s first son with ex-boyfriend Dean Cox), Leighton (Stacey’s son with ex-fiance Aaron Barnham), and Harry, Joe’s son with ex-fiance Emma Sophocleous.
Stacey and Joe airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
