DC Eva Sharpe   played by Diane Parish

First appearance    # 012 (02/05/02)     

DC Eva Sharpe, in her early thirties, was a Londoner through and through. She quickly made her mark at the station by being a feisty and instinctively good detective. Instantly popular amongst all her colleagues, Eva was warm, loud, funny and quick-tempered. She may not have been the brightest academically, but she had a courageous streak and was good at sussing people out. She enjoyed the station gossip, but was never malicious about it - it's just that talking was her thing.

Eva and her husband, an Environmental Health Officer, had two young children. A straightforward working class girl, Eva didn't worry about all that 'having it all' and 'work versus family' nonsense. She just got on with things. She'd always been aware that her colour was an advantage within the force. She knew full well that it got her into CID - and told anyone who cared to listen. One of the main reasons Eva joined the police was because she was savvy enough to realise which way the wind would blow - and she reckoned, rightly, that she could benefit. The flipside was the racism she encountered from both colleagues and public alike. Eva handled this with characteristic directness - she didn't let anybody away with anything.

Whilst Eva was a lively addition to CID, she was popular with uniform too, and knew the valuable contacts they could provide her with. Cut from the same cloth as DCI Meadows, she didn't suffer fools gladly. She liked order, so she liked law - and she was determined to make her mark at Sun Hill.

And make her mark she did - that was until she clashed with new DI Neil Manson. The two never quite saw eye to eye on matters - policing or personal. His attempts to have her transferred were tempered by DCI Meadows who arranged for Eva to join MIT.