EastEnders cast news 2012

Plus Sam Womack reveals heartache of family secrets in Who Do You Think You Are?

We’ll begin today’s EastEnders cast news with Jo Joyner – who of course plays Tanya Branning – who’s revealed that when her character first meets returnee Sharon Rickman, they don’t get off to the best of starts!

They meet after Phil takes Sharon round to Max and Tanya’s while he goes and explains to Shirley why he had to rush off to help his former mistress.

Sharon of course comes back to the Square on what should have been her wedding day, so when she arrives at the Branning’s house, she’s still wearing her bridal suit…

So the ever helpful Max – ever helpful when there’s a pretty blonde in need that is – offers Sharon some of Tanya’s clothes.

However, Tanya has no clue about any of this, so when she walks into the house and sees Sharon in her gear, she’s a tad put out!

In an interview with What’s On TV, Jo explained, “We definitely start things off a little bit ropey.

“They start off definitely a bit rocky, like anyone would with Tanya if they’ve been found in her kitchen with their husband, especially someone as gorgeous as Tish [Letitia Dean, who plays Sharon]… Continue reading »

Plus, Sharon will have a romance with Jack Branning & Ian Beale freaks out when he sees a portrait of Heather and Shirley!

As fans of EastEnders will of course know, Letitia Dean is coming back to Walford and her role as Sharon Rickman. We’ll see her for the first time on August 13th when a distress call to her former lover Phil Mitchell sends him running off to her aid…

More on that in a moment, but first, the show’s producer, Lorraine Newman, has revealed that the show’s bosses have been trying to entice Letitia back for a year.

Speaking to the Daily Star, she said, “It took a year of negotiations and talks to get Letitia back on the show.

“In the end we convinced her and it’s great having her back.

“She’s got some big things coming up and we’re all very excited.

“Obviously we’ve got the return of Bianca and Carol and their brood to look forward to this autumn and with Sharon now in the mix we’re very happy.”

Letitia was of course in the very first episode of the soap back in 1985 as Dirty Den and his wife Angie’s adopted daughter Sharon Watts. She’s since left and returned to the show several times.

It’s also been revealed by the Star that Sharon will have a steamy romance with Walford bachelor Jack Branning, and that she’ll set up a friendship with Tanya Branning, although they’ll initially get off on the wrong foot… Continue reading »

Plus, Shirley finds out Ben’s a killer! See spoiler clip and the official trailer for Shane Richie’s new film, The Reverend!

As fans of EastEnders will doubtless know, Sharon is headed back to Walford after she calls in her old mucker Phil Mitchell to help her out of something of a tight spot…

Said tight spot being that on what should have been her wedding day, her fiancé has not only legged it, leaving her at the altar, but he’s also kidnapped her little boy!

Sharon’s son is of course the child she conceived with her non-blood related half brother Dennis Rickman, who was murdered by a hitman hired by gangster Johnny Allen.

He died not even knowing Sharon was pregnant. Awww.

However, the BBC have revealed that Sharon returns to the show during the week of August 13 which is also when Phil’s world begins to fall around his ears as his girlfriend Shirley uncovers the truth about who murdered poor Heather… Continue reading »

Plus, Michelle Ryan rules out a return to Walford, and see spoiler clip from tonight’s episode

Making EastEnders news today is the happy report that Jessie Wallace is “so in love” with Tim Arnold that according to her friends, she may well consider marrying him, if he pops the question of course.

Jessie – who plays adulterer Kat Moon – has of course faced her fair share of heartbreak over men, and just last year, she ditched her fiancé Vince Morse on the morning of their wedding day after reports surfaced in the press that he was sending explicit emails to his former fiancé.

However, Jessie met Tim – who is Polly Perkins’s (Rose Cotton) son and June Brown’s (Dot Cotton) godson – at the Soap Awards in April this year, and the pair are reportedly “inseparable.”

A pal of Jessie’s told the Mirror, “She had her heart broken into a million pieces and vowed she’d never marry.

“But she’s fallen so in love with Tim that the path is very much clear for her to walk down the aisle.

“Everyone hopes she’ll wed again. She’s a great girl who deserves happiness, and Tim’s lovely.”

In other news, Michelle Ryan has ruled out a return to the show and her role as Zoe Slater, which has of course finally quelled the rumours that she’d be back… Continue reading »

Plus, Ken Barlow’s former mistress Wendy Crozier headed back to the Street, and Chelsea Halfpenny on Amy’s fight scenes

We’ll start today’s look at soapy news with former EastEnders star Barbara Windsor, who reckons that if she ever went back to the soap – which she hasn’t ruled out – she’d expect the younger members of the cast to behave better than they apparently do now!

Branding the soap’s younger cast members as “undisciplined” and “mobile phone obsessed” Barbara told the Daily Mirror that the show’s bosses should discipline cast members who are late or distracted on set.

While discussing her return to the show in 2005, Barbara said, “Everybody was late or everybody was talking on their mobiles.

“I don’t like that but the governors are not so strict now. It’s a generational thing. It was difficult.

“It was not their fault as it starts at the top. If they are not taught it then it is not there.

“A lot of the young stars have not had to work their way up.

“If you are on EastEnders, you can go into Tesco and everybody knows you. I used to tell them off.”

Barbara also revealed that while she was still on the show, she fell out with Jessie Wallace, who of course plays Kat Moon, for her accusing her poor timekeeping… Continue reading »

Plus, Emmerdale’s Steve is glad Zak’s no longer a violent man, and Corrie’s Brooke Vincent says Sophie won’t go straight!

We’ll begin today’s round up of soapy news with the report in today’s Daily Mail that Jacqueline Jossa’s father has been sentenced to four years in prison for the theft of half a million pounds.

Jacqueline, who of course plays Lauren Branning, reportedly wept as she sat in court to hear her dad John plead guilty to three offences of dishonesty or tampering with expenses during his time as head of finance at Enfield Council.

The paper reports that 58-year-old John “siphoned off” £491,088.35 into his own bank account between 2006 and 2010, £42,000 of which was in false wage payments to his wife, who he pretended worked at the council.

However, he lost most of the money to scams, and only £25,000 was recovered when Enfield Council launched legal proceedings against him.

Judge Nicholas Cooke at the Old Bailey told John that he had, “embarrassed the vast majority of hard working…government employees” with his “criminally distorted thinking.”

Judge Cooke added, “In addition to being fully dishonest, he’s a fool… Your offending will have real consequences to local residents in terms of reduced services or a decline in payments for those that live in the area.”

Moving on to Emmerdale news now, and Steve Halliwell has revealed that he’s glad that his character, Zak Dingle, is no longer the violent man he was before he had his breakdown… Continue reading »

Plus, see behind the scenes video of Kim and Ray’s EastEnders paintballing scenes, and Val faces the wrath of Jacob in Emmerdale!

We’ll begin today’s soapy news round up with the report in today’s Sun that Corrie cab driver Lloyd Mullaney is going to meet the daughter he didn’t know he had later this year!

However, it hasn’t been revealed who’s the mother of the girl, but we can rule out a surprise baby with Lloyd’s ex Cheryl because the paper adds that the show’s bosses are currently auditioning actresses for the role of mum and daughter.

Of the shock news of Lloyd being a daddy, a show insider said, “Lloyd hasn’t been in touch with this woman for a while, and then she waltzes in and announces that he has a daughter.

“The news will knock Lloyd for six. His reaction will be pretty explosive.”

And on the subject of things being explosive, we saw in last night’s EastEnders how Kim Fox managed to redeem some street cred by steering her team to victory in a paintballing session, having spent most of times screaming in fear of the paintballs… Continue reading »

Plus, Nikhil’s certain his Emmerdale baby is a boy and see EastEnders newbie David Witts in on-set video

We’ll start today’s soapy news round up over in Weatherfield, where of course, Leanne Barlow is about to reignite her relationship with restaurateur Nick Tilsley, to whom she was once married.

The pair of course also had an affair in 2010, just before Leanne was to marry Peter Barlow, but he of course found out about the affair and called the wedding off.

However, after the devastating tram crash, when Peter thought he was dying, he wed Leanne in the hospital. But they are of course now separated and Peter is with Carla.

But as mentioned, Leanne and Nick are to become an item once again, however, as Jane Danson who plays Leanne has revealed, the future is far from settled for her character.

Speaking to the Sun, Jane said of Leanne, “Well, after everything that’s happened with Simon and Peter, Leanne is just craving stability and a normal family life – and I think she sees this as an opportunity to get that.

“Nick has got his business, he’s got a secure place to live, and he loves her… Continue reading »

And EastEnders bosses say Shona McGarty isn’t leaving!

We’ll start today’s soapy news round up with Emmerdale actress Natalie Anderson – who plays Alicia Gallagher – revealing that she’s expecting a baby boy!

Natalie announced the news of her pregnancy a few weeks ago via Hello! magazine, for whom she posed for the above photo, and she revealed her son is due to be born in August…

And of how she’s preparing herself for the baby’s birth – given this is her first baby – Natalie told the Daily Star that she’s obsessively watching C4 hit show, One Born Every Minute, which of course follows the stories of women in labour.

She said, “We found out a little while ago that we’re having a boy but we haven’t come up with any names yet. We want to wait and see what he looks like [first].

“I’ve been watching One Born Every Minute. I’m obsessed with it, but it’s really starting to freak me out.”

But when asked how Alicia will be written out of the soap while Natalie’s on her maternity leave, she wouldn’t say, stating only, “I’m really pleased with the exit they’ve come up with in Emmerdale. All I can say is that it involves David.”

Over to Coronation Street now, where tonight, Eileen Grimshaw and Paul Kershaw are set to face the harrowing death of Paul’s wife Lesley.

As we’ve seen in this week’s episodes, Lesley has once again been staying at Eileen’s after she wandered off from the care home she was in. But the arrangement has all been too much for Eileen – especially as her longed for holiday had to be cancelled – and she told Paul she wanted to break up with him.

However, he shocked her by telling her that he intends taking Lesley back to the care home, then getting a divorce from her so that he and Eileen can begin a new life together as a married couple.

But fate is set to step in wearing hob nailed boots tonight when, having forced Eileen to flee her house when she turns violent, Lesley collapses and dies in Eileen’s house…

Inevitably, after the events of the week, and as a confused Lesley had called the police to falsely accuse Eileen of hurting her, suspicion about Lesley’s demise immediately focuses on Eileen.

And what’s worse for Eileen is that even Paul seems to doubt her word that she wasn’t in the house when Lesley met her death.

Don’t miss that drama starting tonight!

Finally today it’s over to EastEnders, where within minutes of my publishing this article, Digital Spy reported that the show’s bosses have denied that Shona McGarty is leaving the soap.

A spokesman for the show told DS, “There is absolutely no truth in the report that Shona has quit EastEnders.

“Shona is a great singer and this is perhaps something that she would like to pursue in the future.

“However, she is really happy at EastEnders and has no plans to leave the show.”

Hmmm… well, we’ll keep you posted on how that pans out.

More soapy news soon!

Plus, Jasmyn Banks says Derek Branning has “a lovely” side! Really?!

EastEnders is in something of a meltdown right now, what with viewing figures dropping week-on-week and half the cast taking extended leave from the show…

So things are probably not about to be helped by Shona McGarty, who’s told the Daily Star that she going to leave the show.

Shona, who plays Whitney Dean, is the real life girlfriend of co-star Matt Lapinskas, who, it was revealed yesterday, has been axed from the show and his role as Anthony Moon, so it does seem a tad coincidental that Shona’s decided to go now.

However, she told the paper that she wants to leave to begin a career in music.

She said, “I love Motown music and singing has always been a passion of mine.

“It’s a real dilemma as I love acting but I also want to sing.

“I want to do something with music. It’s a risk but at least you can say you’ve done it.

“I really love EastEnders so it’s going to be hard to make the break.”

In addition to the show losing Shona and Matt, as mentioned above, several of the show’s big names are taking long breaks from the soap, including June Brown, Charlie Brooks, Jo Joyner and of course, Patsy Palmer and Lindsey Coulson.

Jessie Wallace, who plays Kat Moon, has been off for three months, but she’s headed back shortly. However, both Adam Woodyatt and Steve McFadden will be taking time off at Christmas to star in panto.

And in fact, Adam has time off coming up soon, as it’s been revealed today that as part of a forthcoming storyline about mental health issues, his character Ian Beale is going to disappear from the Square for six weeks after he has a nervous breakdown.

A show source told the Mirror, “Viewers have seen Ian become increasingly frantic whilst trying to juggle his desperate financial affairs as well as many problems within his family.

“His state of mind gets progressively worse over the next few weeks, with Ian disappearing from Walford and his family frantically worried.”

The paper adds, “Bosses on the BBC show worked closely with mental health charities Mind and Time to Change so the storyline would be accurate.”

Jenni Regan of Time to Change said of the plot, “We hope an accurate portrayal of what it’s like to have a mental health problem, showing this can happen to anyone such as a businessman or family man, just like Ian, will help eliminate the stigma and taboo around the issue.”

Finally today, in news from Walford way – yeah see, this is why they pay me the big bucks, for that kind of creative genius – newbie Jasmyn Banks has told All About Soap magazine that her character, Alice, is set to bring out “a lovely side” in villain Derek Branning.

Of Derek – who’s played by Jamie Foreman – Jasmyn said, “He really wants a relationship with Alice, which is lovely.

“She thinks he’s a nice guy who cares about his family.

“She makes him work to be part of her life, though. He has a lot to do to prove himself.”

And of Alice’s forthcoming introduction to the rest of the Branning family, Jasmyn said, “She has no idea they even exist! They’re an added bonus.

“It’s a lot to take in – she gets to Walford and suddenly discovers there’s this huge family she’s a part of.”

And of course, we can expect some high drama during that meeting!

More ‘Enders news soon!