Patsy Kensit is to join the cast of EastEnders for a “short stint” to play the role of Emma Harding, mother to Lola Pearce.
The actress, 54, is reported to have already started filming for the BBC One soap and is due to appear on screen in January.
She previously appeared in Emmerdale as Sadie King and Holby City as Faye Morton, a role which she reprised in 2019 for the show’s 20th anniversary, having left in 2010.
Kensit, who sang with the pop group Eighth Wonder in the 1980s and also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, said: “I’m so excited to be visiting Walford for this storyline.
“It has always been a dream of mine to appear in EastEnders. The cast, producers, writers and crew have been wonderful, and I’ve had a ball. Thank-you so much for having me.”
Emma left Lola and her father when Lola was three, and has not been seen on screen before.
EastEnders executive producer Chris Clenshaw said: “We’re delighted to welcome the wonderfully talented Patsy to the EastEnders family.
“She’s the perfect fit to take on the role of such a long-awaited character that we know very little about.
“Softly spoken and measured, on one hand Emma is the very opposite of her long lost daughter Lola.
“But on the other, there’s a striking resemblance; successful, the capacity to hold her own – if she says she’ll do something, she’ll do it – and she’s a fighter, just like Lola.
“Having spent a lifetime apart, Emma becomes desperate to make up for lost time, but her secret sadness and guilt are never far from the surface.
“The burden of losing her daughter has never left her, but can she find the courage to tell her shocking truth and reconnect with Lola, or will it come too little, too late?
“Patsy’s portrayal is bound to set off fireworks in Walford and cause havoc for the Mitchell household.”
Actress Danielle Harold played Lola, the granddaughter of Billy Mitchell, between 2011-2015, returning again in 2019 to the present, and has previously been at the centre of hard-hitting storylines including a teenage pregnancy.
More recently viewers saw Lola at the centre of a brain tumour storyline, which also saw the soap working alongside Brain Tumour Research and Macmillan Cancer Support.
