Bonnie Langford is to joins the cast of EastEnders.
The star, who first rose to fame as a child in the 1970s, is joining the soap as Carmel Kazemi, the mother of Kush one of the soap's new regular characters, the BBC announced today.
Her character is described an Essex girl at heart, and an overly protective mother who loves her children - but has a tendency to embarrass them.
Best known for her stage roles in Chicago and Cats, as well as playing Doctor Who's assistant in the 1980s, Langford said: "I'm so thrilled and delighted to be part of EastEnders.
"I'm a great fan of the show and think the recent 30th anniversary was sensational and shows just how good British television can be. To be part of this family is an absolute privilege."
Talking about her arrival, executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said: "Bonnie Langford is a British institution - and an old-school hard-graft actress gifted at both comedy and serious drama.
"Bonnie brings wit, pathos and a touch of class to Carmel Kazemi - a thoroughly modern Essex divorcee who isn't quite ready to cut the apron strings firmly attached to her son Kush. Even if it means clashing spectacularly with an already prickly Shabnam (Kush's girlfriend)."
She will start filming her scenes this month and will make her first appearance on screen in June.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article