EastEnders spoilers - first look at Holby City star Patsy Kensit as Lola's mum Emma

EastEnders spoilers follow.

EastEnders has unveiled the first look at HolbyCity star Patsy Kensit in her new role.

As reported earlier this year, the veteran soap star will be arriving in Albert Square as Lola Pearce’s long-lost mum Emma after learning her daughter has terminal cancer.

Emma left Lola and her father when her daughter was only 3-years-old, so her sudden reappearance at such a sensitive moment is bound to cause fireworks for Lola and her family.

Producer Chris Clenshaw has teased: “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.

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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.”

long-time EastEnders Viewers will remember that, much like her partner Jay Brown, Lola was raised by Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) when her parents were dead or absent.

Kieron McCarron/Jack BarnesBBC

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Kensit will be familiar to soap viewers from playing ward nurse Faye Morton in HolbyCity as well as villainous Sadie King in Emmerdalewith other high-profile roles in Lethal Weapon 2 and Tina and Bobby.

Filming has already started on Kensit’s short stint and she’ll be appearing on-screen in January.

EastEnders airs on Mondays – Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer.

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