EastEnders' star Laila Morse declared bankrupt
Laila Morse, known to millions for her role as EastEnders' Big Mo, has been declared bankrupt.
The star, sister of Hollywood actor and director Gary Oldman, filed a petition for bankruptcy earlier this month. It was announced officially in the London Gazette.
Laila, 68, who was listed under the name Maureen Bass, now makes guest appearances in Albert Square after her regular contract with the BBC reportedly ended last year.
She got her big screen break when she was cast in Oldman's gritty film Nil By Mouth, playing the mother of a drug addict, and later went on to land her EastEnders role.
Laila has a son who has been addicted to heroin for a number of years and in her autobiography, published last year, she told how she would give him money because she could not bear to see him in pain as he craved the drug.
"When he got on to heroin he turned to crime to feed his habit, but I visited him in prison. And when he was out I'd drive him to his dealers and give him money for his next fix because I couldn't see him in agony," she said in an interview when the book was released.
The actress, who lives in New Cross, south-east London, is not alone as a notable figure from EastEnders who has filed for bankruptcy. Former star Martine McCutcheon did the same earlier this year with debts of £187,000.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.