New-look Danniella Westbrook returns to EastEnders

New-look Danniella Westbrook returns to EastEnders (Image credit: BBC)

Here's the first glimpse of Danniella Westbrook's return to EastEnders as Sam Mitchell. Danniella quit the soap in 2000 to be replaced by Kim Metcalf as the wayward Mitchell sister. The character of Sam was last seen in 2005 fleeing Walford for Brazil, as a suspect in the murder of Dirty Den. Sam is bound to cause problems upon her return to Albert Square - not least for ex-husband Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) and his ex Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer). Danniella says of her return to Walford: "I'm really happy to be coming back, it feels just like coming home. "I'm really looking forward to working with Barbara, Steve, Sid and Patsy and I'm over the moon to be working with the new boss Diederick Santer." Danniella is due to return to EastEnders in the autumn.

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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.