There’ll be a big celebration of EastEnders' 30th anniversary on Radio 2 with a special broadcast, Friday Night is EastEnders Night, on this Friday from 8-10pm.
Presented by Bobby Davro, a number of EastEnders cast past and present perform in a recorded show of singing, music and a good old Cockney knees-up at London's Hackney Empire.
Among the singing soap stars is Shona McGarty, who plays Walford's Whitney Dean. She'll be giving a performance of One Night Only, the song made famous by Beyoncé in the hit film Dreamgirls. No stranger to belting out a tune, Shona performed the Sam Cooke hit A Change Is Going To Come on Children In Need in 2012.
You can also hear Tameka Empson’s rendition of Shirley Bassey’s huge hit Big Spender, a song Tameka’s EastEnders character Kim Fox sung recently at the Queen Vic’s eventful karaoke night.
The men of Walford aren’t missing out either, with John Partridge (Christian) performing Nina Simone’s monster hit Feeling Good as well as leading the audience with the Cockney classic The Lambeth Walk. John recently starred in West End musical A Chorus Line at the London Palladium and has had a singing and dancing career for many years.
Another West End performer is Declan Bennett, AKA Walford’s Charlie Cotton, who starred in the musical Once before he arrived in EastEnders. On the Radio 2 show this Friday he’ll be singing the 1981 Dire Straits hit Romeo & Juliet.
The show will end with a rendition of the EastEnders theme tune by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
