Anita Dobson goes from EastEnders to being a Father Brown murder suspect today: 'Eunice is tough'

Having made the mother of all comebacks in EastEnders this week as Angie Watts, Anita Dobson is now turning up in Friday’s Father Brown.

EastEnders fans were delighted and shocked when after more than 30 years away from the soap Anita appeared as Angie this week as part of the show's 40th anniversary celebrations. Angie "saved" a trapped Sharon by turning up as a vision and telling her not to give up on life.

Now, Anita is guest-starring in Friday's episode of Father Brown. She plays a gutsy ex-Suffragette in Friday's episode of the hit crime drama starring Mark Williams. In the story, "The Deserving Poor", Anita plays Eunice Lytton, who lives in an almshouse — a charitable establishment run by miserly Cormac Thorp (Game of Thrones’ Daniel Tuite) — and is very vocal in her opposition to its petty rules. And when Thorp is shoved to his death from the roof Eunice becomes a murder suspect.

Anita tells What to Watch: "Eunice is tough on the outside but she's quite good fun. Her family were well-off, but she was in the Suffragettes and went to prison as a result of that, so she's fallen on hard times. She makes a point of knowing what's going on with everybody because she's interested and politically motivated. If it looks like somebody's not being treated properly, she's the first to jump up and say, 'This is unjust'. If you need someone to watch your back, she's a good person!"

Father Brown is filmed in the Cotswolds and Anita reveals this is the first time she’s ever been! “Everybody has been saying to me, ‘You must go to the Cotswolds, it’s beautiful.’ But I never got around to it and then this popped up! It is indeed adorable; I fell in love with the area."

Meanwhile, Anita is delighted to have been part of the 40th anniversary celebrations on EastEnders. "It was so lovely. Lots of people that I knew from back in the day are in the show again now and everybody was so kind and grateful that I'd popped back to do that interview, which made it a joy. It was a lovely closing of a circle, having played Angie for so long [1985-1988] to come back at the 40th anniversary and be greeted so warmly."

Anita Dobson's episode of Father Brown season 12 airs on BBC One at 2.00 pm on Friday, February 21. You can also watch the episode via iPlayer. Anita’s EastEnders return is also available to watch now on iPlayer.