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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Katie Wilson

EastEnders' Aunt Babe is unrecognisable as she teases soap return after Hollywood hits

EastEnders star Annette Badland looked unrecognisable as she appeared on Loose Women earlier this week.

The 72-year-old actress played evil Aunt Babe – the aunt of Shirley and Tina Carter - on the BBC soap from 2014 to 2017.

During her time on the show, her character was involved in some of the biggest storylines, including knowing Shirley was really Mick Carter’s mum, not his sister.

She also encouraged Abi Branning to fake her pregnancy and had a difficult relationship with her sister Sylvie, mainly down to the fact she fancied her husband Stan.

These days Annette has swapped Walford for Hollywood and most recently starred as Mae the Landlady in the award-winning comedy series, Ted Lasso.

EastEnders star Annette Badland looks very different these days (S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

But Annette looked completely different on ITV chat show Loose Women when she joined Kaye Adams, Judi Love, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore on the panel.

She revealed she had ditched her usual blonde hair for a chic white look with a slight wave to it.

And she looked glamorous in a yellow and white patterned shirt during the rare TV appearance -a world away from her rough EastEnders character Aunt Babe.

Annette is now winning awards for her work on Ted Lasso having recently scooped Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Despite her success, she teased she hasn’t ruled out a return to EastEnders at some point in the future.

Annette as evil Aunt Babe in EastEnders (BBC/Kieron McCarron)

Asked if fans would be seeing her as Aunt Babe again anytime soon, Annette replied with her EastEnders catchphrase: “Tina darling!”

She then gave the panel the answer they wanted to hear, which will delight fans too.

Annette shared: “I would go back for a story, but I wouldn’t go for a long journey.”

The actress previously told Radio Times magazine she was “heartbroken” after her character was written out of EastEnders in 2017 when a new boss came in.

She said: “I’d been brought in by Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who said it would be Dickensian and fun, but the new executive, Sean O’ Connor wasn’t as interested in Babe.”

Aunt Babe encouraged Abi Branning to fake her pregnancy (BBC/Jack Barnes)

Annette said although she left EastEnders in 2017, bosses didn’t kill her off so her exit “wasn’t goodbye”.

She continued: “Sean said it was ‘au revoir’ and not ‘goodbye’, but he didn’t want Babe in the pub or on the Square.

“I’d been there about three years and it was my life. It was heartbreaking really. They gave me such an ugly end.”

Sean has since left the soap and Kate Oates has taken over, so old character returns could be on the cards in the future.

*EastEnders airs Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on BBC One

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