EastEnders star Marc Elliott, has revealed the reason behind his decision to quit the award-winning BBC1 soap was for fear for being remembered as, and stereotyped for future roles, as just a gay Muslim.

Marc, who joined the cast of EastEnders as the confused eldest Masood son, Syed, back in 2009, has just filmed his final scenes for the show, which will air next month.
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It’s been reported today that Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) is set to capitalize on the grisly history of Albert Square by starting up Murder Tours, which will see the enterprising landlord taking visitors on a tour of the murder hot spots around the Square…

And of course, that includes the scene of Walford’s latest murder, that of Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison).

Alfie will, according to The Sun, take morbid visitors to the flat where Ben (Joshua Pascoe) of course saw Heather off on her journey to the great KFC in the sky via the medium of smack on the head with a photo frame.

Of the plotline, which will air in October and particularly on Halloween, a show insider said, “The backroom staff had a lot of fun planning this one.”

And there’s a very lot of gruesome There’s Been A Murdherrrr fun to be had around Walford, given how many residents have met an untimely end on the Square, either through foul play, illness or accidents… Read more & comment »

Channel 5 do love their quick turnarounds; two days after former woman Luke Anderson won Big Brother it’s already time to dust the house a bit for the celebrity version. Though the surprise of who goes in is often spoilt it’s still a fairly entertaining prospect to see these has-beens and never-weres interact with each other.

Talking of being past your sell-by date, Brian Dowling is for some reason still hosting this show, despite essentially shouting his way through the introductions and not waiting for answers to the questions he asks I honestly think Dowling has compromising pictures of Richard Desmond that’s the only reason I could think of to continue to employ someone to do a job that they’re no suitable for. Read more & comment »

As fans of EastEnders will of course know, Cheryl Fergison was written out of the show earlier this year and her role as hapless Heather Trott…

So for those of you who’ve been missing seeing her on-screen, there’s good news today as it’s been revealed that she’s been cast in a new sitcom that’s been penned by Benidorm creator, Derren Litten.

Cheryl – who’s reportedly also going into the Celebrity Big Brother house this year, and who recently appeared on a Celebrity special of Come Dine With Me which you can see by clicking here – tweeted the news to her followers yesterday.

She wrote, “Fab derrin litten yes he of benidorm is writing a new series and i am lucky enough to be playing a character in it ..gonna be fab (sic)… Read more & comment »

Channel 4 have recorded a Celebrity Come Dine With Me special featuring former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison, dance pro Lionel Blair, the fossilized remains of Keith Harris and his puppet Orville and reality TV ‘star’ Kerry Katona.

And as Kerry – despite frequently declaring she’s broke – has recently spent £8,500 on liposuction, when she saw that a breakfast fry-up was on Cheryl’s menu, she elegantly declared, “I’ve just had a tummy tuck I can’t be eating this s***!”

She added, “This is a lot of fried food, it’s not good for my belly this.”

However, rather ridiculously, Kerry’s own menu included fish and chips with a pudding of ice cream.

A friend of Kerry’s – yes, apparently she has one, though paid or unpaid hasn’t been revealed – told the Daily Star, “She was really stressed as she is a useless cook.

“She can barely boil an egg and always lives on ready meals. So she thought she’d keep it simple and made her favourite dish, fish and chips… Read more & comment »

A report earlier this week in The Sun claimed that while she was grocery shopping, Cheryl Fergison – who of course recently left EastEnders and her role as hapless Heather Trott – parked in a spot designated as parking for disabled drivers, however, via Twitter, she’s denied the story.

She also commented on the picture that the paper’s snapper took of her, which, as you can see is not a very flattering one.

Cheryl tweeted, “Whilst shopping last sunday. now for one thing I was told that it was no longer a disabled bay and for two that is one thing i hate myself. (sic)

“The pics as ever are very bad and are meant to make me out to be some miserable disabled bay nicker.

“But obviously i would not and did not set out to do this. So it seems to me the crime i really commited was to look fed up whilst shopping…” Read more & comment »

Cheryl Fergison only hung up her tabard a few weeks ago in the role of Heather Trott – who was of course murdered by Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) but she’s already lined up her next job as a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother.

And according to TV Biz, she’s set to land £175,000 for starring in the show which is due to air over the summer.

Loose Women panelist Denise Welch of course won the last Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5.

Of signing Cheryl – who last year she married Moroccan toy boy Yassine Al-Jermoni who is 20 years younger than her – to go into the house, a source close to the show told the paper, “Her character of downtrodden Heather is so different from the actual actress.

“Cheryl is hilarious. She’s got a really great sense of humour and producers wanted to sign her up the minute she was written out of EastEnders…” Read more & comment »

Cheryl Fergison, who of course played the role of Heather Trott in EastEnders, is to star in panto – as is former Emmerdale star Danny Miller – this Christmas playing the role of the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Central Theatre in Chatham, Kent.

Of the role, Cheryl said, “I’m thrilled and I’ve heard that the Central Theatre and Medway audiences are brilliant, so it’s going to be loads of fun.”

And the pantomime’s producer Paul Hendy added, “Cheryl will go down a storm.”

When it was first revealed that Cheryl was being axed from EastEnders, she told the media that she was “upset” at the news, but later, she agreed with the show’s bosses that it was perhaps best to end the character’s run before the viewers became “bored” with her.

However, later, when Cheryl filmed her final scenes as Heather, she was again upset that the show’s bosses called in a stunt double to film the moments when Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) felled Heather with a photo frame… Read more & comment »

The Daily Mirror reports today that the bosses of EastEnders refused to pay for a leaving party for Cheryl Fergison – who of course played Heather Trott – as she was two months shy of a five-year “service period” which is apparently the minimum requirement to land a free do.

The paper adds that several of the show’s stars were infuriated by the penny pinching, particularly given that Cheryl’s character was killed off, which she was upset about.

A show insider said, “Cheryl was weeks away from the five-year point and it just smacks of pettiness.

“People feel she was shoddily treated. She was well loved and upset at being killed off so many thought it was the last thing they could have done.”

However, it seems Cheryl’s co-stars were not so stingy and “clubbed together” to give her a send off party.

And of her final scenes – and the party afterwards – which she filmed around eight weeks ago, Cheryl said, “I did my final scene and the studio filled with people… Read more & comment »

EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has revealed that when she filmed her final scenes as hapless Heather Trott, she had to run back to her dressing room so she could cry in private.

In an interview with Best magazine, Cheryl also said that she’d been both shocked and saddened when she learned her character was to be axed.

However, Cheryl also revealed that on the same day she learned she was being ditched from EastEnders, her husband, Yassine Al-Jermoni, was granted a visa to live in the UK.

Of that, Cheryl said, “It was a bittersweet day. What you get with one hand, you get taken away with another.

“When they told me Heather was for the chop, (the boss) had to get me a tissue. Sometimes a character is sacrificed to make other stories work. I get it… Read more & comment »

As fans of EastEnders will know, Cheryl Fergison bows out of the show and her role as Heather Trott next week, and her co-star Linda Henry – who plays Heather’s best friend Shirley Carter – has revealed that she thinks nobody could have played the role as well as Cheryl.

Linda made her remarks during an interview for the upcoming BBC3 hour long special, EastEnders Revealed: The Murder, which airs next Thursday at 8pm.

She said, “The public took to [Heather] immediately. It could have been a one-dimensional role, but Cheryl has brought so many different layers to Heather.

“I don’t think there is anyone who could have played Heather like Cheryl…” Read more & comment »

As fans of EastEnders will know, in next Monday’s episode, poor old Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) will meet her end at the hands of Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) and his dad Phil (Steve McFadden) will help his son hide the evidence that he’s a brutal killer.

Things go fatally wrong for Heather when Ben confronts her in a rage, believing she told the police that he lied about his dad’s involvement in Stella Crawford’s death…

As Heather denies everything – and Jay (Jamie Borthwick) tries to calm Ben down – the nutcase teen will grab a photo frame and hit Heather over the head with it.

A horrified Jay can only watch as Heather falls and hits her head on a kitchen worktop. She then falls to the floor, fatally injured… Read more & comment »

As fans of EastEnders will know, Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) is about to meet her maker, thanks to psycho Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) who is set to murder the hapless launderette worker…

But in scenes which we’ll see on Thursday, March 22nd, when Heather’s BFF Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) hears the news that Heather’s dead, she’ll collapse sobbing into Phil’s arms.

But what she doesn’t know is that Phil (Steve McFadden) helped Ben cover up the evidence that he’s a killer.

A show source explained that Shirley will find Heather in a pool of blood, and will call the emergency services.

The insider told the Sun, “It’s a terrible scene for Shirley, who cannot believe what has happened… Read more & comment »

When hapless Heather Trott is murdered next month, the first person the police look at is her fiancé, Andrew Cotton (Ricky Grover) who’s already shown he has a tendency towards violence…

And of course, there have been hints that he’s done something terrible in the past, but we don’t as yet know what that is.

But the real murderer is Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) and his dad Phil (Steve McFadden) will help his son to cover up the evidence that he killed Heather in a fit of rage.

A show insider told the Daily Star, “Heather’s murder is the next really big storyline coming up – and it’s going to be huge.

“Everyone was desperate to keep the fact that it’s Ben who kills her under wraps because it’s all pointing towards Andrew… Read more & comment »

News from Walford way today includes the revelation that soon to be departing EastEnder, Cheryl Fergison, has told Inside Soap magazine that she’d love a role on Downton Abbey.

And in forthcoming episodes, we’re going to see that teen troublemaker Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) is doing her best to thwart her dad Ian’s marriage to Mandy Salter. More on that in a moment…

But first, Cheryl – who of course plays Heather Trott – who told the magazine,
“I’d really love to be in Downton Abbey. Before I got EastEnders I used to do lots of ‘under stairs’ roles…

“But perhaps I could go upstairs this time and prance around a bit. I’d love to do all that.”

And of leaving the show – Heather is of course set to be murdered by Ben Mitchell – Cheryl said, “I’ve loved being here and every minute of playing Heather… Read more & comment »