Hollyoaks have triumphed at this year’s All About Soaps Awards, bringing home more awards than any other mainstream soap!

The hit Channel 4 soap collected three trophies through public votes, one more than both EastEnders and Emmerdale who received two each, and Coronation Street who just took home one.
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Coming up next week on EastEnders, Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) is anxious and stressed ahead of a court hearing to decide if she can get back custody of her daughter Lexi, who has of course been in Phil Mitchell’s care for the last few months…

However, on the day of the hearing, the troubled teen disappears and for a while, it seems she’s not going to make the court in time. But after a few words of advice from Poppy (Rachel Bright) Lola’s determined to show the court she is fit to look after her daughter.

And as we’ll see on Monday, March 4th, when her social worker Trish tells the judge that Lola’s doing really well in terms of putting down roots and working to provide a stable home for Lexi, things are looking good. Read more & comment »

In tomorrow night’s visit to Walford, it’s a big day for Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) as she has to take the stand and declare to the family court that she considers Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) to be capable of taking care of her baby daughter, Lexi…

However, as you’ll see in the clip after the jump, when all eyes are on her waiting for her to say the words that could ensure Phil gets custody, she’s hesitant.

Will she risk losing Lexi forever by saying Phil’s not fit to raise the little girl? Or will she say she does trust him, and therefore at least her baby will be back on the Square… Read more & comment »

It looks like the baby Lexi storyline currently running on EastEnders may have a happy ending after all, if pictures in today’s Sun newspaper are anything to go by!

Fans of the award-winning BBC1 soap will know how teenage mum, Lola (Danielle Harold) is currently fighting to get her baby back after social services took her into care a few weeks ago.
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In upcoming episodes of EastEnders, we’ll see Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) continuing his fight to get custody of his granddaughter Lexi, who was of course taken into care after social services deemed that the baby’s mother Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) wasn’t capable of caring for the infant properly.

And later this week, after Phil learns that his son Ben – who is of course Lexi’s father – is to be tried for manslaughter rather than murder in the Heather Trott case, he will suggest that Ben and Lola get married, in order to formalize his status as Lexi’s granddad.

But not unreasonably, Lola’s horrified at the idea, given that she doesn’t even want Ben to know he’s Lexi’s dad. And her granddad Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) also doesn’t want Ben to have anything to do with the baby.

Speaking to Inside Soap magazine recently, a show insider said, “The moment Lexi was taken away was the worst time of Lola’s life… Read more & comment »

The BBC has been criticised for how social services have been portrayed in the EastEnders storyline which has seen teen mum Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) being left distraught after her baby daughter Lexi was taking into care by social worker Trish.

Yesterday, The Guardian reported that the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has complained over how social workers have been portrayed in the plotline.

Bridget Robb, the acting chief of the BASW, said, “It is disgraceful to see a publicly funded broadcaster deliberately spreading misinformation about the child protection process because it is too lazy and arrogant to get it right.

“We regularly give advice to programmes about social work storylines – we would like to know who advised EastEnders so badly.

“Social workers have a difficult enough job as it is… Read more & comment »

As we saw in last night’s episode of EastEnders, Lola (Danielle Harold) admitted to Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that his son Ben is in fact baby Lexi’s dad.

Lola made the admission while begging Phil to intervene and stop social services from taking the baby girl from her…

And though there was nothing Phil could do right then and there, as we reported yesterday, he’s set to mastermind a plan to get custody of his granddaughter by becoming engaged to Sharon Rickman (Letitia Dean) in order to show the social services that he’s a fit guardian for the baby.

Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) is of course Lexi’s great-grandfather, which makes for a somewhat complex – not to mention interbred – family tree! Read more & comment »

Walford resident Lola Pearce simply cannot seem to stay out of trouble, despite the fact that she’s a mum to little baby Lexi, and has social services checking up on her every two minutes…

But in a forthcoming storyline, it looks like her antics are going to finally cost her dearly when her social worker takes baby Lexi into care after Lola is once again in trouble with the police.

However, for once, it isn’t actually her fault that she ends up in strife with the law again as it’s a former friend, Alexa – who’s now heading up her own girl gang – who causes the trouble.

Speaking to Soaplife, Danielle Harold, who plays Lola, explained what’s coming up after Lola is arrested again.

She said, “Lola panics. She’s desperate not to lose her baby. Very desperate…”

Danielle revealed that before Lola’s arrest, and when social worker Trish calls round, Lexi has a cough, and she’s unimpressed that Lola hasn’t taken the baby to the GP. Read more & comment »

Our first snippet of EastEnders gossip today is that it seems Syed Masood could be about to fall for newcomer Danny Pennant – who’s played by Gary Lucy – after the city whiz kid makes Syed a tempting offer…

Things for Syed have of course been going awry ever since his shipment of Olympics souvenirs went astray, leaving him with boxes of worthless goods, given that they arrived too late for him to flog the stuff to tourists.

Since then, having made a deal with Janine (Charlie Brooks) to sell her what seems to be a lifetime’s supply of cleaning products, Syed found Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) entirely unsympathetic to his plight – because of course, Janine has done a runner – and as we saw last night, he refused to honour Janine’s agreement.

So now, Syed is well out of pocket, but he’s desperate to keep that fact a secret from his boyfriend Christian (John Partridge) and of course, from his family… Read more & comment »

Last night was of course the big live segment episode of EastEnders, which saw Perry Fenwick as Billy Mitchell running through the Square with the Olympic torch, and Danielle Harold as Lola giving birth to her baby girl, who she’s to name Lexi Billie.

Now, I have to confess to having a touch of the Madame Guillotine about me when it comes to live episodes of our soaps, so it was with anticipation of what might go wrong that I eagerly awaited the live bits…

And sadly, not a lot did go wrong, but there were a couple of gaffes. For instance, Perry had a wedding ring on, which if I’m right, Billy doesn’t. I could be wrong about that one though.

Also, Jamie Borthwick, who plays Jay, could be seen desperately trying to stifle the giggles in the scenes where Danielle was push shoving and heaving Lola’s baby into the world… Read more & comment »

Tonight is the night for EastEnders character, Billy Mitchell, as he is set to relay the Olympic Torch through the fictional borough of Walford and according to Perry Fenwick, who plays the spineless Mitchell in the award-winning BBC soap, he has trained so hard for the episode he thinks he could probably compete in the games now too!

According to the Sun newspaper, the 50-year-old actor says that he has put so much into his training for the once-in-a-lifetime event that if he should fall flat on his face during the live relay in tonight’s episode, it won’t be from lack of practice!
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As fans of EastEnders will know, teen Lola Pearce is going to go into labour as her granddad Billy Mitchell is sprinting through Walford with the Olympic torch…

And in a segment that will air live as Perry Fenwick – who of course plays Billy – runs with the torch, we’ll see Lola having possibly the speediest labour in the history of childbirth, which of course in turn means that Danielle Harold has to play out the birth of Lola’s baby girl, live. And she’s “terrified” about it!

Speaking to Soaplife about the challenging scenes, Danielle said, “I’m terrified! I’d rather have a baby in real life than do this live!”

However, she added, “But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it is nice of them to trust me with it… Read more & comment »

Actress, Danielle Harold, who plays Lola Pearce in the award-winning BBC soap EastEnders, is due to play the second character in soap history to ‘give birth’ in a live special, held for the Olympics next week.

In a seven-minute live segment the actress will take her character through the stages of labour, live whilst her grandfather, Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) is carrying the Olympic torch across Albert Square.
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As fans of EastEnders will know, Billy Mitchell’s granddaughter Lola is heavily pregnant, but the prospect of becoming a mum soon hasn’t calmed her down a whole lot, and in Monday’s visit to the Square, we’ll see her playing a prank on Denise (Diane Parish) that could well backfire on her!

We have a spoiler clip for you, and news of some schedule changes next week after the jump, but first, on the subject of Lola (Danielle Harold) pranking Denise, the bored mum to be pretends to go into labour in the café, and a shocked Denise is just about to call an ambulance – given she thinks Lola’s waters have broken – when Lola reveals a bottle of water she was hiding to carry out the joke.

However, Denise is understandably not impressed, and Lola may regret crying wolf when she goes into labour for real! Read more & comment »

EastEnders star Perry Fenwick – who of course plays the hapless Billy Mitchell – has told Inside Soap magazine that his young co-star Danielle Harold is every bit as “cheeky” in real life as her screen alter ego, Lola Pearce.

Lola is of course Billy’s granddaughter, and Danielle – who recently revealed she’d starred in Jamie’s Dream School – has been in the role since last year.

Perry – who was previously married to former Corrie star Angela Lonsdale – said of Danielle, “She can be a cheeky little so-and-so, can Dan.

“One of the cameramen was talking to me about my role in Mona Lisa (the 1986 film) the other day, and Danielle piped up, ‘Was that in black and white?’.”

However, Perry, who’s also starred in Inspector Morse, The Brittas Empire, Minder and The Thin Blue Line, added that he loves working with Danielle, whose character is currently pregnant… Read more & comment »