As fans of EastEnders will know, actress Kellie Shirley recently made a brief return to the show to reprise her role as Carly Wicks, who subsequently left Albert Square again with her distraught mum Shirley (Linda Henry) in tow.

And since then, Kellie landed a role in new Brit flick GBH, and in an interview with today’s Sun, she’s revealed that she was temporarily blinded after filming one of the movie’s many fight scenes!

In GBH – which goes on general release today – Kellie plays the role of a police officer during the London riots, and one of her scenes is an “upsetting” rape scene.

Of that, Kellie said, “It’s every girl’s nightmare so it was very upsetting to play.

“You see bits of it, but some of is left to the audience’s imagination.

She went on to say that she was injured when her co-star Peter Barrett “clipped” her eye by mistake… Read more & comment »

When characters return to shows such as EastEnders, their comeback is often described as being “explosive” but in the case of Kellie Shirley’s return to the BBC1 drama to reprise the role of Carly Wicks, that adjective was very nearly a literal one!

Speaking to the Sun’s TV Biz, Kellie, who we’ll see back on our screens as Carly on Thursday night, explained how she nearly decimated the set in one of her first scenes.

She said, “I was so excited to make my big entrance back in Walford…

“But when I read the script and it said Carly would drive around Albert Square in a big truck I thought, ‘How am I going to do that?’

“The square is tiny so it’s not easy to manoeuvre a great big truck around it, especially when you are as small as I am…” Read more & comment »

Shirley Carter’s life seems to be one of lurching from one disaster and torment to another, and of course, the latest chapter in the car crash that is her existence has been learning that her stepson Ben murdered her BFF Hev, and that her fiancé Phil helped him cover up the crime.

Jay (Jamie Borthwick) also hid the truth from Shirley, and everyone else for that matter, but it’s Phil’s duplicity that has struck a deeply hurtful chord for Shirley (Linda Henry).

So, in an attempt to find solace at the bottom of several bottles, Shirley is set to embark on yet another booze bender next week, but when a bloke she’s been chatting up turns nasty, Phil (Steve McFadden) is fortunately on hand to sort him out via the medium of a punch in the face, but he of course realises that one day, he won’t be there to save his fiancé… Read more & comment »

Fans of EastEnders will no doubt have spotted that there have been several references of late to Shirley Carter’s estranged daughter, Carly Wicks, and that’s in order that the show’s writers could reintroduce the character when actress Kellie Shirley reprises the role in upcoming episodes.

Carly and Shirley (Linda Henry) have always had an antagonistic relationship, which can be attributed to the fact that Shirley abandoned Carly and her brother Deano (Matt Di Angelo) when they were children, and they were raised by her then partner, Kevin Wicks, who was played by Phil Daniels.

Kevin of course died on New Year’s Eve in 2007, having had an accident in a car that Shirley’s current fiancé Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) sold to him, knowing that it was an unsafe ‘cut and shut’ car… Read more & comment »

Yesterday, Digital Spy reported that the character of Carly Wicks, who is of course Shirley Carter’s daughter, is headed back to Walford, and her return is tied in with the storyline in which Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe) will be revealed as Heather Trott’s killer.

As we’ll see in the episode that airs on August 17th, Shirley (Linda Henry) will finally put together all the clues about Heather’s murder, and subsequently, she’ll find out that her fiancé Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and Jay (Jamie Borthwick) helped Ben cover up his crime.

The revelation is of course set to send shockwaves through the Square, and it’s during this time that Carly – who’s played by Kellie Shirley – will return to Walford… Read more & comment »