Tonight’s visit to Walford will be the last time that we see the brilliant Nina Wadia in the role of Zainab, and as you’ll see in a spoiler clip that we have for you after the jump, her final scenes with Nitin Ganatra as Masood would elicit a tear from a glass eye…

Sobbing, Masood will tell Zainab, “I don’t want this anymore…” as she weeps in his arms, and apparently, those tears were real ones for both Nina and Nitin.

Speaking to the Daily Star recently, Nitin said of Nina’s departure from the show, “I really do miss her…

“We worked together for five years intensely and we had a really good rapport.” Read more & comment »

As we reported recently, actress Nina Wadia announced her decision to quit EastEnders and her role as Zainab Masood last month…

At the time, nobody was entirely sure how Zainab would be written out, and of course, there are only really two options for soap characters when departing, and they are in a taxi or in a coffin!

Fortunately, the former applies to Zainab, leaving us with hope that Nina may one day reprise the role, but alas – for now at any rate – she’ll make her last appearance on Friday.

And we’ll see in tonight’s episode that Zainab and Masood’s relationship is unraveling at lightning speed… Read more & comment »

As we reported recently, Nina Wadia is leaving EastEnders and her role as feisty mum Zainab Masood, and in an interview with TV Times about her departure from the BBC soap, Nina revealed that the death of a close friend proved to be the catalyst in making her decision to go.

Nina explained, “In January 2012, a dear friend of mine, who was my age, fell very ill.

“I went through that with her, and she passed away quite soon after.

“She was one of three people I knew who died last year. It made me realise that life’s very short, and that I have a lot that I still want to do… Read more & comment »

Former EastEnders star John Partridge has revealed that he thinks bosses at the award-winning BBC soap should cast more “hot new gays” now that he and his on-screen husband, Marc Elliot, have left the show!

Partridge, who had played openly gay Christian Clarke for almost five years, made the decision to quit the show when Elliot, who played Syed Masood, left last year.
Read more & comment »

There’s sad news for fans of EastEnders character Zainab Masood as Nina Wadia, who has of course played the feisty wife and mum, has announced that she’s leaving the show.

Having played the role of Zainab for five years, it would seem that Nina is now keen to explore other projects, however, the show’s writers have revealed that they won’t kill off her character so she could return.

Speaking to the Daily Star, Nina said, “Playing Zainab has been a gift and a privilege.

“I’ll always be hugely proud of the talented friends I’ve worked with and I’m so grateful for the special bond with our audience who watch, care and talk to us every day… Read more & comment »

EastEnders star Marc Elliott has revealed that his character’s new love interest will be back to reap revenge!

Fans of the award-winning soap will know how Marc’s character, Syed, has recently engaged in a dangerous fling with Albert Square newcomer, Danny Pennant (Gary Lucy). Despite being in the thick of planning his wedding to long-term partner, Christian (John Partridge) and running the family business into the ground financially, Syed still found time to sneak in a quick snog with the hot new investment banker (in full view of his dad).
Read more & comment »

Ever since Zainab Masood (Nina Wadia) chose evil medic Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti) over kind and loving Masood (Nitin Ganatra) I’ve wanted to shake her and slap her around like a red-headed step-child for her stupidity.

However, once Yusef was out of their lives, via a fiery exit to no doubt an equally fiery afterlife, Zainab and Mas began to rebuild their relationship, and today, it’s been revealed that Mas is set to take to one knee and ask her to marry him again. Wooppeee!

The proposal will be aired on June 5th as the Square celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

However, prior to finding out that Mas wants to marry her again, when Zainab sees him going into a woman’s house, she fears he’s seeing someone else… Read more & comment »

EastEnders star Nina Wadia, who of course plays feisty mum Zainab Masood, has revealed that one of the things she loves most about her character is that she often portrays her venting her spleen at someone…

And in doing so, Nina finds that her own stresses are alleviated, which her husband, composer Raiomond Mirza is apparently quite pleased about!

Speaking to the PA, Nina said, “It’s great because I don’t take things out on my real husband, I take it out on the fake husbands instead.

“It’s quite therapeutic as far as I’m concerned.”

However, therapeutic or not, Nina – who’s also starred in 2point4 Children, The Vicar of Dibley, Holby City, Murder in Mind and Doctors – would quite like her character to have some happiness for a while, given that last year she suffered one trauma after another, primarily at the hands of evil medic Dr Yusef Khan… Read more & comment »

Last night saw the 13^th annual British Soap Awards, and all the stars braved the wind and rain to take their seats for the spectacular event, held at the ITV studios in London, where UnrealityTV were on the red carpet to speak to them all before the ceremony started.

The EastEnders cast were surprisingly sparse when it came to the red carpet event, especially when compared to the huge Emmerdale crew that showed up en masse, but we managed to catch up with some of the Walford residents to clear up some old rumours and get some new gossip!

Read more & comment »

When the Massod family first moved to Walford they lifted some of the grey skies which had set up permanent residence over Albert Square with their humorous and quirky day-to-day life, but since the reign of Doctor Evil they seem to have redecorated their personalities to match the grey surrounding them, and Nina Wadia, who plays Zainab Masood in Eastenders,  now wants the comedy injected back into her alter ego’s life.
Read more & comment »

The PA reports today that both Jo Joyner and Nina Wadia have expressed a desire for their characters to be happy for once!

Jo of course plays Tanya Branning, and Nina plays Zainab Masood, both of whom have been suffering rather depressing storylines for months; Tanya with her cancer and Zainab with her battle to return to normality after the horror of what Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti) put her through.

Beginning with Jo – who revealed that Tanya’s happier now she’s got the all clear over her cancer after an MRI – she said, “I’m doing some happy scenes – about three – it’s been nice.”

However, Jo added that there is yet the issue of Tanya’s troubled relationship with Max (Jake Wood) to be dealt with yet.

She said, “Maybe they’ll get on for a bit and have a nice time. But that wouldn’t be very dramatic or interesting… Read more & comment »

News from Walford way today includes Steve John Shepherd revealing that he loves playing the role of baddie Michael Moon, and Nina Wadia on how she broke down during filming recently.

First, Steve made his remarks about playing devious Michael to the PA when he was asked if his character was going to soften up a bit now he’s going to be a dad.

Steve said, “I think I’m probably just going to be mean to people, which is what I specialise in.”

And when asked if it ever got boring to play “a bad boy”, Steve said, “Not if it’s pretend, it’s fine. It can be a lot of fun really.”

However, as mentioned above, Steve’s EastEnders co-star Nina Wadia – who plays Zainab Masood – doesn’t always find it easy to play a bad-guy type role, and she told viewers of Lorraine yesterday that she recently burst into tears during filming.

Nina was referring to filming the scenes in which her character confesses that she deliberately sent Yusef Khan into the fire at the B&B… Read more & comment »

Ok, calling Christian Clarke the new BFF of Zainab Masood might be pushing it a bit, but as Nina Wadia has been telling All About Soap, in forthcoming episodes, the pair will at least call a truce on their hostilities.

As we reported yesterday, Zainab is about to confess that she deliberately sent Yusef Khan into the B&B when it was on fire by telling him that his daughter Afia (Meryl Fernandes) was in the building.

And of course, Zainab’s son Tamwar (Himesh Patel) then rushed into the blaze too, and suffered horrible burns to his back.

So, when Christian (John Partridge) returns to the Square this week, he finds himself an unlikely shoulder for Zainab to cry on, and in doing so, the rift between them is healed.

Nina said, “She sits with Christian and tells him she wants to be forgiven, and he says that he forgives her for the way she’s treated him in the past… Read more & comment »

News from Walford way today includes the fact that Phil Mitchell’s stalker is getting more and more daring, but will their boldness mean they’re found out and unmasked as the mystery tormentor?

Plus, Nina Wadia – who of course plays Zainab Masood – has revealed that her character would literally “do anything” to ensure the safety of her kidnapped son, Kamil.

But first, let’s go back to Phil’s (Steve McFadden) stalker, whose identity is going to be revealed on Christmas Day…

Ahead of that revelation, which will come in the wake of the deadly fire at the B&B, he or she is going to unleash a new veiled threat by setting fire to the Christmas tree that’s outside Phil and Shirley’s (Linda Henry) house.

And of course, the fact that whoever it is has so frequently been so close to Phil and his family, and has remained unnoticed, makes the hard man more and more paranoid… Read more & comment »

In forthcoming episodes of EastEnders, we’ll see Yusef Khan’s (Ace Bhatti) sinister secret finally come out…

He was the one who started a fire and trapped Zainab Masood (Nina Wadia) in a house in Pakistan years ago.

She had long suspected it was him, but he had previously denied it, claming instead that he’d tried to rescue her. However, when his cousin Tariq (Antony Bunsee) turns up in Walford, he threatens to make it public knowledge that the fire was down to Yusef.

Yusef offers Tariq a worthless bribe to keep quiet, saying he can have the Argee Bargee after he and Zainab are married, but when Tariq learns it actually belongs to Afia (Meryl Fernandes) and Tam (Himesh Patel) he reveals the truth to a horrified Afia… Read more & comment »