EastEnders newcomer Molly Rainford has made a shock revelation about explosive mum twist scenes. The Anna Knight actress has only just joined the soap but she is already at the centre of one of its biggest ever storyline.
However no-one actually told her. Or at least no-one told her until the last possible moment.
Viewers know that Anna and her sister Gina are the daughters of Walford legend Cindy Beale. The sisters think their mum was Rose Knight and simply abandoned them.
However fans have been let into the secret that Cindy walked out after the death of her daughter Lucy. It was years after she was placed in witness protection and given the new identity of Rose.
Cindy is currently living in France with ex-husband Ian and their surviving son Peter. And while Ian knows the sisters and dad George are in Walford – Cindy does not.
The explosive twist was revealed to viewers last month in a special episode. It saw Michelle Collins make her comeback after 26 years away.
EastEnders star Molly Rainford ‘kept in the dark’ about Cindy twist
However one person who didn’t know who was playing her mother was Molly. She has opened up about how bosses kept her in the dark until the last possible minute.
She told Inside Soap: “I literally found out the same week that the viewers did! We had our inklings, and we were all trying to guess, because they did say that there was someone coming back to be our mum.
“We only met Michelle a couple of days before her episode aired. It felt like the Knight puzzle had been put together, and Michelle was just really cool – she’s so iconic in EastEnders. It just felt as if this was going to be something really special.”
EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw recently explained how Michelle’s return had been a year in the planning. He told press: “We started talking about it well over a year ago.
“Once we started to look at the story, we had to make sure it was credible. She was dead but we didn’t see a body, so it was making sure that that worked.
“People will question how [Cindy and Ian] are back together, we all know she tried to kill him. It’s been 25 years and a lot’s changed.
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“Cindy’s a bit of a different woman now. She’s been through this whole other life with George (Colin Salmon), Gina and Anna and not be able to tell them who she really is.
“George and Cindy were together for 15 years, before the past nine years, so there’s a lot of history there. She’s not quite the same woman.”
EastEnders usually airs weeknights at 7.30pm on BBC One.
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