{"id":892868,"date":"2026-09-12T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892868\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T09:56:11","slug":"eastenders-balvinder-sopal-teases-ash-return-is-grenade-to-the-panesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892868\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders’ Balvinder Sopal teases Ash return is “grenade” to the Panesars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actress Balvinder Sopal has teased the impact of Ash’s return on the Panesars in EastEnders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BBC One soap is set to see Dr Ash Panesar return this autumn<\/a> in a major new storyline for the Panesar family, now played by Sakira Vel in a recast.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Radio Times<\/a> after joining Strictly Come Dancing 2025’s “special” win at The National Television Awards 2026<\/a>, Sopal was asked about the upcoming return of Ash to Walford.<\/p>\n

The actress teased: “Well, I mean, in true EastEnders fashion, there’s gonna be absolute drama, isn’t there? There’s lots to look forward to. We’ve got a really brilliant autumn, with lots of twists and turns, lots of drama, Ashneet coming back.”<\/p>\n

Fans are well aware that the relationship between Suki and Ash can be described as rocky at best, not least because Suki wasn’t always accepting of Ash’s sexuality – which only masked her own insecurities.<\/p>\n

It seems Ash’s comeback will only result in further chaos for Suki and her wife Eve (Heather Peace), who are hoping to adopt foster child Ria Virdi (Aaria Sharma).<\/p>\n

“She’s gonna literally throw a grenade back in the Panesar family household,” teased Sopal. “So, yeah, let’s let it unfold and see what happens…”<\/p>\n

\"Delroy<\/p>\n

(L-R): Delroy Atkinson, Tameka Empson, Balvinder Sopal and Heather Peace pose on the red carpet of the National Television Awards 2026.\u00a0Mike Marsland\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Of course, Sopal has long supported the chance to play out Suki’s darker side<\/a>, which she said was inspired by Aunt Polly Grey from the hit BBC gangster series Peaky Blinders, played by the late, great Helen McCrory.<\/p>\n

When asked if this means we can expect more from ‘Aunt Polly’ Suki, Sopal laughed: “Yes please!”<\/p>\n

\"Heather<\/p>\n

What lies ahead for Suki and Eve?\u00a0BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/p>\n

Sopal’s comments echo those of on-screen son Shiv Jalota on the NTAs’ red carpet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jalota told Radio Times: “It’s amazing. The actress, Sakira, she’s fantastic, and she brings a different energy to Ash.”<\/p>\n

He also teased that Ash’s return will have an impact on “the relationship with Suki and Eve as well”, and that there’s “a lot of drama to come up for that”.<\/p>\n

We can’t wait to see what Sakira Vel does with the role!<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Visit our dedicated EastEnders<\/a> page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers.<\/p>\n

Add EastEnders to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n

Check out more of our Soaps<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide <\/a>to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Balvinder Sopal has teased the impact of Ash’s return on the Panesars in EastEnders. The BBC One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-892868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}