The estranged family of Mitchell matriarch Nicola (Laura Doddington) will turn up on her doorstep<\/a>, undoubtedly stirring up a lot of drama in the process.<\/p>\n There’s her much-discussed sister Gemma (Patricia Potter, Holby City), who is joined by her husband Ned (Jamie Bamber, Beyond Paradise<\/a>) and their son Ryder (Felix Uff, Amadeus<\/a>).<\/p>\n Gemma and Nicola’s youngest sister Jodie (Anna Constable, Imposter 22) has also been announced, alongside their mother Rose (Marian McLoughlin, Trying).<\/p>\n We’re finally meeting Nicola Mitchell’s (Laura Doddington) family.\u00a0BBC\/KIERONMCCARRON<\/p>\n Radio Times<\/a> has been aware of the clan’s casting for quite some time, and can confirm that there’s huge drama ahead!<\/p>\n They’re the first new family to be introduced during executive producer Ben Wadey’s tenure, and the first overall since George (Colin Salmon), Gina (Francesca Henry) and Anna Knight (Molly Rainford) moved into The Queen Vic<\/a> alongside a recast Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) in June 2023.<\/p>\n Speaking of their arrival, Wadey said: “The Hawkins family are a fantastic addition to Walford. While the family share a fierce loyalty to one another, decades of complicated history and Nicola’s estrangement from them has left fractures within the family that are far from healed.<\/p>\n Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google<\/a> “We\u2019re all very excited for what we have planned for the family, and we can\u2019t wait for the audience to meet them”.<\/p>\n Patricia Potter, best known for playing consultant surgeon Diane Lloyd in Holby City for five years between 2002 and 2007, added: “I am so delighted to be joining this iconic show as part of a new family. What a joy and a privilege to be working with such talented actors and wonderful people. I couldn\u2019t be more excited and grateful!”.<\/p>\n More recently, Potter played the recurring character Jane Fairweather in daytime soap Doctors, and in 2020, she voiced Ella in Henpire, an LGBTQI+ comedy drama podcast alongside Eve Panesar-Unwin actress Heather Peace.<\/p>\n Patricia Potter plays the much-discussed Gemma Hawkins.\u00a0Jamie Thistlethwaite\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Jamie Bamber, who’s credits include Law & Order: UK and Marcella, said: “When 12-year-old me rushed home from school in 1985 to catch the very first episode of EastEnders, I could never have dreamed that one day I\u2019d be walking onto the iconic Albert Square as a character myself.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a privilege I don\u2019t take lightly, and I\u2019m thrilled to be making my mark on this crown jewel of my beloved BBC”.<\/p>\n Marian McLaughlin, daytime soap Doctor’s villainous Marina Bonnaire, shared the same sentiment, calling it an “opportunity [she] never expected”.<\/p>\n Felix Uff called Eastenders a “staple of British culture” and said he couldn’t wait for viewers to see how the Hawkins family “shake things up”.<\/p>\n Anna Constable concluded: “Growing up watching EastEnders I never thought a disabled actress like me could ever land a role like this. But here I am loud and proud and taking no prisoners in mine or Jodie\u2019s wake”.<\/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":"The Hawkins family are about to make a big impact on Albert Square. EastEnders has revealed this morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-552924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nicola](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/572001-f024840-e1785486998980.jpg\" "\\"572001,TITLE:Eastenders\\"")
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<\/p>\n![\"Actress](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1271863257-29ab4f9-e1781912895775.jpg\" "\\"\"Henpire\"")
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