EastEnders Executive Producer Ben Wadey added: “I’m delighted to welcome the immensely talented Ronni Ancona to EastEnders playing the character of Bea.
“Bea’s character is mysterious, and we’re thrilled to have an esteemed actress and comedian like Ronni playing her.”In scenes aired on Wednesday night (January 7), Linda decided to go through with attending her school reunion after debating all week whether or not it was a good idea. Kellie Bright’s character has been dealing with the return of her child Annie’s father Max Branning in recent weeks.
Honey Mitchell agreed to accompany Linda to the event, but were stunned to learn that they had to wear name tags when they arrived. In order to get Honey in, Linda slapped Bea’s nametag on her pal.
However, the jig was up when the real Bea was there and listened to Linda talking negatively about the time they spent together during their school days.
“She was more to hang out with the teachers’ type, one of them. She was obsessed with these little crochet birds on her bag. I think she named them Herbert and Delilah. Looking back she was a bit odd,” Linda said.
Honey later shot herself in the mouth by giving a dramatic performance in front of Bea, who left her stunned by revealing who she was. With the characters preparing to make a quick exit, Honey decided to apologise to Bea.
However, Bea revealed that she and Linda weren’t actually friends and that the fan favourite character was actually a bully back in the days where she began dating Danny Dyer’s Mick Carter.
“I’m flattered that Linda remembered me, her lot used to only give me the time of day to mock me. Some things never change,” she noted.
EastEnders fans watching the episode at home rushed to X, previously known as Twitter, to have their say on an extremely entertaining first outing for the soap’s newcomer Ronni.