Anita Dobson almost missed out on being cast in 'EastEnders.'

Anita Dobson almost missed out on being cast in EastEnders

Anita Dobson almost missed out on being cast in EastEnders

The 75-year-old actress played Angie Watts in the early days of the BBC soap opera and famously appeared in the Christmas Day episode in 1986 when 30 million viewers watched her husband Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) serve her with divorce papers but revealed that somebody else had already been cast before she was drafted in as a replacement.

Speaking on the 'We Start Here' podcast, she told Lacey Turner: "There was somebody else cast to play Angie Watts.

"I came in at the 11th hour or 11th and a half hour really. It was meant to be. I was cast on the Wednesday and I was filming by the Monday. It was very quick, the turnaround."

Anita then admitted that while it was "exciting and scary" to be joining the cast of the new soap - which will celebrate its 40th anniversary on February 19 - she felt as if she knew the character anyway and found her to be a "joy" to play on screen.

She said: "Well, everything that's exciting is scary, isn't it? So, yes, it was scary, but I just felt I knew this woman. I knew her. It was just a joy to play. It really was a gift. I feel very lucky that that happened. It changed my life.

Anita - who is married to Queen legend Sir Brian May - quit 'EastEnders' in 1988, and her character died off-screen more than a decade later but she has gone on to a successful career on stage and screen, having starred in musicals such as 'Wicked' and 'Annie' and recently appeared in 'Doctor Who'.

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