Laila Morse is desperate to return to 'EastEnders'.

Laila Morse

Laila Morse

The 72-year-old actress was left devastated when bosses wrote her alter-ego Maureen 'Big Mo' Slater out of the soap at the beginning of last year without any warning, but she has admitted she'd really like to reprise her role and thinks it would be a huge hit with viewers if she returned with Kat and Alfie Moon (Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie).

Speaking to Inside Soap magazine, she said: "I had no idea that would be the end of it. Really and truly, I never left! I think I'm with Kat and Alfie in Spain right now, helping them with their kids. But there was no party of anything like that when I left - and that's after 16 years in the show! ... I hope they bring us all back - I loved working on 'EastEnders'."

Laila - who is the sister of Gary Oldman - now lives in Los Angeles and can't believe how many people shout at her in the street and ask her when she's returning to the show.

She explained: "It doesn't matter where I go, people say: 'Why aren't you in it? When are you coming back? We miss you!' I've been in LA thinking: 'No one will know me here.' And someone suddenly shouts: 'Oi, Mo!' ... The best thing about our Slater lot is that it doesn't matter if we've seen each other a month ago or a year ago, it always feels like it was yesterday. That's the way it is with true friends."

Meanwhile, Laila is focusing on her health as she was told three years ago by doctors that she was on the borderline of having a heart attack because of her smoking habit.

She said: "I smoked for 50 years, but three years ago my doctor told me my cholesterol was so high that I was on the borderline of having a heart attack of a stroke. I left his surgery, binned my cigarettes and went to buy an electronic cigarette. After two weeks I ditched that too and I've never been tempted since. And that was three years ago."

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