15 January 2024 , 21:17
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As Patsy Palmer prepares to return to Albert Square as Bianca Jackson, one-time wife of hapless RICKAAAY, she warns fans to expect a different character, on and off the screen.
The 51-year-old actress says viewers can expect to see a much calmer Bianca – and a different Patsy from the hard-living party girl she was in the 1990s. It is five years since Patsy was last in EastEnders, and she can’t wait to return.
Now living in Malibu, California, with her husband, Richard Merkell, and four children, she says: “I must admit, when I see people in EastEnders, when I go back to work it is like putting on an old pair of slippers. They are family. I spent more time with them when I was in the show than with any of my own family.”
She landed the role of Bianca Jackson in 1993, cast as the sharp-talking daughter of Carol Jackson, played by Lindsey Coulson, and future wife of the long-suffering Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen). Overnight fame came at a cost. Patsy, who has been open about suffering from anxiety, tells the How To Own The Room podcast : “Looking back now, everything was so much bigger at the time.
“I was very young and we were thrown into the height of fame not realising there were 22 million people watching us. At some moments in all that madness back in the 1990 it would hit you and you would feel so overwhelmed and the anxiety would kick in. If you suffer from anxiety attacks, you don’t know what is happening. For me it was very environmental and about what was happening around me and what was happening in my life at that time. People see all the awards and people think it is glamorous, but it is the hardest work I have ever had at EastEnders.”
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Born in Barnet, North London, Patsy studied at the Anna Scher Theatre school and was a 20-year-old single mum when she got her big break. But she already had her demons having started drinking aged eight and taking cocaine at 13. And after becoming a household name on one of Britain’s biggest soaps, it got worse – until an EastEnders producer got her into rehab.
Patsy Palmer admits she can’t wait to swap her new life in Malibu for a pint in the chilly Queen Vic (Getty Images)
The actress is a favourite amongst BBC fans (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)In her 2007 autobiography, All Of Me, Patsy admitted she had been losing “whole chunks of time”. She wrote: “By my twenties, I was bingeing my life away on cocaine, ecstasy and enough vodka and Laurent-Perrier Champagne to quench a small village’s thirst.”
In the podcast, she says: “Being a performer, it is not for the faint-hearted. Sustaining life as a performer for years, like my whole life since I was six, you need breaks, big breaks. It is a tough job and no wonder so many suffer from anxiety, depression at times due to that level of responsibility that we have to have. It is a big responsibility. I felt like that whole time in my life was massive. It was enormous for me and was I thrust into this character in a soap opera. It was huge. So, yeah, who would be able to cope with that?”
Thankfully, she has since found the perfect work-life balance and is returning to EastEnders only for a one-off episode in the spring. Bianca was last a regular character in 2014. She made a brief return for Whitney Dean’s wedding in 2019 and will now return as a one-off to mark Whitney’s exit.
Bianca and Ricky, played by Sid Owen, became firm favourites on the BBC soap (BBC)Patsy will then return to Malibu, where she has lived for 10 years in a beach house with husband Richard and her children – Charley, 31, from her relationship with boxer Alfie Rothwell, Fenton, 24, Emilia, 22, and Bertie, 13. She admits she pinches herself every morning, waking up overlooking the Pacific. Nowadays, she is all about meditation and wellness and even has her own brand, Good and Proper.
She is also a DJ, travelling to nearby LA each week to perform on the rooftop of the Sunset EDITION hotel. She says: “I do what I want to do now. Living in Malibu is amazing. We live right opposite the beach. I do a lot of meditation and every day is an opportunity to dig deeper into yourself, which is the hardest thing for you to do.
"One thing I would tell my younger self is, ‘Keep the level of joy’. I am 52 in May and I have realised that life is super precious now. We thought we appreciated life 10 years ago, but now it is like, on steroids. I really love my life now and I don’t take anything for granted.”
It's been five years since Patsy Palmer was last seen in Albert Square as fiery tongued Bianca Jackson (BBC)The children are following their famous mum into showbiz. Charley is an actor and had a role in Dunkirk, Fenton has dated Cindy Crawford’s model daughter Kaia Gerber and Emilia is a model. Patsy says: “I try to leave my kids alone. You learn to let them be, really.”
Born Julie Ann Harris, Patsy admits she wears lots of different hats nowadays. But being a mum is most important. She tells comedian and radio and TV presenter Viv Groskop on the podcast: “I do have a few personas. I am Patsy Palmer on TV, which is my acting name, and Julie, which is who I really am. I have the character name of Bianca Jackson, which is a big part of me, and I have got the mum tag – and this person in America who nobody knows about. “But all these personas help me to get to do all this stuff. I am so grateful.”
When she returns to the Square this time, she will have a very different perspective from the 1990s Patsy. She says: “All my work things used to control me, but now I am very much controlled by the most important things.”
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