EastEnders star Michelle Collins likens Cindy Beale to 'panto villain'

Michelle Collins has compared Cindy Beale to a pantomime villain.

The 'EastEnters' actress is excited to be taking centre stage in this year's Christmas special on the BBC soal, with her affair with ex-husband George Knight's (Colin Salmon) son Junior (Micah Labfour) set to be revealed.

Opening up on the appeal of playing Cindy in this kind of plot, she said: "Why do people always like playing the villains in panto? Because sometimes they’re a bit more fun [laughs].

"As an actor playing Cindy, I go through a whirlwind of emotions, so you have to enjoy it a bit and have some fun in between. She is always a challenge."

The 62-year-old star - who first played Cindy on and off for a decade until 1998, before returning in 2023 - described her alter ego as a "very self-destructive" character, but she always wants the storylines to say "believable".

Michelle explained: "She is a complex character to play, she’s very self-destructive and she doesn’t have an off button, but I do think she needs some kind of redemption for the character to be believable. Nobody’s perfect."

Michelle admitted playing someone like Cindy is "every actor's dream", as her storylines are never boring.

She said: "It’s kind of strange because when I first came back people kept on saying ‘when is Cindy going to be bad again?’, and it’s almost like people’s expectations of Cindy are that Cindy is always going to be up to no good.

"That she’ll be up to her old antics, and that a leopard never changes its spots.

"I must admit, it’s every actor’s dream, I think, to play a character like Cindy where even I never know what she is going to be doing from one moment to the next.

"I read the scripts and sometimes I go, ‘Oh gosh, what is she up to now?’ [Laughs] So, it didn’t surprise me when I found out about the affair."