Lauren Crace's difficult exit

Friday, 10 April 2009

Lauren Crace says her exit from EastEnders "a traumatic day".

The actress found it extremely hard to shoot her dramatic final scenes as Danielle Jones, where she died moments after revealing to Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Janus) she was her daughter.

Lauren explained: "Those last scenes were very difficult to do, but I couldn't have had a better pair of actors than Sam and Larry Lamb, who plays Archie, to film them with. It was a really traumatic day, and we were all wrecked by the end."

Lauren's co-star Samantha says their tear-jerking scenes were made even more uncomfortable with icy temperatures.

She said: "It was freezing outside, and we were literally blue running around in our wedding outfits. It was dark and the Square was empty, which was really eerie."

Despite the emotionally-charged scenes - which saw the cast in their wedding dresses and suits, as they follow landlady Peggy Mitchell's wedding to Archie - the actresses managed to enjoy themselves.

Lauren laughed: "Rita Simons (Roxy Mitchell) said at one point that it felt like she was being chased by a giant toilet-roll holder with me in my dress!"

Samantha added: "I did spend days in that b****y bridesmaid dress!"

Other characters set to bow out of 'EastEnders' include Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) and Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon), who will leave this summer.

A show source added more cast members will face the sack because of budgets cuts.