Leigh: EastEnders love to be beside the seaside

Eager bystanders packed seats outside the Crooked Billet to soak up the atmosphere and catch a glimpse of the stars.

Ricky and Bianca, alias Sid Owen and Patsy Palmer, spent an afternoon shooting scenes in the old town as part of an exciting storyline featuring Bianca's family.

The two were joined by baby Liam for a short walk along the sea wall before taking a seat opposite the pub, and going on to the Osborne seafood cafe.

Other characters including Bianca's mum, Carol Jackson, and her screen brother and sister Sonia and Robbie will also feature in scenes filmed around Southend.

More than 70 crew members have been shooting the soap throughout the week at a number of locations including the pier, seafront and town centre.

Patsy Palmer said: "Filming has been going really well. It has been fairly quiet as we haven't had that much to do, so I took time out to do a bit of shopping this morning.

It is quite nice down here, especially along the seafront and the weather's been good."

Sharon Hanley, a spokesman for EastEnders, said: "We chose Southend because it is the nearest seaside resort to the East End. It is usually the place where people go in the programme for a weekend away or holiday.

"We could not come to Southend and not go on the pier, so we shot some scenes down there but it was a bit windy.

Carol Jackson will make a return to the soap with new boyfriend, hunky Dan Sullivan who will appear on our screens shortly.

Parents of baby Liam, played by five-month-old twins, Jack and Thomas Godolphin, were on set to see their babies in action.

Dad, Mike, 30, from Bognor Regis, said: "Patsy is great with the boys. They only film a couple of times a week and they are never kept waiting very long.

"These will be some of their first scenes and we will be taping them all so we can show them when they are older."

Borough council tourism chief Mike Pressling welcomed the filming as another feather in the council's hat in its bid to increase leisure and tourism.

Viewers will be able to see the episodes during the week beginning Monday June 21.

Cockneys and cockles - Sid Owen and Patsy Palmer, better known as Ricky and Bianca, take in the sea air

Pictures: STEVE O'CONNELL Factfile

The EastEnders' cast have been regularly visitors to Essex with Leigh-on-Sea a favourite holiday destination, often mentioned on screen.

The EastEnders last visited Leigh and Southend in 1992, when Pauline, Arthur, Mark and Michelle Fowler took a well-earned seaside break from their traumas.

Peter Pan's Playground was among the Southend landmarks prominently featured in the show.

The Fowlers' first on-screen visit to Leigh was in 1985, when the family came down in search of teenage runaway Mark.

The only permanent set inside the Elstree studios is the Queen Victoria. Every other set, including the upstairs in the pub and the cafe comes apart and is put into trolleys

There are usually about 36 main characters during the soap at any one time. If a cast member leaves, a new character is introduced shortly afterwards

EastEnders attracts an average of 15 million viewers per episode. The highest number was around 22 million when Den served wife Angie divorce papers one Christmas day

The set at Elstree is the biggest permanent TV set in Europe

Actor Ross Kemp, who plays Grant Mitchell, usually gets the most fan mail with an average of 250 letters per week

l Tough man Phil Mitchell has had the most partners in the soap with seven, including wife Kathy, a Romanian, Grant's wife Sharon and a number of one-night stands

In the winter, the cafe is used to make tea and coffee for everyone filming outside in the cold

Actors work on average five days a week but can have to work every day, from 8am to 10pm depending on the size of their role in the current storyline

Jonathon and Paul Ross's mum, Martha, is a regular extra, playing the part of a market stall holder

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.