Could EastEnders' Mandy be a rival to Janine?

Returning EastEnders character Mandy Salter is set to rival Janine Butcher as the femme fatale of Albert Square, according to Nicola Stapleton who plays her. Nicola - who is back in the show after a 17-year absence, told Inside Soap magazine that there could be fireworks between Mandy and Janine when they see each other again. "There could be a clash!" she said. "Those two haven't seen each other for so long, but I think there'll be a bit of sniping. "Charlie Brooks is brilliant, so I hope to get some good stuff for us both," Nicola added. And Nicola - whose alter-ego will re-appear in the show when she bumps into Ian Beale outside a strip club - said that she had kept in touch with cast members during her time away, including Sid Owen who plays Mandy's former boyfriend Ricky. "I've always kept in touch with Sid," she revealed. "We were in Bad Girls together when he played Donny Kimber, a prison guard who had an affair with my character. "And I still see Sean Maguire, who played Aidan, when he's in London. He works in Los Angeles, but I bumped into him at a casting recently."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.