EastEnders introduces Cindy Beale junior

EastEnders is about to welcome another new Beale in the form of Cindy junior, the child the original Cindy Beale died giving birth to.

Michelle Collins exited EastEnders after her soap superb**** character died in childbirth and her daughter was sent to live in Devon with family. But now the BBC have announced she's moving to Walford.

Cindy junior, played by Mimi Keene, comes to spend the summer on the Square and get to know her family, but little do they know she has no intention of going home to Devon for the start of the new school term.

She may only be 15, but she's already a magnet for trouble and there is never a dull moment when she is around.

EastEnders' executive producer Lorraine Newman said: "Mimi is an exciting addition to the show and a great actress as her previous work has shown. Cindy's a minx, creating a great energy within the newly reformed Beale clan. With Peter, Lucy, Bobby and Cindy to contend with, it'll be a lively household. Ian and Denise will certainly have their work cut out."

Cindy will first appear in EastEnders in August.

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.