EastEnders introduces Lisa Hammond as feisty market trader, Donna Yates

EastEnders has cast former Grange Hill actress Lisa Hammond as new market trader Donna Yates, who's destined to fall out with Kat and Bianca.

Loudmouth Donna is ready to do anything and take on anyone to be top dog, but is her ruthless and confrontational streak hiding a deeper fragility?

Lisa Hammond said: “I’m really excited to join the cast of EastEnders. It’s a great opportunity to be a part of such a big and popular show. Donna is a bit of a handful, but they’re always the most fun characters to play! It feels good to be bad!”

Lisa’s previous TV roles includes Psychoville, Bleak House and Max & Paddy’s Road to Nowhere. She began her career in Grange Hill when she was 13.

Dominic Treadwell-Collins, EastEnders executive producer, said: “Donna’s not an easy character to like at first. She’s flinty, aggressive and difficult. As we get to know her better however, we will discover a funny, loyal but also fragile woman underneath.

"Lisa is a brilliantly comic and sharp actress and we’ve been trying to get her into the EastEnders cast for a long time - so I’m delighted that it has finally happened.”

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.