Bianca Jackson Butcher (Patsy Palmer)

[sindydoll]

bianca is great i love her character! always have and always will (ricky too)

Me too She goes down as one of my favs of all time

[Kim]

I quite like Bianca really, and I thought she would get on my nerves a lot. Love Tiffany; winding Zainab up, classic! She was sooo cute saying she wanted Wellard. Loved the way Whitney got him for her too.

[Perdita]

Next week sees the culmination of one of 2008's most hard-hitting EastEnders storylines when Tony's (Chris Coghill) true intentions towards his step-daughter Whitney (Shona McGarty) are revealed. As her 16th birthday dawns, Whitney prepares to start her much-anticipated new life with Bianca's (Patsy Palmer) fiancé Tony, completely unaware of his true motives. Frustrated, Whitney comes clean with her step-mum Bianca. Here, DS chats to Patsy Palmer about the sensitive storyline and a potential trial for Tony.

What's been the most upsetting thing about this storyline for you?
"I think it's the fact that you can't open the papers anymore without seeing situations like Whitney's been going through. Everything's so harrowing and there are so many reports of these kind of incidents. I think the other upsetting thing is that women like Bianca are so vulnerable - the fact that men like Tony can go into a family a groom a child. I then start to think about the story we didn't see. It's just really sad that women like Bianca find themselves in such a vulnerable position as to be manipulated so quickly without knowing it."

Which scenes were the most difficult to portray?
"The confusion Bianca feels during the reveal episodes had to be the most difficult. For me, I almost didn't want to play the confusion. I just wanted Bianca to get a knife, go into protective parent mode and go straight for Tony's throat!"

In a nutshell, how does the revelation come about?
"It's Whitney's birthday and she thinks she's going away with Tony to Spain. She's getting ready for their trip, but there are all these obstacles for her to overcome, like her present from Bianca and the children. Whitney feels a huge loyalty to her family. Because Bianca's a mum who's always out working, Whitney's at home almost bringing them up as her own. As an audience, we know that Tony's going nowhere with Whitney and it's at that point she decides she's had enough and tells Bianca. At first, I think she tells Bianca to spite Tony. She doesn't realise the enormity of the situation. When Bianca goes downstairs and looks at the picture of a younger Whitney - I really didn't like that. Bianca then hears them in the bedroom talking about what's been going on. It's lucky really because they could have fallen back into his trap again."

How does Tony react?
"He tries to do the thing that these kind of people do and manipulate Bianca and say that the whole situation with Whitney's a lie."

Does Bianca blame herself for everything?
"Yeah, she does really. Because of everything that's happened, she thinks she was never a good mum in the first place."

How did you portray the 'torn' emotion that Bianca was feeling?
"That's the thing about playing the mum - nobody really thinks about the mum in these kind of situations. They think about the child, quite rightly, but there is a family around the child that's going through it all and it must be so difficult."

Does it upset Bianca when Whitney starts trying to track down her real mum?
"Yeah, it's brilliant that they've brought this part of the storyline in straight away, that Whitney's trying to find her real mum. Obviously she's so confused about who she is and what's been going on. Selfishly, Bianca feels a bit betrayed, though."

Would you like to see this storyline come to a head by going to trial?
"Yeah, it'd be really good. Surely it's got to? I haven't even thought about that, to be honest. It'd be great to see it play out in the court, how Whitney deals with the court process and how it affects the whole family."

Is it hard to believe that children and unassuming parents find themselves in these kind of situations?
"Yeah, I'm fortunate that I've never experienced anything like this in my life or in my family and I think I'm a very fortunate person in this day and age because unfortunately, when you look at the statistics from the NSPCC, too much of it goes on - and they're only the incidents we know about. What about all the undetected cases?"

[Perdita]

Last night, I attended EastEnders' Christmas screening and this year, there's a mix of emotion, high-drama and comedy, including the Mitchell/Slater paternity revelation, Jim's return, Suzy causing havoc in The Vic, little Tiffany singing Christmas carols, Heather needing a good ol' Xmas dinner and Bianca struggling to come to terms with her situation in the wake of Tony's betrayal.

Over the coming weeks, I'll have 'Enders interviews with Larry Lamb (Archie), Charlie Brooks (Janine), John Altman (Nick Cotton) and Rob Kazinsky (Sean). For now, though, here are some additional quotes from my recent interview with Patsy Palmer.

Here, Patsy talks Shona McGarty, Chris Coghill, Ricky and Bianca and what's to come (sort of) in 2009.

What's it been like working with Shona and Chris?
"Chris is fantastic. He came in and felt like he was doing a service to people in this situation. He's such a great actor. I feel very blessed that I've been able to work with him on this storyline. And Shona - I love her to bits. We have a really good bond with each other. I'm quite protective over her as an actress, too. She plays the role brilliantly, you really see the little girl in the character."

Do you think Bianca and Ricky are destined to be together now?
"They'll always be destined to be together. The longer they keep them apart, though, the better. It shouldn't always be Bianca being horrible to Ricky, though. He really loves her! A few little twists along the way would be good. Bianca gets jealous really easily. He's the love of her life."

What can we expect from Bianca in 2009?
"Well, I'm not allowed to tell you this really, but Brad Pitt's coming into the show and she's going to have an affair with his character! No, in all seriousness, the storyliners really do bring in some fantastic twists when you least expect them. Just when you think it's all over… "

[miccisy]

To be honest when Bianca came back into the soap i thought oh no its gunna be crap but i must admit this storyline is one of the best of this year and in all honesty i hope that the storyline takes Tony to court. I know in one of the other threads it says that he is supposed to get murdered but i hope that the soap will do it properly and show that you cant get away with it. Why does he need to be murdered? In a way its kind of the easy way out.

[Perdita]

He gets arrested and I don't think that Tony would be released on bail with this charge against him and therefore I don't think he will be murdered. Would like to see the court case against him, that would be educational to see what happens, if they keep it very real.

[miccisy]

I agree. I hope that they take him to court and show the pain a family must go through when doing this. To show what Whitney feels. You have to remember that she loves Tony and doesnt think hes done anything wrong. How will she react having to come face to face with him and give evidence against him. How will Bianca and the rest of the family cope.

Will the rest of the family be affected? When things like this happen it is usually the case that the other children in the family can be tormented/bullied at school or somewhere about the situation. Will this happen? How will the rest of the family react when they realise that social services come in to investigate whether he has done this with little Tiffany and has been grooming Lauren.

How will the rest of the square react? Will they blame Bianca for not realising. Will Max blame Bianca cos something could have happened to his daughter?

Will Tony ever admit what he has done?

These are all different things that EE's should show and portray when doing the scenes. I hope they do this storyline justice with a great ending.

[Perdita]

The rest of the square is going to gang up on Lucas, questioning him allowing Tony to work at the youth centre, so the storyline is not going to stop until a possible court case. I am sure that they will use this opportunity to bring a lot of characters to life.

[Siobhan]

I can understand why they would be annoyed at Lucas for employing Tony but on the other hand if Lucas had done a search on Tony's background he would have not found his paedophile ways... I think that is a bit un-fair.. everyone was taken in by Tony so Lucas shouldn't have to face this on his own

[Perdita]

I am not sure though whether Lucas waited for the CRB check on Tony to come back. It might not have shown any paedophile issues but the fact he beat up a youngster should have and then Lucas should not and might not have employed Tony.