[cheeky_monkey]

EastEnders' Lacey Turner: 'Stacey Branning return was a no-brainer'

EastEnders star Lacey Turner has admitted that returning to the show was an easy decision.

The actress has reprised her role as Stacey Branning after three years away and upcoming episodes of the soap will see her return to Walford after her cousin Kat Moon spots her from a bus and attempts to track her down.

Speaking about her return to the show, Turner heaped praise onto executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and revealed that it was him who encouraged her to return to the role.

Turner said to the Radio Times "I'm such a massive fan of Dominic's. He was a huge part of Stacey's writing. So when he came back to EastEnders and asked me to return, it was sort of a no-brainer.

"I trust him with Stacey's life! To get the chance to work with Dom again - I didn't even really need to think about it.

"I had a great time exploring how other places work. Everything is a lot slower and there's a lot more rehearsal time. But I prefer the way we do things at EastEnders: doing 14 scenes a day and working at a pace. That works better for me."

Turner also revealed that she was overcome with nerves the night before she returned to filming, worrying that she had forgotten how to play Stacey.

She said:"Before I started filming again, I was pacing around my flat thinking, 'What if I've forgotten what she's like?' Then I got to work and I was shaking doing my first scene.

"After that, it was okay because Stacey just sort of came out! It helped that my first scenes were with Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie. We always have such a laugh and Shane's so funny."

Turner also admitted that she would like to see the return of Stacey's mum Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) and her uncle Charlie (Derek Martin).

She said:"Having scenes with the Slaters is my favourite thing, though. It would be great if we could get Derek Martin and Gillian Wright back. And I'm just loving playing Stacey again - you don't know what she's going to do next.

"She could react to something calmly or she could blow up in your face. You just don't know. She's an unlucky rebel with a massive heart."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2...o-brainer.html