Doctor Who recurring role for EastEnders legend Anita Dobson

One of the most famous faces from EastEnders is playing a major recurring role throughout the new series of Doctor Who which returns on Saturday.

Anita Dobson, who starred as pub landlady Angie Watts in the early days of the BBC soap, has played the mysterious character Mrs Flood in Ncuti Gatwa’s first two seasons as The Doctor.

The Surrey-based actress, who returned to EastEnders as a ghost for the show’s 40th anniversary in February, said of her Doctor Who experience: “I’ve absolutely loved it. It’s been fantastic.

“It was very exciting to come back and know that there’s going to be some kind of climax, and it was good fun.”

Dobson added: “I was absolutely blown away the first time I actually went on set and saw the TARDIS.

“I was amazed. It is stunning, I tell you, the sets are magnificent.”

The 2025 season of Doctor Who stars Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Varada Sethu as new companion Belinda.

Mrs Flood first appeared in Doctor Who in 2024.

The actress said: “She generally is the kind of character that pops in and out, bit like a little animal.

“She is just sort of there, maybe briefly but maybe not, and you don’t know when she’s going to appear or why?”

Russell T Davies, Doctor Who showrunner, told the Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2: “Mrs Flood keeps popping up.

“She lives next to Belinda. She pops up in Miami in 1952. She is 500,000 years in the future.

“How can this be? We can’t say. But there is an answer coming.”

Dobson added: “She’s like a rash. She gets everywhere. A space rash.”

She said: “By the end of this season, you will know a lot more about her than you have up to now.

“You will have much more of an idea what kind of creature or person she is.”

Dobson, who is married to Queen guitarist Brian May, said: “My husband did walk in one day wearing a Mrs Flood t-shirt.

“He said ‘somebody gave it to me’.”

Mrs Flood (Dobson) appears in the audience at an interstellar song contest in a trailer for the forthcoming season of Doctor Who.

The BBC announced on Friday that Eurovision presenter Graham Norton is to star in the same episode.

Doctor Who returns on Saturday 12 April on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer in the UK.