Taking to the stage, but it's no pantomime...

Patsy Palmer insists motherhood beats any acting role

It's the time of year when most actors turn their hand to a stint in pantomime, but not so for one former Eastender who will be treading the boards in an altogether different role.

Patsy Palmer left the soap in 2000 and has gone on to have a number of successful television roles including the drama McCready and Daughter, and two factual programmes one about Battersea Dogs Home and another about her native east end of London.

Patsy Palmer will be live on Breakfast just after 0830 GMT.

She's also made a return to her Albert Square role of Bianca in an Eastenders' special that went out last May but is now about to play Cherry in the hilarious play The Night Before Christmas.

Set in a faceless toy warehouse somewhere down South where Gary sells his dodgy gear. An elf is caught attempting to break in.

He's phoned his friend Simon to come and help him decide what to do, along with a local prostitute - cue Patsy as cherry.

Patsy as Cherry in The Night Before Christmas

They have long lost the joys of Christmas and need some convincing that the elf is real. However when the elf reveals he can grant each of them a wish they decide not to call in the police.

It is Christmas Eve after all - when even the most cynical and hard boiled of characters might be persuaded to believe in a little bit of magic.

It is one of the delights of this drama that, like the characters in the play, the audience find themselves pulled between cynicism and wanting to believe in a Christmas miracle.

This sideways look at Christmas is underpinned with an authenticity that we recognise and appreciate. Who hasn't railed against the materialism of modern Christmas? Who hasn't yearned to glimpse the festive season through a more innocent eye again?

Motherhood

Having trained 2 evenings a week at the Anna Scher Theatre School, Patsy has worked hard to combine her stage and television work with the important role of being a mum to three children.

She fell pregnant at the age of 18 with her first son Charley and now has two more children by her husband Richard who she married in 2000.

Patsy says she likes being a mum, "You either like it or you don't... people say I'm mad having another one, but there's no reason why you can't carry on working and have a normal life?"

And referring to her role in Eastenders, she says it has given her financial security and was quoted as saying that she wouldn't mind making the odd return appearance, but family life now rules out a permanent return to the show that was her big break.