EastEnders has revealed the huge secret Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) has been hiding after she returned to the soap on Monday 2nd September – she’s been in prison.

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Within minutes of her first on-screen appearance since 2014, B delivered the bombshell to best mate Kat Moon as the pair woke up together hung over in a cell having been banged up for drunk and disorderly behaviour the night before.

Fretting she would be late to stepdaughter Whitney Dean’s wedding to Callum Highway, an ashamed Bianca admitted to Kat that she had only just been released from jail but refused to be drawn on what she went down for – however, it’s clear that Whitney and youngest daughter Tiffany Butcher have no idea about their mum’s antics and that the whole situation is one big mess.

Later, after the pals had been sprung from the big house, Bianca begged Whit not to walk down the aisle with Callum having discovered he cheated on her with Ben Mitchell – but the raucous redhead was suspiciously quiet when the bride-to-be questioned her right to give her advice when she hadn’t been there for her family in recent months, especially when Tiff was groomed into joining a drug trafficking gang.

So how did Bianca end up serving time?

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Palmer has promised an explanation will be given for her alter ego’s suspicious absence. “Bianca’s got a lot of stuff going on that nobody knows about. Viewers will learn in the coming weeks why she’s been so quiet – it does give answers.”

Show bosses Kate Oates and Jon Sen also teased that Bianca’s brief return – she’s back for around three weeks – is the catalyst for a long-term plot that will play out once she’s departed.

“We have a story that propels after she’s gone,” said Oates, with Sen adding: “It kicks off something long-term for the rest of them. That’s the way soap works best, the constant cause and effect of all these characters that come back from the past and everything kicking off stories the whole time.

“Bianca’s return starts something that will sustain now for the next 12 to 18 months.”

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The iconic ex-Walford resident’s return is just part of a huge week for the show, which also contains the death of at least one character, the resolution of Whitney, Callum and Ben’s love triangle and whether the wedding goes ahead, and another exciting comeback in the shape of Lisa Fowler, who is desperately trying to smuggle pregnant daughter Louise Mitchell and framed lover Keanu Taylor out of the country.

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