Interview Patsy Palmer: It's like Someone Up There Gave Me a Second Chance; PATSY PALMER IS POSITIVELY BLOOMING, WITH A SECOND BABY ON THE WAY AND AN INKLING THAT SHE MAY HAVE MET MR RIGHT. IT'S A FAR CRY FROM ALBERT SQUARE, AS DAPHNE LOCKYER DISCOVERS

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At first glance Patsy Palmer looks just as she did on EastEnders. The glorious hair still dazzles. The chirpy accent is in place. But these days that's just about all that links her to the ghost of Bianca. Patsy's moved on: to a new TV role, a new man - and a new life.

There is now, of course, The Bump. And what has arrived with it to push away memories of the famously glum, petulant, resentful Bianca is the new smiling Patsy - radiating joy and looking as downright luminous as that stunning marmalade-coloured hair.

Patsy, 27, is expecting her second child in August and even though her own life has been, in its own way, as dramatic, tragic, full of unexpected twists and turns as any soap, she's as serene and content as any woman with a man she loves and a baby to look forward to can be.

The fact that she's so far had a relatively easy pregnancy and clearly adores the father - 35-year-old Richard Merkell - have obviously helped.

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