Ex-EastEnders Star Pam St. Clement Admits Killing Off Pat Butcher Was 'Probably For The Best'

EastEnders legend Pam St. Clement has admitted her character Pat Butcher being killed off was “probably for the best”.

Copyright [ITV/Supplied by WENN]

The 74-year-old actress portrayed her chain-smoking alter-ego for 26 years and was left disappointed when show bosses decided to give her a tragic pancreatic cancer storyline.

Despite her initial disappointment that the death of Pat would mean she couldn’t return to Albert Square, Pam reprised her role recently for Barbara Windsor’s final scenes as matriarch Peggy Mitchell, and she now believes the producers got it right to kill her character off.

Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, she said: “It’s all done and dusted now, that (being killed off) was probably for the best. I think if you do drift back then it dilutes the character a little bit. It’s the old adage leave the audience wanting more.”

Copyright [BBC]

In May, Barbara said goodbye to her iconic soap character Peggy in emotional suicide scenes which saw Peggy see Pat - who was killed off in 2012 - as a hallucination before she took her own life to save herself from a death from breast cancer.

Pam admits it was just as emotional for her and Barbara, 78, to shoot the sequence as it was for viewers to watch on BBC One.

She said: “It was very emotional afterwards, we both had a little tear drop, saying goodbye to Barbara as Peggy was … well I couldn’t turn that down.”

Copyright [BBC]

Pam was wary about returning to the role for Peggy’s exit, especially considering Pat was dead, but executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins assured her it was going to be integral to Peggy’s decision to take her own life.

The veteran actress explained: “I did now that Dominic was keen to get Pat back but there was no way - I’d died on screen, that made it difficult. But Dom worked at it, Barbara presented him with the fact that she wanted to go out with a bang.

"He thought, ‘She wants to take her own life, she needs someone to help.’ Phil (Mitchell) couldn’t do it as it wouldn’t fit his character. Dom came up with the perfect idea. He was like, I know, 'She’ll get strength from her old friend.’ ”