Danielle Harold to play grandaughter of EastEnders’ Billy Mitchell
By shinychris on June 7th, 2011
EastEnders’ Billy Mitchell is to discover he has a teenage granddaughter. The hapless Albert Square resident, played by Perry Fenwick, receives a shock when he discovers the son he and Julie Perkins (Cathy Murphy) gave up for adoption has a 15-year-old daughter, Lola Pearce.
Played by Danielle Harold, Lola moves to Walford after the pair track her down and discover she is in care. Danielle, who will join the BBC One soap in the summer, is amazed to have landed a role on the iconic show because she has been a fan for a long time. She said: “I am so excited to be joining EastEnders. “It feels strange to be walking round Walford with people I have grown up watching, I still have to pinch myself. “I have watched the show all my life and I never thought that one day I could be in Albert Square.”
She said: “I went on the show because my life seemed to be going nowhere. “I was ill in years 10 and 11 at school and missed a lot of GCSEs and thought it would be a brilliant opportunity to learn. “And it was. It was a fantastic experience and it’s changed my life.”
The 18-year-old actress got her break after appearing in Jamie Oliver’s Channel 4 reality programme Jamie’s Dream School, which saw the celebrity chef aiming to encourage 20 youngsters who have left school without much experience to give education another try.
Danielle won a place at the National Youth Theatre and said the programme “changed my life”.
