Bonnie Langford has opened up about her reasons for leaving EastEnders.
The actress plays Carmel Kazemi, but she will be leaving later this autumn after more than three years on the show.
Langford suggested that the schedule was a major factor in her decision to depart, telling The Stage that she "needed to do other stuff".
"In EastEnders, you don't know when you are going to be needed," she said. "You are on call all the time and don't know your availability until the Friday before.
"Silly things, like booking a dentist appointment, become impossible.
"That sounds like a stupid thing to have as an issue, but after a while, you don't know where you are. I started to think I needed to come up for air a little bit.
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"I needed to do other stuff, to get out there and feed that other part of my soul. You have to nurture the whole lot. Otherwise, you can't do your job properly."
Related: EastEnders' Bonnie Langford explains why the soap's knife crime storyline is so important
Langford has moved on to the West End, and can be seen in the musical 42nd Street as Dorothy Brock.
Carmel's exit will tie in with the show's ongoing knife crime story, which saw her teenage son Shakil killed in a fatal stabbing back in May.
EastEnders continues tonight on BBC One. Tickets for 42nd Street are available now.
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