BBC EastEnders Rita Simons set for new role on Hollyoaks

Rita Simons, who played Roxy Mitchell on the BBC Soap as recently as April this year, has reportedly signed up for an as-yet undisclosed part in Hollyoaks and will make her screen debut later this year.

The EastEnders actress quit the soap in 2017, before briefly reprising her role earlier this year.

But she will return to soap acting in the near future according to the latest reports.

Rita Simons is set for a new role in Hollyoaks after appearing on EastEnders earlier this year (Image: Bang Showbiz)

A source told the Sun on Sunday newspaper's Bizarre TV column: “Rita’s new character will certainly ruffle feathers and is set to stir the pot.

"'Hollyoaks' fans can expect plenty of fireworks.”

Rita's EastEnders return this year saw her late character reappear as a figment of her grieving daughter Amy Mitchell's imagination and the actress previously admitted she wouldn't have said yes if she was asked to be "a ghost".

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: "Very clearly, I was asked to go back...not as a ghost. Not as a ghost.

“And I said 'Right, if I'm a ghost, I'm not doing it!' But because it was a figment of Amy's imagination - anything to do with mental health issues, I'm there like a rat up a drainpipe because I'm an advocate - she is having these mental health struggles and it's almost like doing these inner-child work that you do with a therapist. So it's her imagination."

Rita then went on to remind fans that because viewers did not see her character's body after she and her sister both drowned in a swimming pool, there is a possibility that Roxy is not dead after all and could potentially make a reappearance "for the fans."

She added: "I could come back because you didn't see my body. I don't know if I could come back. It's awful because the fans are like 'Please come back!' I did this for the fans, I did this for them and they blew me away last night."