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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Tutton

EastEnders fans sob over Billy's goodbye to dying Lola as cast cry 'real tears'

EastEnders viewers were left in tears during Lola Pearce's penultimate episode, as the character deteriorated ahead of her tragic death on Wednesday night.

The character, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour last year, slipped in and out of consciousness during Tuesday's episode - leading to Jay Brown being told his wife did not have long.

Her family were told now was the time for them to say their goodbyes, resulting in emotional scenes.

One particular heartbreaking moment was Billy Mitchell's heart-wrenching goodbye to his beloved granddaughter, which saw Lola briefly wake up after sleeping for most of the episode.

Ahead of her death, Billy told his granddaughter how much he loved her, calling it unfair that she had to go.

Billy Mitchell's heart-wrenching goodbye to his beloved granddaughter left fans in tears (BBC)

As Billy broke down in tears, along with Jay and Honey, he spoke to Lola and kissed her hand, devastated to be losing her.

In that moment Lola regained consciousness and called out to her "Pops", before telling him that she loved him too.

The sweet moment between the pair, in what could be their final conversation, left viewers heartbroken.

Taking to Twitter, one viewer said: "Billy is breaking my heart. He looks how he feels, it’s written all over him Incredible acting."

Another tweeted: "This Billy/Lola scene smashed my heart into a million pieces. I’m glad Lola’s last words were an “I love you” to her Pops. Damn. Right."

A third fan wrote: "Billy just breaks me man," while a fourth said: "Billy’s goodbye to Lola…" with a series of broken heart emojis.

It comes as Billy actor Perry Fenwick revealed his final scenes with actress Danielle Harold saw him and the cast crying real tears.

Speaking about the "saddest exit" he's ever filmed in his 25-year history on the BBC show, Perry confessed the "devastating" scenes left him in tears.

EastEnders viewers were left in tears during Lola Pearce's penultimate episode (BBC)

Asked if it was the "saddest" exit he had been involved in, he confessed: "Without a doubt. I’ve been on the show 25 years and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, but my last scenes with Danielle were just devastating.

"We’ve been playing this story with the gang, we lose Lola but in real life we lose Danielle. We started off doing this storyline and we all committed to painting a big picture, the euphemism of it being our Sistine Chapel and we had to get every single bit of it right.

"At the end of the hard day, we’d say 'that’s that bit painted, that’s that bit done', and then if Jamie and Danielle were working together and I wasn’t there, I’d text and ask how the painting was going. Jamie and Danielle have smashed it.

"Sometimes we have pages and pages of emotional work and you try and put yourself in a dark place, such horrible places to go to in order to try but sometimes it doesn’t work, so the tear sticks help – no tear sticks on any of this, we knew we wouldn’t need them.

"It’s been hard but the message that it’s put out and for the show, for Chris, for the actors, there are a few who have been on the back bench for a while, it’s a fantastic opportunity to show what we can do."

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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