The BBC has told EastEnders fans that new star Paul Nicholas will play a "villain like no other" in the soap's history.
Nicholas has been cast as Gavin Sullivan, the husband of returning character Kathy (Gillian Taylforth).
Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said: "If everything works out, and I hope it will, Gavin is going to be an EastEnders villain like no other.
"He's going to be modern, complex, and have a little foot in the past and a foot in the present."
Taylforth is due back on screen later this summer.
