The Hawkins in EastEnders have a surprise connection to someone else in Walford

Nicola Mitchell’s (Laura Doddington) family come hurtling into Walford next week in EastEnders – and they’re ready to cause trouble.

The Hawkins clan are made up of Nicola’s sisters Gemma (Patricia Potter) and Jodie (Anna Constable), mum Rose (Marian McLoughlin), Gemma’s partner Ned (Jamie Bamber) and their son Ryder (Felix Uff).

Previous scenes have allowed viewers to discover that Nicola doesn’t have the best relationship with her family.

She’s chosen to keep them at a distance due to their complicated and troubled childhood, which was largely impacted by Rose’s abusive husband.

Nicola doesn’t have a choice but to confront her past soon when Gemma and Jodie appear with Ryder. They manage to convince a reluctant Nicola to let them stay but she has one condition – her mum Rose must stay away.

Her ultimatum is short lived however, when Ned and Rose rock up.

Refusing to let them stay at her house, Nicola forces Gemma and Ned to find other arrangements, while Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway) offers Ryder and Jodie a place to stay.

Outside, Ned tries to smooth things over with Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) about the commotion, but he’s soon very surprised to see an old friend…Alfie Moon (Shane Richie).

Keen to help his mate out, Alfie offers Ned and Gemma a place to stay, much to Nicola’s annoyance.

They’ve arrived with a bang. What will happen next as Nicola tries to adapt to her family being in town?

And will we learn more about how Alfie and Ned became friends?

Teasing the dynamic between Nicola and Gemma, star Laura Doddington said: ‘There’s something, isn’t there, once you’re an adult, you know, Nicola made a decision to separate herself from her family and to distance herself for protection or for whatever she has psychologically decided, gives that gives her, it’s a turbulent relationship with her mother, but she loves her sisters.

‘What we sort of talked about a lot, me and Tish (Patricia Potter, who plays Gemma Hawkins) was that there’s like this feeling of going back to being children or teenagers. Those different sides.’

On the relationship Nicola has with her mum, Laura added: ‘I think they’re cut from a similar cloth, Nicola and her mum. It’s one of the reasons they probably don’t get on is because they are quite manipulative women. I think we’ve seen that from Nicola over the last two years.

‘She’s a queen manipulator, and she’s learned that somewhere. I would imagine we can see more of that without giving too much away.’