EastEnders star Michelle Collins has confirmed she’s taking a brief break from the BBC soap to pursue an “exciting” new stage role.

The actor’s character Cindy Beale recently returned to Albert Square after leaving earlier this year following the various revelations over the soap’s 40th anniversary week.

Collins has now confirmed that Cindy will briefly depart Walford again in the coming weeks, as the actor is taking a month off from filming in the summer.

“I’m going off in the summer. I’m doing my one woman show at the Edinburgh Festival [Fringe], called Motorhome Marilyn,” Collins confirmed during a new interview with The Mirror.

“I don’t think she’s anything like Cindy. It’s a play about a woman impersonator lookalike who lives in a trailer and dresses as Marilyn Monroe. But she’s 60 – it’s kind of strange.”

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“It’s about failure, lost dreams, and feeling like life has passed you by,” Collins added. “She’s an interesting character. I’m really excited to play it. EastEnders have let me have a month off so I’m very excited.”

Recently explaining why Cindy returned to Walford again, Collins, who reprised her role on the soap following a 25-year absence, said her character wants to “make amends” and “get back with her family”.

“But I think what she doesn’t realise is that people have not forgotten and they’re not going to forgive her that easily,” she added.

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“Cindy comes back and thinks that everyone is going to have open arms and welcome her back, but she gets a very frosty reception.

“[She thinks they’ll] go ‘oh everything is forgiven’ and actually, it doesn’t go the way. She’s quite deluded, isn’t she?”