EastEnders star Pam St Clement has revealed the surprising inspiration behind the character Pat Butcher.

The 82-year-old was reminiscing with Ross Kemp on the EastEnders: 40 Years On The Square documentary about what she did after finding out she had got the role of the BBC soap matriarch.

Speaking on the show, St Clement said: “When I got the part of Pat, like any actor I decided to do a bit of homework, I saw this bus conductress on a number 38 bus and she was wearing these most dangly earrings, Pat always wears the earrings that fit her mood.”

Kemp, who has recently returned to Albert Square as Grant Mitchell, then asked the actress how many earrings she got through in the role.

She replied: “You know those toolboxes you can get that fold up?

“I had one of those and a wall bracket with dangling earrings, but the interesting thing is most of them came from viewers.”

St Clement went on to tell the 60-year-old that people would send her earrings in the post telling her “I saw these in the market and I thought they were absolutely right for Pat”.

Pat was played by the actress for more than 25 years between 1986 and 2012, briefly reappearing in a hallucination as part of the final scenes of Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor) in 2016.

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During her time on the Square, Pat was the landlady of the Queen Vic, and some of her biggest storylines included her affair with Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) and her eventual death from pancreatic cancer in 2012.

It comes as EastEnders prepares for a special hour-long episode on Wednesday, February 19, the day of the show’s 40th anniversary, followed by a full live episode on February 20.

EastEnders: 40 Years On The Square will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 8pm on Monday, February 17.