EastEnders cast members cried real tears filming Lola Pearce's devastating exit from the BBC soap.
Billy Mitchell actor Perry Fenwick confessed that despite the make-up team having tear sticks for emotional scenes if needed, it was all real emotions for scenes to air next week.
Billy's granddaughter Lola will tragically die after her battle with an inoperable brain tumour, with her health deteriorating in recent weeks.
Danielle Harold will bow out of the soap in the scenes, leaving her co-stars devastated to see her go.
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.
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.
