Denise Van Outen: I hope EastEnders role could be long term

The 40-year-old actress will make her first appearance in the BBC soap tomorrow night (April 9) as Karin Smart, a savvy businesswoman who gets involved with serial-seducer Max Branning.

Denise, who is a single mum to four-year-old daughter Betsy, told the Daily Telegraph of appearing in the show full-time: “It would be a bit of a juggling act, but I would like to do more.”

She added: “I’ve had the best time. You realise how hard working the actors are, how brilliant they are, how they can just switch it on like that. Film actors get to be all method and sit in a trailer for half a day finding the character, to deliver two lines in a scene and get to re-shoot it about 50 times on every angle.”

Denise admitted she has been asked to appear in the soap before and turned it down, but she believes soaps can help young people through the real life subject matter they tackle.

She revealed: “I’ve had friends who’ve come out because they’ve seen a relationship of some sort [on the show] that they can relate to.”

Meanwhile, the former Big Breakfast presenter also opened up about her falling out with co-presenter Johnny Vaughan.

Denise admitted she hasn’t spoken to Johnny since their reunion for Capital Radio’s breakfast show in 2008 flopped and was axed within six months. But Denise regrets losing him as a friend.

She said: “I’m a girl’s girl but I’ve got quite a male sense of humour so I get on with guys. I can hold my own in a group of guys and especially guys like Johnny that like a bit of banter, because I can send myself up. He was a really good mate.”

Denise now hosts her own weekly radio show on Magic FM, but revealed: “I was nervous about doing radio on my own because I was made to feel I wasn’t capable of doing it on my own by Johnny. I think he knocked my confidence a bit.”