| Claudette Hubbard | |||||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Ellen Thomas | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 2015–2016 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 5031/5032 12 March 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 5378 1 November 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Dominic Treadwell-Collins | ||||||||||||
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Claudette Hubbard is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Ellen Thomas. She made her first appearance on 12 March 2015. Claudette is introduced as a friend of Les (Roger Sloman) and Pam Coker (Lin Blakley), before being established as the mother of Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood), as well as the foster mother of Donna Yates (Lisa Hammond) and several other children. Upon her introduction, the character was described as a "new steely matriarch".[1]
During her time on the show, Claudette's storylines included being accused of an affair with Les Coker, before it was ultimately revealed she was aiding his cross-dressing, her history with the Mitchell family, a feud with Babe Smith (Annette Badland) and being left for dead and buried alive by her son Vincent after revealing she was responsible for the death of her husband. Thomas received two award nominations for her portrayal of Claudette; the British Soap Award for Villain of the Year and Best Bad Girl at the Inside Soap Awards. In September 2016, it was confirmed that Thomas would depart her role as Claudette and would leave the soap after being axed by the newly-appointed executive producer Sean O'Connor. Digital Spy wrote that they would miss "her boobs, blackmail and barmy antics" and Thomas herself stated that she would expect Claudette to return in the future.[2]