New 'EastEnders' theme to mark Pat exit

'EastEnders' stalwart Pat Evans will bow out from the soap after a quarter of a century tomorrow with a specially-created arrangement of the show's theme.

Actress Pam St Clement will be seen closing her eyes as her character slips away, succumbing to terminal cancer diagnosed only a matter of days earlier.

As the credits roll for the end of the programme, viewers will hear a new version of the title music to mark the end of an era.

A special version has been used to mark major occasions in Walford over the years, known as 'Julia's Theme'.

Now composer Simon May has created another version entitled 'Pat's Theme' to bid farewell to the no-nonsense character, famed for her dangly earrings. But it will not be the only major change to the show during tomorrow's episode.

The programme will also unveil a revamped title sequence which sees the Olympic Park represented on screen in the graphics for the first time.

Programme bosses thought it was appropriate to show the park as the series entered 2012.

Pat's illness is the latest major drama for the series and her demise has kept viewers gripped throughout the festive period.

The BBC1 soap was the most popular programme on Christmas Day, comfortably beating ITV1's 'Downton Abbey' when they went head-to-head.

St Clement, 69, is one of the show's longest serving stars, having first headed to Albert Square in 1986.

Announcing her departure last summer, she said leaving the soap would be like a "bereavement".

During her colourful years in the show, Pat remarried several times, has gone to prison and enjoyed affairs with Walford characters such as infamous lothario Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).

She was first seen after arriving in the Square to break the news to Pete Beale (Peter Dean) he was not the father of her son Simon Wicks (Nick Berry).

Her most famous scenes over her long career have often been moments of high drama, frequently involving slaps.

In one memorable scene she and Peggy Butcher (Barbara Windsor) exchanged blows amid cries of "you bitch" and "you cow".