EastEnders star Louisa Lytton has landed a new role away from the BBC soap.

It’s been confirmed that the actor, who recently returned to Walford in the role of Ruby Allen for a

“prolonged stint”, has landed a role in the new UK tour of mystery thriller The Girl on the Train.

Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins – which was also adapted into a 2016 film starring Emily Blunt – the play centres on Rachel Watson, whose only escape from her mundane life is watching the perfect couple through the window of a train she travels on every day.

The synopsis continues: “When Rachel learns that the woman she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.”

Lytton will star in the stage production as Rachel Watson, with her performances set to begin at Chester’s Storyhouse Theatre on April 15, 2025.

She will stop off in Woking, Birmingham, Southend, Liverpool and Leicester, with her run concluding in Cardiff on May 31.

Lytton will take over the role of Rachel from Giovanna Fletcher, whose stint begins at Richmond Theatre on January 14 before concluding at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham on March 29.

Former Love Island host Laura Whitmore will take over from Lytton, with her stint as Rachel beginning at Brighton’s Theatre Royal on June 3 and concluding in Dublin on August 30.

“I read the book when it first came out and I was obsessed by it,” Whitmore said when she was announced for the role last month.

“I love it when you find a book and all you can think about is that story. You wake up a little bit earlier to read the book and stay up too late to finish it. I am excited to show people my portrayal of Rachel next summer.”