EastEnders’ Kathy Beale’s return inspired by true story of canoeist John Darwin

“We make sure each story is rooted in reality – it’s the canoe man story – so we make sure it happened in real life”, he said, “We wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t credible”.

He was also mentioned earlier this year in an episode of ITV soap Emmerdale as part of a storyline in which Val Pollard talked about planning to fake her own death for life insurance.

Kathy Beale is back on EastEnders – and, while soap fans are delighted, no one is happier than the actress who plays her.

Okay, so it wasn’t quite as zombie-esque as it sounds, but it was still pretty bloomin’ freakish when Gillian Taylforth reprised her role as Phil Mitchell’s ex-wife despite the fact viewers were told that she had died in a vehicle accident in South Africa nine years ago.

Speaking about the Beale matriarch’s explosive EastEnders return, Gillian Taylforth said that she loved filming the fight scene with Letitia Dean.

As a mother myself, I can’t even think about it. Just driving off, knowing that her son thinks she’s going to come back, how do you ever do that to people?

“Bit by bit they [Ben and Ian] find out why she’s become the person she has – because of the manipulating person that Gavin is”.

The pair quietly moved to Panama in 2007, using their ill-gotten gains to buy a tropical estate they planned to turn into an eco-resort that would offer the visitor, among other things, canoeing holidays. So I’m hoping they will forgive me.

His defency lawyer appears to be trying to get him off the charge of murdering Lucy Beale by pinning it on his daughter, Abi! “Fantastic. I’ve cried most days in August”.

Gillian said she understands if viewers struggle to accept that her character left Ian and particularly Ben, who was only a young child at the time. Kathy is not quite the Kathy we used to know. “I obviously had to tell my partner, because I was disappearing at 11 o’clock at night and I was anxious he thought I might have got a new job down at King’s Cross or something”. I was told: “Go for it” and I went, “Oh, lovely”.

Realising something is going on, a determined Sharon heads to over to see what is going on and is shocked when she sees Kathy.