EASTENDERS icon Michelle Collins is set to make a return to the soap 25 years after being killed off.
The 60-year-old actress played soap bitch Cindy Beale on the smash-hit BBC1 soap from 1988 until 1998 and is reportedly due to make a return to screens along with her on-screen husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) – who is also heading back to the soap after a two-year break – even though her character was said to have died in childbirth off-screen whilst serving time in prison for attempted murder.
A source told Politicalite: “This has been done so secretively but it’s going to be an absolute bombshell — an unbelievable twist. Ian and Cindy are one of the most memorable couples in soap history.”
“But Cindy has been dead for 25 years — and nobody will see this coming. The biggest surprise is that Michelle has so often said there’s no chance she’d come back.”
Since her time on Albert Square, Michelle has carved out a successful career on both stage and screen, having enjoyed a stint as Rovers Return landlady Stella Price in rival soap opera ‘Coronation Street’ and has appeared in stage productions of musicals such as ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ and ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.’
It’s just too long now — apart from the fact I’m dead. If I went back to EastEnders, that would be it. I still haven’t shaken off Cindy after all these years. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it has always been there and I’ve done a lot of other work over the years
But in 2019, the ‘Two Thousand Acres of Sky’ actress – who during her time on the BBC soap saw her character have a string of affairs that led Ian to hire a private investigator – remarked that she had not been able to “shake Cindy off” and remained adamant that a return could not happen because her character was deceased.
She said: “It’s just too long now — apart from the fact I’m dead. If I went back to ‘EastEnders’, that would be it. I still haven’t shaken off Cindy after all these years. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it has always been there and I’ve done a lot of other work over the years.”
EastEnders airs Mon-Thurs at 7.30pm on BBC One – stream all episodes on BBC iPlayer.
