EastEnders actor Michelle Collins says she thought Cindy Beale resurrection plot was ‘ridiculous’

Actor admits she ‘doesn’t know’ whether she made the right decision in agreeing to return to the soap 25 years after her character’s supposed death

Michelle Collins, who plays resurrected EastEnders character Cindy Beale, has shared her initial doubts over returning to the programme.

Cindy was the wife of the long-running character Ian Beale (played by Adam Woodyatt) and was previously announced as dead back in 1998.

Her character was understood to have died during childbirth while in prison for hiring a hitman to kill Ian.

Last month it was revealed that Collins would be returning to the BBC soap as Cindy, 25 years after her last appearance on screen, marking an ambitious “back from the dead” storyline for the show.

On Wednesday (21 June), the character was seen on screen for the first time under the alias Rose Knight, the mysterious matriarch of the Knight family.

Collins, 61, has admitted that when she was first approached about a potential return to the programme, she was not confident that the idea would work.

“I said to my agent, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous, it’s never going to happen’,” she told The Sun.

“But we had this breakfast meeting and Chris [Clenshaw, EastEnders’ executive producer] got his laptop out and reeled it all off.

“We both went, ‘Wow, oh my God’. And then I was like, maybe this could work.”

Michelle Collins (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Still, Collins hinted towards doubts about her return.

She added: “You want to know that you’ve made the right decision. I don’t know whether I have... But I’m liking it and I’m loving being back, actually. It feels like I’ve come full circle.”

Initially, Collins shut down the possibility of a comeback in 2019, explaining: “It’s just too long now – apart from the fact I’m dead. If I went back to EastEnders, that would be it.”

This is not the first time that EastEnders has attempted a “back from the dead” storyline. Characters that have made dramatic, Lazarus-like returns include “Dirty” Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) and Ian Beale’s mother, Kathy (Gillian Taylforth).

EastEnders continues tonight (Thursday 22 June) at 7.30pm.