EastEnders’ Executive Producer Ben Wadey has teased huge twists ahead in the wake of Zoe Slater’s (Michelle Ryan) return.
Her reunion with estranged mum Kat (Jessie Wallace) is the moment that fans of the BBC One soap have been anxiously awaiting over the last two decades, and now it’s finally here.
And, as it turns out, Michelle’s decision to comeback couldn’t have come at a better time.
‘EastEnders is renowned for putting family at the forefront of its storytelling,’ Ben told us.
‘When I took over as Executive Producer, I knew I wanted to return some iconic faces as it allowed us to explore new storyline arcs for our pre-existing characters and families.
‘I had a wish-list of characters that I wanted to return, including Zoe, and I was determined to get Michelle Ryan back.’
He continued: ‘The team and I had an exciting storyline idea for Kat and Zoe, and when we approached Michelle, it turned out she’d been thinking about a return.
‘Call it fate or manifesting, but it felt like the stars had aligned!’
There was one condition to the storyline imposed by Jessie, however. She wasn’t prepared to see another actress step into Zoe’s shoes.
‘Jessie said immediately that it had to be Michelle, not a recast, which I completely agreed with,’ Ben added.
‘[Her] instincts are spot on, and we both got really excited about how both characters would react to seeing each other once again.’
Zoe lands on Kat’s doorstep next week
Ben is keeping tight-lipped about exactly what Zoe’s return entails for the Slater-Moon clan.
We last saw her in June, staying with cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and clearly in a bad way.
Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) was then summoned to try and resolve the situation in confidence, with Zoe then fabricating a story so that her family would believe that Spanish loansharks were hunting her down.
Zoe then fled to Barcelona, asserting that she’d done something ‘so bad’ that her family would disown her.
Fearing the worst, Alfie decided to follow – but had no luck in tracking her down.
Kat is under the belief that he was helping his own daughter Cherry, and managed to avoid listening to a tell-all voicemail he left her before his return from Spain.
Everything seemed to be heading back in the right direction, until their son Tommy (Sonny Kendall) got his hands on the message, and in scenes that air this week, we’ll see him confront his dad over the matter.
Determined to track his eldest sister down, Tommy will disappear. Kat’s thrilled when he reaches out to her on Monday, but can’t believe her eyes when she opens the door to Zoe instead.
‘We saw [Zoe] wasn’t in a good place – and was clearly hiding secrets. She was also insistent that she couldn’t face seeing her mum again. But why?’ teased Ben.
‘And why has she shunned Kat for so many years? Since Zoe left, we know their relationship deteriorated until Zoe cut ties completely.
‘I’ve always been fascinated as to why, especially as they left on good terms. We have twenty years of history to explore, and so much has happened to both of them since they were last on screen together.’
Zoe’s comeback has huge ramifications for another legend
It’s clear that Ben is a huge fan of the show himself. He’s eager to delve deeper into the characters’ backstory, and to see how other members of the Walford community react to seeing an old face after so many years.
‘Zoe’s one of those people that seems to land herself in difficulty – I think it’s because she faced an identity crisis at such a young age she has a confused sense of self, and has developed a tendency to self-sabotage,’ Ben continued.
‘Like mother like daughter! And just wait until Sharon sees that Zoe is back…’
As long-term viewers will recall, Zoe entered into a scheme with Sharon’s (Letitia Dean) dad Den (Leslie Grantham). At the time, Sharon was in a highly controversial relationship with her adoptive brother Dennis (Nigel Harman), something which Den was firmly against.
He hoped that if Zoe pretended she was pregnant with Dennis’ baby, Sharon would back off.
The big issue was that Dennis didn’t believe her lies, and she was going to have to actually pregnant. Cue Den, who lived up to his ‘dirty’ nickname and jumped into bed with her.
His wife Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman) convinced her to have an abortion, and the women teamed up with Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) to kill him.
As an altercation ensued, Zoe smacked Den over the head with a doorstop and believed she’d killed him. In the moments that followed, Chrissie whacked him again, delivering the fatal blow.
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Zoe believed she was responsible, but luckily Sam had witnessed everything and told her the truth. Zoe then moved to Ibiza.
We know that Letitia is back on set after a prolonged absence, as evidenced in a trailer that dropped two weeks ago.
Sharon can be seen stood with Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker), sheltering from the rain and watching Zoe stroll off in Kat’s direction.
Concluding, Ben said: ‘Despite all of the drama that happens upon her return, the joy of the storyline, and what EastEnders does best, is that underpinning all the twists and turns, we’re exploring the relationship between an estranged mum and daughter, which is classic soap.’
Bring on the drama!
