Great news for ‘Enders fans – bosses have decided to bring back the brilliant Nitin Ganantra as Walford’s legendary postie – Masood Ahmed. Yay.
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And, he’s going to be bringing new members of the Masood family along with him. So that’s pretty exciting too.
Even though he hasn’t been gone that long, lots of things have changed in Walford since we last saw Masood. What will he think of his good friend, Denise Fox, being engaged to his former son-in-law, Kush Kazemi?
And what about his best friend Jane being a huge target for revenge-mad Max Branning?
Masood left the Square a year ago following failed romances with Belinda Slater and Carmel Kazemi. He left with his son, Kamil, to reunite with ex-wife, Zainab in Pakistan.
So does this mean Zainab AKA Nina Wadia will be coming back too? EastEnders haven’t said anything about it, but we know how the show bosses like to keep things up their sleeves so let’s not rule anything out.
Nitin is delighted to be heading back to Walford and said in a statement to Digital Spy: “It was a lovely surprise to be asked back to EastEnders so soon after I left.
“I was bowled over. When I was told Masood has still much to give to the show and is missed by the audience, it was hard to refuse.
“It is with great pride that I will grow my Masood goatee once again to help create and base an extended family around him. Exciting days to come Walford with Masood back on the Square.”
Nitin originally joined the BBC1 soap way back in 2007 and has enjoyed loads of high profile storylines, including an affair with BFF, Jane.
Will her current situation – you know, the whole coma and under threat from Max Branning thing – be part of his return storyline?
Masood’s return also opens the door for potential returns for other members of the original Masood clan.
Son Tamwar is currently travelling the world with his girlfriend, Nancy Carter and eldest son, Syed, is living in Birmingham with husband, Christian Clarke.
Daughter Shabnam was last believed to be living in nearby Ealing with her daughter, Jade, after deciding she couldn’t live on the Square and watch Kush’s child with Stacey Fowler grow up
You probably remember that Shabs and Kush had a son, Zaair, who was sadly stillborn. We’d be more than happy to see any of these guys back.
When Nitin bowed out of his role last year, he said: “I’m still deeply in love with the character of Masood and find him really interesting to play.
“I feel we have more to find in this character’s journey, but I just need to go off and do other things for a while. I’m feeling incredibly creative at the moment. I’m doing a lot of writing amongst other things, so I have to commit to that.
“So I’m not leaving for any bad reasons, aside from a need to go off and do other exciting projects. EastEnders have kindly left the door open for me to go back and I’d have no problems in going back.
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“I don’t feel like I’ve left, to be honest. It’s like popping out to the shops to go and do some other stuff. I’m sure I’ll back sooner or later.”
Turns out it was a lot sooner than we were expecting!