EastEnders fans had a shock this week when Phil Mitchell made a shock return from the dead.
The hardman isn’t the first Soapland native to have come back from a visit to the afterlife.
But who else made a shock comeback after dying?
Dirty Den – EastEnders
It is the most famous resurrection since Jesus – in Soapland anyway.
In 1989, EastEnders viewers were in shock when a hitman with some daffodils shot and presumably killed Dirty Den.
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He disappeared into a canal, presumed dead – for a while at least, until 2003 when he popped up in Walford having actually survived and moved to Spain.
Den lasted two years until he was killed off again – for good this time.
But his comeback remains the stuff of soap legend.
Kim Tate
While technically Kim Tate‘s first death was meant to be permanent, having seen the state of their ratings after she died in a car crash, bosses quickly did an about turn.
Actress Claire King was given a bumper deal to return and so Kim’s death became an elaborate hoax with a convenient blonde corpse coming in handy.
Kim returned just in time to kill off her husband Frank before swindling the family finances and claiming the Tate legacy for herself.
Kathy Beale – EastEnders
While it’s true in soaps that if you don’t see a body, then the character isn’t dead – literally no-one saw the comeback of Kathy Beale coming.
Having been killed off off-screen in South Africa by a presumably annoyed producer, Kathy’s time in Walford appeared to be at an end.
Until she stepped out of a cab during a live broadcast of EastEnders, begging her ex Phil Mitchell for help.
It was a shocking scene in a huge week of EastEnders episodes – and it’s paid off ever since.
Now back, she has taken up residence as matriarch of the Beale family and her son – who looks bizarrely older than her – is gone and it’s all the better for it.
Now the soap just needs to do the same for Ronnie and Roxy.
Kim Tate (again)
If a plan to fake your own death works well once, then why not do it again?
This time Kim threw herself into proceedings by playing her own corpse with an entire company of actors playing fake policemen, paramedics and even handy witnesses.
All so she could expose her son Jamie’s plot to kill her.
But what she actually did – was give him the idea how he could escape her claws for once and for all.
Jamie Tate
Like mother, like son – but Jamie pulled off a feat that even his mother couldn’t do – he stayed ‘dead’.
While viewers know Jamie is alive and well having successfully convinced even the great schemer Kim Tate that he is dead and well not buried, he is in fact sunning himself up abroad with his daughter.
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And Kim has no idea.
She is so convinced he is dead that she is ignoring all the evidence that he’s still alive – setting the stage for one hell of a comeback in the future.
Want more spoilers from EastEnders? Entertainment Daily has a dedicated EastEnders spoilers section for you to get your fix before the latest episodes air.
EastEnders usually airs weeknights at 7.30pm on BBC One.
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