EastEnders actress Gillian Taylforth reveals she ‘sobbed’ when asked to return to BBC soap

Actress Gillian Taylforth has revealed that she was “shocked” and “sobbed” when she was asked to return to EastEnders.

Taylforth, 60 – who plays Kathy Beale in the BBC soap – said she was overcome with emotion once the news set in that executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins wanted her back.

Speaking to the Radio Times she said: “Dom told me that they wanted me to come back. And he got all emotional and cried. I was so shocked that I didn’t.

“But then I got into the car to go home and sobbed: ‘They want me back! They want me back!’”

Taylforth’s return will mark her third comeback to the soap since she first left.

She reappeared for two stints at the turn of the millennium to tie up some storylines before making a brief appearance to mark the show’s 30th anniversary earlier this year.

But keeping her return a secret did not go down well with her children, Jessica, 23, and Harrison, 16.

“On my phone, there was a message from my daughter saying, ‘Oh God, Mum, is it true you were in it?’” she said. “And then my son texted me: ‘Thank you, Mother. Ninety-nine per cent of the population know you’re back in EastEnders and one per cent, your beloved son, doesn’t.’ I asked them why they hadn’t watched it and they said they were busy.”

Taylforth’s character was supposedly killed in a car accident in South Africa, and she was quick to reassure fans that her comeback will not be like that of Bobby Ewing in Dallas, whose death was revealed as his wife’s dream.

“It won’t be like that. It will be something feasible,” she said. “You don’t want to see me coming out of the shower!”