EastEnders star Jessie Wallace has called for the return of an iconic character, and we’re totally in agreement!
Appearing as the first guest on Lacey Turner’s new podcast We Started Here, the Kat Slater actress recalled one of her biggest storylines to date, which saw Zoe Slater learn that Kat wasn’t her sister, but her mother.
Discussing working with actress Michelle Ryan, Jessie called on her to return to the show.
‘I’d love it if she came back,’ she said, adding: ‘I think it would be great for Kat and Zoe.
‘I think it would be brilliant if she just turned up and went, “Hello, Mum!”‘
Stacey Slater star and podcast host Lacey revealed that the idea had given her goosebumps, before asking: ‘Can we make that happen?’
There are a number of iconic characters who have returned to the Square in the build up to the show’s 40th anniversary, with more still to come.
Could Zoe Slater be among them?
Despite having previously insisted that she wouldn’t be returning to the BBC soap, actress Michelle recently explained that she would ‘never say never’, and that it was up to the producers to decide whether or not to bring Zoe back.
Zoe was introduced as the youngest Slater sister, but it soon became clear that the family were hiding a big secret.
When Zoe decided she wanted to move to Spain with her uncle Harry, Kat did everything she could to try and stop her, before blurting out that she was her mother, in an episode watched by 19 million viewers.
In the scenes that followed, Kat revealed that she had been raped by Harry, and he was Zoe’s father.
Speaking about filming the dark storyline, Jessie told Lacey that it was ‘really hard’.
‘And this is back in the day when we used to get like sacksful of fan mail, and the majority were teenage girls that were going through the same thing or been through the same thing. That were relating to Kat and coming to me for help,’ she added.
‘But I’m an actor and it had to be passed on to the NSPCC, which was really tough.’
She went on to reveal how the storyline was altered throughout the story process, which still affects the character today.
‘Originally Kat had Zoe when she was 12, but John Yorke (Exec Producer) changed it to she was 14, so now I’ve got to carry around the fact that Kat’s two years older than me. So I’m 54 on screen!’ She revealed.
‘Tony Jordan (writer) had written it as I whispered it and I was like, no, if I’ve been holding this for 18 years, I’m going to scream it out.’
Jessie is the first of a number of guests set to appear on the We Started Here podcast, which will see Lacey interview famous faces who made their start in soaps.
