EastEnders star Tracy-Ann Oberman 'never' expected to return

Tracy-Ann Oberman "never" expected to return to 'EastEnders'.

The 58-year-old actress - who plays Chrissie Watts in the ‘BBC’ soap - famously left Walford in December 2005 after she character was imprisoned for the murder of her husband, Den Watts (Lesley Grantham).

She is returning to Albert Square after almost 20 years, and has already begun filming her scenes - although they won't air until the autumn.

Speaking about her future plans, she told Radio Times: "I’m very lucky that I work a lot, and I do lots of very interesting thing, on stage, on screen and on radio.

“I’ve got 'Merchant of Venice' coming up, and I’ve worked solidly over the years. I never thought I would come back [to 'EastEnders'], but Chris [Clenshaw] absolutely persuaded me and because I think he’s an amazing executive producer, I went with it.

“He loves the show and wants to honour everything about it for the 40th anniversary. I had such a great time, so you know what they say, never say never."

Tracy-Ann made her debut on the soap in April 2004 and quickly became a big character, with enemies including Kate Mitchell (Jill Halfpenny) and Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace).

Her most memorable storyline was when she killed 'Dirty Den' in self-defence during the show's special 20th-anniversary episode.

The iconic scene drew an astonishing 14.34 million viewers, capturing nearly 60 per cent of the possible audience.

Reflecting on her return, she added: "It felt very surreal. I wasn’t in 'EastEnders' for very long as Chrissie but I spent a lot of my life down there because I was in so many episodes in a such a short space of time.

“There was a lot of the same crew present so it was lovely to see them and it felt a bit like coming home even after so long."