After 25 years away from Albert Square, Michelle Collins is returning to EastEnders as Cindy Beale. The actress, 61, initially appeared on the BBC soap opera between 1988-1998 and was involved in several huge storylines.
In 1998, Cindy was sensationally killed off by producers, albeit off-screen. Despite her apparent ‘death’, a body was never seen and therefore viewers have hoped that the character would receive the same treatment as ‘Dirty’ Den Watts, who returned to the show in 2003 after ‘dying’ in 1989 when he was shot with a gun hidden in a bunch of daffodils and fell into a canal.
Recent weeks have seen fans speculate that Cindy’s return is linked to the arrival of the Knight family. Thursday’s episode concluded with George Knight’s wife Rose revealed to actually be Cindy.
Read more: EastEnders: All the clues we know so far from the Christmas flash-forward death mystery
But what are Cindy actress Michelle Collins’ Welsh links, who is her husband and why was her EastEnders character killed off in the first place? Here’s everything you need to know. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
What Welsh links does Michelle Collins have?
Michelle’s mother Mary was Welsh. The actress learned more about her family history in 2009 BBC documentary Coming Home - read more about that here.
Whilst filming Michelle discovered that her grandfather Jack Horton turned to professional sport to fight his way out of the Depression-hit town of Pontypridd during 1930s Wales. At the time she said: “I’m old-school Welsh and really quite proud of that.”
Michelle found out that Jack was a five-year-old Belgian refugee when he arrived in south Wales in 1915 and was adopted by the Horton family. He died from a blood disorder aged 36.
Who is Michelle Collins married to?
Last year Michelle married her partner of 10 years Mike Davidson. Her ex-partner is Fabrizio Tassalini, with whom she had daughter Maia Rose.
Why was Cindy Beale killed off in EastEnders?
In 2015, EastEnders’ former executive producer Matthew Robinson explained in a blog post why he had Cindy killed off, saying that keeping her alive "might have benefited the show" but it would have required Michelle to commit to three days of filming to depict the birth of Cindy's baby and the outcome of her trial, because "no proper producer could allow off-screen portrayal of massive soap events like those". However, Michelle never committed to the episodes and Robinson had no choice but to kill the character off-screen.
EastEnders is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
