A former EastEnders star has addressed his character’s potential return despite them being dead as they made ‘thick skinned’ admission.

The BBC soap’s writers have revived many characters over the years — including Dirty Den Watts, whom they brought back to the Queen Vic 14 years after he was shot and fell into the Walford canal in 1989.

Another EastEnders fake-out death was Kathy Beale, with viewers informed in 2006 that she died in a car crash in South Africa with her then-husband Gavin Sullivan.

After years of fans manifesting Ian Beale’s mum back on the programme, Kathy returned for the 30th anniversary episode in 2015 and has been a fan favourite once again ever since.

In 2023, the soap’s writers resurrected Michelle Collins’ Cindy Beale, bringing her back to Walford despite having announced 20 years earlier that she had died during childbirth in prison.

Recent weeks have seen fans becoming convinced that Vincent Hubbard might not have died and believe Richard Blackwood’s character is drug dealer Ravi Gulati’s boss.

The 52-year-old actor’s character left Albert Square under mysterious circumstances in 2018, when Vincent fell into a trap set up by Phil Mitchell, crime boss Aidan Maguire and corrupt cop DCI Alsworth.

DCI Alsworth held Vincent at gunpoint in the back of a car and then drove him out of Walford, seemingly about to kill him.

Fans spent three years desperately trying to find out whether Vincent was dead or alive, and in 2021 they finally discovered that Aidan’s henchmen had killed him in 2018.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz at the 2025 Best Heroes Awards, Richard opened up about viewers’ complaints over Vincent’s death and hinted at doubts about whether the character really died.

“I think more for the audience. I’m thick-skinned, I’m OK with the decisions they made. I have no bad blood with EastEnders.

“But the audience, because I hear the audience always say, ‘Is Vincent coming back?’ And I always say, ‘I don’t know.’ So I think more for the audience than myself,” he said.

During Richard’s time on Albert Square, Donna Yates asked her foster brother Vincent — Kim Fox’s husband — to be the father of her child as a donor.

The storyline sparked a complicated situation with Kim and her family as Vincent and Donna failed to get pregnant after several attempts.

Since leaving the programme, Richard has competed on Dancing on Ice in 2019 and joined Hollyoaks the following year as Felix Westwood.

Teasing that a return may be on the horizon, Richard said: “I watch it, and I go, ‘Maybe one day, Vincent will come back in there’. I would never say never.”