A major fan-favourite EastEnders star has revealed that she was asked to return to the BBC soap earlier this year, but things didn’t work out.

Over the past year, countless iconic characters have returned to Albert Square as part of the show’s 40th anniversary celebrations, including Angie Watts and Mickey Miller.

Now, actress Lin Blakely has revealed that she too was asked to reprise her role as Pam Coker earlier this year, but things didn’t work out.

Pam was a fan-favourite character during her time in Walford. She first arrived on the Square in 2014 and was involved in some huge storylines.

One such story was the heartbreaking death of grandson Paul Coker, who was killed in a horrific hate crime attack.

Another major storyline included Pam’s discovery that husband Les had a feminine alter-ego named Christine, after she suspected him of having an affair with Claudette Hubbard.

Speaking about her near-return, Lin told Matthew Rolland as part of his Isolation Interviews series: ‘It’s funny because at the beginning of the year, February, I was just about to go on holiday and the guy in casting rang my agent and said, “Ask Lin, I want her to come back in for three eps with the hope of maybe coming back in permanently.”

‘But it never happened because I had a friend I was going away with and I didn’t want to let her down. I thought maybe they’d ask me when I got back because I was only away ten days, but they didn’t.

‘Who knows? You never know in this game, and if I did go back, I’d love it.’

We would as well!

In 2023, Lin swapped Walford for the Emmerdale village, arriving as Jai Sharma’s (Chris Bisson) mum Georgia.

Her arrival came after Jai discovered that dad Rishi (Bhasker Patel) has been lying to him his whole life and was not his biological father.

The storyline led to Jai learning that his uncle Amit was actually his dad.

The discovery saw a showdown between Jai and Rishi but before the relationship could be mended, Rishi died.