Clare Bates (Gemma Bissix) stages her long-awaited comeback to EastEnders after 18 years next week, as she is finally reunited with her step-father Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley).

Fans of the BBC soap have been calling for the return of the classic character for months amid Nigel’s battle with dementia, as he has frequently spoken with fondness about his estranged stepdaughter.

While Clare was last on the Square back in 2008, it has actually been 27 years since she shared the screen with Nigel, but in those intervening years, their once-tight father-daughter bond faded.

Given their lack of contact, Clare has no idea that Nigel has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia – but that all changes next week when his wife Julie Bates (Karen Henthorn) reaches out to her.

While Nigel is currently in hospital after nearly drowning in the bath at home, a place in a local care home becomes available for him in forthcoming scenes, but once again Julie finds herself at odds with Nigel’s best friend Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) when Nigel keeps asking to see Clare.

Julie is resistant and puts her foot down when Phil suggests making contact with her. However, when Lexi Pearce (Isabella Brown) – who Nigel has often confused with a young Clare – hears about the situation, she gives Julie a new perspective and changes her mind.

But when Clare later arrives back in Walford, she is shaken by Nigel’s fragility and prognosis, as he doesn’t recognise her.

Actress Gemma Bissex says Clare feels ‘rejection in every sense of the word’, comparing it to Clare losing her mum and Nigel’s first wife Debbie Bates (Nicola Duffett) ‘all over again’.

‘I think she probably naively thought that Nigel would be around forever, which is why I suppose she took for granted that she didn’t have to see him, she explains.

Tensions also flare between Clare and Julie, as years of history come to a head, with Gemma revealing: ‘Clare feels like Julie has done it to get back at her; she feels like Julie has only called her at this late stage as a punishment.

‘In Clare’s mind, it does feel quite cruel because I think Clare really wanted the chance to apologise to her dad.’

She continues: ‘The last time we saw her in the show, she was a bit of a maneater, and a bit more of a con artist, and those actions probably came from her inner trauma, and having no one to discipline her because her mum died when she was young, and when Nigel met Julie, I think Clare felt really pushed out.

‘All Clare wants is the love of her dad, and she can see that she might not have that again, and she’s missed her opportunity, so it’s really heartbreaking for her.’

Clare soon finds an unexpected ally in Lexi, and the pair discharge Nigel from hospital before the youngster encourages Clare to take Nigel for one last drink in The Vic before he moves to the care home.

Teasing the emotional scenes ahead, Gemma says: ‘Clare realises that they were the same age when they both lost their mum, and I think there’s a really poignant connection between them both.

‘Lexi makes her feel understood, and in a time and a place where she feels so alienated by Julie, and so detached from Nigel, she’s able to find comfort in this young girl who reminds her of herself.

‘It’s healing that Clare sees the love that Nigel had for Lexi, and when he mistakes Lexi for Clare, it gives her comfort as it reminds her how much Nigel did love Clare when they were young,’ she explains.

Later, Julie and Clare try to put their differences aside as they take Nigel to the care home with Phil, but the enormity of the situation takes a heavy toll on all three of them.

Will they manage to find a way forward?

For Gemma, coming back to EastEnders for this short guest stint – filmed during a break from her other soap role as the murderous Clare Devine on Hollyoaks – has been a ‘full circle moment’.

‘I was just so chuffed because I haven’t seen Paul Bradley in over 20 years and so to be able to reconnect with him and work with him again felt like time had stood still,’ she says.

‘Paul is exactly the same lovely person he was before. He was sort of like a stepfather to me in real life at work, and Karen and I were close as well. They make me feel like I’m a child again, in the best possible way.’

She adds: ‘It was so lovely to see Steve McFadden. I was also really close to Barbara Windsor [who played Peggy Mitchell] when I worked there before, and she got me my agent when I left, and I’m still with that agency to this day, so there’s such a legacy for me there.’