Adam Woodyatt has confirmed that he knew about the return of Cindy Beale to EastEnders when the idea was hatched last year.

This week it has been confirmed that the ex-wife of Woodyatt's Ian - played by Michelle Collins - is returning to the soap, some 25 years after the character supposedly died during child birth.

Ian left Walford in January 2021 after surviving a poisoning attempt by best friend Sharon (Letitia Dean), although he did return surreptitiously for a short scene at the funeral of Dot (June Brown) last December.

In that scene he took a phone call, telling the unknown person on the other end of the phone: "Hello love. I'm coming home."

Now Woodyatt has revealed that he knew who Ian's "love" was all along, telling press this week: "It was when we did Dot's funeral. There was a 'need to know', there were eight people and just basically the heads of departments.

"They were the ones who came out and did that shoot because I flew back from doing My Fair Lady, landed on the Monday, shot it on the Tuesday morning, and flew off to my daughter's wedding on the Wednesday. We literally sneaked in on the Tuesday morning – no-one knows.

"And also when filming it, Mark – who's one of my oldest mates on set, he's the sound boy - and he just looked at me and said, 'You know... who is it?' And I said, 'I'm not telling.'"

EastEnders continues tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer with an episode revealing what Cindy has been up to for the last 25 years and how she came to be reunited with Ian.