{"id":37342,"date":"2025-08-01T04:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T04:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/37342\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T04:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T04:33:10","slug":"eastenders-fan-favourite-set-to-return-to-soap-after-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/37342\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders fan favourite set to return to soap after three years"},"content":{"rendered":"

EastEnders<\/a> star Ricky Champ<\/a> is reportedly set to return to Albert Square.<\/p>\n

The actor, best known for playing Stuart Highway in the BBC One soap, said goodbye to Walford over three years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to The Sun<\/a>, Champ will be back on screens as Stuart soon, having signed up to come back for a limited period bringing a healthy dose of drama to the Square.<\/p>\n

Champ’s Stuart left Walford alongside on-screen wife Rainie Cross (played by Tanya Franks), who made a special comeback for his final scenes in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Game of Thrones actor<\/a> joined the soap in May 2018, initially as a villain, infamously beating up Ben Mitchell and leaving him for dead. However, Stuart later reconciled his ways and became a firm fan favourite.<\/p>\n

\"ricky<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders unleashes split fears for one couple after four years<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the years, Stuart worked in the local funeral parlour, Coker & Mitchell, before retraining in taxidermy.<\/p>\n

Champ’s biggest storylines on the soap included Stuart being diagnosed with male breast cancer<\/a> and later battling postnatal depression.<\/p>\n

Stuart struggled to open up to Rainie about the depression and as a result she took their son and left him. However, she later returned and convinced her husband to get treatment, with the couple then departing Walford for pastures new to work on their marriage.<\/p>\n

\"rainie<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders confirms Eve’s baby decision in early iPlayer episode<\/a><\/p>\n

In a previous interview with Digital Spy<\/a>, Champ remained vague about a possible EastEnders return, telling us at the time: “You never know. He didn\u2019t die, he rode off into the sunset. I think he\u2019s somewhere in the North Circular living with Rainie.”<\/p>\n

Champ isn’t the only star returning to Albert Square with Karen Henthorn back as Nigel Bates’ wife Julie<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Henthorn has been absent from the soap since 1998 but recently headed back to play a part in Nigel’s dementia battle.<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.<\/p>\n

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s new print issue is here! Buy Oasis – Live in ’25<\/a> in newsagents or online<\/a>, now priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/p>\n

Deals that might interest you\"Shop<\/a>Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile deals\"On\"Richard<\/a>Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersCredit: Viking\"Stranger<\/a>Stranger Things Hellfire Club dice dangle charmCredit: Pandora\"Shop<\/a>Shop PS5 consolesCredit: PlayStation\"Shop<\/a>Shop Alison Hammond’s outfitsCredit: Mark Bourdillon\"Apple<\/a>Apple TV+ 7-day free trialCredit: Apple TV+\"Sign<\/a>Sign up for Disney+Credit: Chuck Zlotnick\"The<\/a>The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive NovelCredit: Octopus Books\"Death<\/a>Death in Paradise: The Puzzle BookCredit: BBC Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EastEnders star Ricky Champ is reportedly set to return to Albert Square. The actor, best known for playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[379,21866,381,96,2788,1156,21865,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-37342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-b77c52c6-97d9-442b-af42-76cd83c560df","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-shorttitle-eastenders-fan-favourite-set-to-return-to-soap","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}