EastEnders’ Adam Woodyatt hints at Ian Beale return saying ‘they’ve got to ask me to go back’
EASTENDERS star Adam Woodyatt has hinted that he may make a return to the show but only if show bosses ask him to come back.
Adam, 53, played Ian Beale on the square for 36 years before leaving the show last year.
The Walford legend is the BBC soap’s longest-serving character and the only original cast member to have appeared continuously since its launch in 1985.
He took a break last year to go on tour with stage play Looking Good Dead.
But now the star has revealed he could very well make a return – if show bosses ask him to come back.
In an interview with The Mirror, Adam said: “They’ve got to come up with a storyline, they’ve got to ask me to go back.”
He continued: “The timing has got to be right for me to go back because I don’t know what else I’m going to be doing.”
Adam’s character was last seen in EastEnders in January in a shock twist.
Ian fled the square in the middle of the night after discovering his wife Sharon Mitchell (Letitia Dean) had been poisoning him.
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And it looks like show bosses could very well welcome his return.
A source told The Mirror: “The bosses want Adam back and are prepared to pay – and he knows that. The ratings are suffering at the moment and they need a big boost like Ian Beale returning to Walford.
“They’d known for a while that Danny had wanted to leave but he will still leave a big hole in the show.”
Adam, who took part in the latest I’m A Celeb, revealed to his campmates why he had left the popular role.
He told Frankie Bridge: “I just had another opportunity, there was this play that came up and I just fancied doing something different.”
He then admitted the show’s bosses had wanted his character to take a pause.
“The way the storyline went, they needed me to take a break and the break’s just got longer.”
