Never underestimate EastEnders’ ability to pull the rug out from under us all! A character we had resigned ourselves to never seeing again

made an unexpected cameo in a week of dramatic episodes, and now actor Joel Beckett has spoken out about his return after a staggering 18 years.

His alter-ego Jake Moon had attempted to flee the country with Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) as she went on the run after the murder of Den Watts.

Unfortunately, they were foiled at Stansted airport and Chrissie was locked up, but we hadn’t heard of Joel’s fate – til now.

In fact, some fans suspected that the character had been

Fans are grateful that the surprise was kept concealed – and Joel was in his element playing his part in the mystery.

‘It’s been quite exciting!’ he declared. ‘It’s just that one scene right at the end of an episode but it’s been quite fun because nobody knew about it. I’m getting a lot of messages today from people who didn’t know saying “wow, you’re back” so the response has been great.’

One thing that fans – and Joel – would have loved would be for Jake and Alfie to have reunited.

The actor explained: ‘My agent got a phone call asking would I be interested in going back? The second sentence followed “just for a day”. Your mind starts to go through things, especially from a technical point of view, you think “what can they possibly film in a day?”

‘I assumed that it would be something to do with Chrissie, but I thought it would be me standing outside the prison gates. I didn’t expect to go back on the Square. So I thought a day going back there after such a long hiatus would be great. It was a lovely day out, as I kept saying when I was on set.

‘It felt lovely to be back. Although it was a new set it felt really familiar, and it felt like I’d never been away. You never forget Albert Square.’

That said, there were some differences – how could there not be after nearly two decades!?

‘Everything wasn’t as wobbly!’ he laughed. ‘The Square was just a bit sharper, and it felt as though it had been upgraded although the sun sets in a different place. It’s quite amazing to go back there and to be on a different set in a different spot, yet everything felt exactly the same.’

killed off given his ambiguous disappearance.