Ross Kemp refuses to rule out EastEnders return after 40th anniversary appearance

EastEnders actor Ross Kemp has refused to rule out a return to the BBC soap, which he says he owes “a great debt” to for giving him a career in television.

The 60-year-old returned to EastEnders as Grant Mitchell after almost 10 years away during the show’s 40th anniversary celebrations earlier this year.

His character returned to Albert Square to support his brother Phil, who was struggling with mental health issues, but later left Walford again, returning to his home in Portugal.

When asked whether he would return to the role again, Kemp told ITV’s Loose Women: “You just don’t know, do you? You don’t know what’s in the minds of the people who work on it.

“I’ve also (always) known that without it, I wouldn’t have had the career that I’ve had, I’ve always owed it a great debt, and it was very good to me, and hopefully I was good to it, and why not keep it that way?

“I’ve always believed that you should leave doors swinging rather than shut them.”

Kemp, who went on to produce a number of documentaries since first leaving EastEnders in 1999, including Ross Kemp On Gangs, Ross Kemp In Afghanistan and Ross Kemp: Extreme World, said he enjoyed returning to the soap.

He explained: “It was so wonderful to jump into Grant’s leather jacket again, which I can still get in.

“It’s a family, it’s an ongoing thing, and I’m talking about the past, and they’re really busy doing their own thing, I just parachute in, and I exit generally by the tube station.

“But they’ve got to be welcoming, because it’s like a high-speed train, you’ve got to jump on it at the right time or you miss it.

“So luckily, Steve McFadden (who plays Phil), and Paul Bradley (who plays Nigel Bates), and Letitia Dean (who plays Sharon Watts) opened the door for me, and it was like going back home, and it was great.”

Kemp began on the soap in 1990, and his previous appearance prior to his 2025 return, in 2016, marked his on-screen mother Dame Barbara Windsor’s final episode as Peggy Mitchell.

The actor currently hosts the BBC gameshow Bridge Of Lies, which challenges contestants to cross a digital bridge by choosing a true statement over a set of wrong ones.