Ross Kemp says he owes EastEnders ‘a great debt' and refuses to rule out return
EastEnders actor Ross Kemp has said he owes the BBC soap 'a great debt' for giving him a career in television and has refused to rule out a return to the show.
The 60-year-old returned to EastEnders as Grant Mitchell after almost 10 years away during its 40th anniversary celebrations earlier this year, as his character returned to Albert Square to help his brother Phil with his mental health problems.
Grant recently left Walford again for his home in Portugal.
Asked on ITV's Loose Women whether he would return to the role again, Kemp said: 'You just don't know, do you? You don't know what's in the minds of the people who work on it.
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'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 famously reopened Bolton's Club Metro which had been destroyed by fire, as a special guest. The club aimed to recreate a European nightclub experience, with special events planned, including celebrity appearance
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.
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