UPDATE: |Former EastEnders star reveals he ‘still watches’ soap as fans remain hopeful for return News

The actor left the soap last year to the devastation of viewers

A former EastEnders star has revealed that he ‘still watches’ the soap as fans remain hopeful that they’re set to make a return.

A number of characters have left the BBC soap in recent years, most recently James Bye’s beloved fruit and vegetable salesman Martin Fowler.

More exits are on the horizon, with onscreen sisters Natalie Cassidy and Patsy Palmer both saying goodbye to Albert Square in the coming weeks.

On top of that, it emerged last week that Ruby Allen actress Louisa Lytton is departing after making her return in November.

With Vicki Fowler brought back with a new actress and a new family, the programme may bring back some other faces in the coming months.

One character who has not been seen since March 2024 is Ben Mitchell, last seen being extradited to America for credit card fraud.

The son of Phil Mitchell has been played by six different actors since his on-screen birth in March, 1996, the most actors any character has had in EastEnders history.

The last actor to play Ben, who is married to Callum Highway, is Max Bowden, who replaced Harry Reid in 2019 and became a fan favourite actor.

The 30-year-old actor has confirmed that despite not being involved with the show for a year, he remains an avid fan.

“I watched it last night, funnily enough. Me and my nan watched it and I spoke to a few of the people – Jessie Wallace, who plays Kat Slater, and Steve McFadden, who’s Phil Mitchell – last night, too. I told them it has been amazing,” he told Metro newspaper’s 60 Seconds column.

With Ben and Calum being a popular couple, his dad Phil suffering with his mental health and his daughter Lexi struggling in his absence, it feels like Max may be back in Walford before we know it.

Max is currently working on the new musical Midnight Cowboy, based on the 1969 Dustin Hoffman film and 1965 novel of the same name.

Since leaving EastEnders, Max admitted that he’s been on a ‘a journey of self-discovery’ as his career continues to go from strength to strength.

He explained: “I had such an amazing time with ‘EastEnders’. I was there for the best part of five years and so busy during that time.

“The time away has given me the chance to focus on myself and the things that weren’t right in my life, things I wasn’t happy with about myself. I’ve been able to navigate a way around them and learn from them.

“That’s what the past year has done. Being on the road and seeing different parts of the country has been therapeutic because I get to be at one with the whole demographic of the UK. It has been liberating.”

Previously saying that EastEnders made him ‘fearless’, Max branded it one of the ‘hardest’ jobs an actor can have due to the amount of scenes that need to be filmed.

“EastEnders’ is one of the hardest gigs, if not the hardest gig, in acting because a lot of the time you have to strip away your technique and rely on impulse,” he said.

“I carry quite a lot of ‘the method’ in my approach to my acting, and it’s easy to get a bit lost in the work as a result. So it’s shaped me in that I no longer approach anything with fear.

“It’s a brilliant place to hone your skills, so I’m very grateful for my time there.”