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 killed off given his ambiguous disappearance.

Earlier this week, Chrissie came face to face with old enemy Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) in prison, where she confided that she had been pregnant with Jake’s child, which she tragically went on to lose.

She then attempted to exact a violent revenge on Sharon, blaming her for everything she had lost. However, the pair reached an unexpected tragedy over the men who had wronged them and what they had been forced to do.

Chrissie was released on parole and fans were stunned to discover that Jake had waited for her all these years – and even gave her a whistle-stop visit to Albert Square.

And Joel isn’t ruling out a full time return down the line, dropping the old ‘never say never’ on us.

‘I’m sure the audience will let me know if they’d like to see me again!’ he teased.

Over to you, vocal EastEnders fans!

So how did the unexpected cameo come about?

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.’

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.

But while that wasn’t to be – this time – Joel was glad he at least got to hang out with Shane Richie once more.

‘Seeing Shane, who is a great pal, but who I haven’t seen for ages was wonderful,’ he enthused. ‘We had a big hug, it’s a shame we didn’t get to do any scenes.

‘I wasn’t allowed to see anybody else because it was very secret. I was taken into the studios in a blacked out car for costume fittings and for filming, so nobody knew that I was there.

‘Then it came to the time where I was asked if I wanted to have a practice run in the car. I was asked to drive it around the car park, so I was driving a e-type jag convertible, with a V12 engine, one of the noisiest things, past all of the dressing rooms, so if anyone didn’t know I was in, they did then!’