{"id":321259,"date":"2025-08-06T01:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321259\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T01:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:25:18","slug":"eastenders-jessie-wallace-reveals-her-one-big-request-for-zoe-slater-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321259\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders’ Jessie Wallace reveals her one big request for Zoe Slater return"},"content":{"rendered":"

EastEnders<\/a> <\/strong>spoilers follow. <\/strong><\/p>\n

EastEnders star Jessie Wallace has revealed the one request she had ahead of Zoe Slater’s return<\/a> to the soap. <\/p>\n

It was announced earlier this year that Michelle Ryan would reprise her role<\/a> as the iconic character after a 20-year absence, with the actor making her comeback on the BBC soap<\/a> in June. <\/p>\n

Though Zoe<\/a> is yet to come face-to-face with her mother Kat, the highly-anticipated moment is set to come in the near future.<\/p>\n

Speaking to to RadioTimes<\/a>, Wallace, who plays Kat, said she had one special request for executive producer Ben Wadey when she was informed of Zoe’s return.<\/p>\n

“I said to Ben, ‘It has to be Michelle. It won’t feel right if Zoe is recast,'” Wallace recalled . “I wouldn’t be able to give it my best performance. The audience would feel completely conned.”<\/p>\n

\"kat<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2025 \u2014 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV+<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wallace, who added that she was “protective” of the co-star that she “loved”, also recalled the moment she tearfully met with Ryan for the first time in two decades, describing it as “very emotional”, “nostalgic” and “lovely”.<\/p>\n

Ryan also paid tribute to Wallace as she described her co-star as “one of the best actresses” that she had worked with, adding: “The rapport we have and our friendship off-screen as well, it all just feeds into that mother-daughter bond. <\/p>\n

“On set, it’s like having someone in your corner all the time and knowing that I’ll be fine. I can just talk to Jessie. We have a shorthand, and we have a similar kind of view on the characters and their journeys.”<\/p>\n

\"zoe<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders\u2019 Elaine and Kojo to face violent attack in dangerous storyline<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While Wallace and Ryan will see their characters come face-to-face, one figure who won’t be seen in Albert Square any time soon is Karen Taylor, with actor Lorraine Stanley recently confirming<\/a> she held no immediate plans to reprise her role. <\/p>\n

“They didn’t kill me off. But right now, I wouldn’t [return],” said the actor. “I’m enjoying [spending time with my daughter] Nancy. On EastEnders, I missed a lot of milestones. Now I’m like her personal taxi driver for skateboarding, piano lessons \u2013 and I love it.”<\/p>\n

EastEnders<\/strong> airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more <\/strong>EastEnders<\/strong> spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s new print issue is here! Buy <\/strong>Oasis – Live in ’25<\/strong><\/a> in newsagents or <\/strong>online<\/strong><\/a>, now priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deals that might interest you\"Shop<\/a>Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile deals\"On\"Richard<\/a>Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersCredit: Viking\"Stranger<\/a>Stranger Things Hellfire Club dice dangle charmCredit: Pandora\"Shop<\/a>Shop PS5 consolesCredit: PlayStation\"Shop<\/a>Shop Alison Hammond’s outfitsCredit: Mark Bourdillon\"Apple<\/a>Apple TV+ 7-day free trialCredit: Apple TV+\"Sign<\/a>Sign up for Disney+Credit: Chuck Zlotnick\"The<\/a>The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive NovelCredit: Octopus Books\"Death<\/a>Death in Paradise: The Puzzle BookCredit: BBC Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EastEnders spoilers follow. EastEnders star Jessie Wallace has revealed the one request she had ahead of Zoe Slater’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,116316,1331,77,3989,1330,116315,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-321259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-dbc1d8c4-c228-40d5-b558-8d060cc2ad30","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-shorttitle-eastenders-jessie-wallace-reveals-her-zoe-request","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114979217648522442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}