Cindy Beale's death was a surprise to Michelle Collins

The 52-year-old actress, who played scheming villainness Cindy Beale on the BBC soap, left the show in 1996 to have a baby. Her character was seen escaping to Italy after hiring a hitman to kill her husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt).

Michelle admitted to The Sun that she was “petrified” about returning to work after going on maternity leave for 12 months.

“I was really scared about going back. I was petrified about going into the pub and I remember they played The B**** Is Back on the jukebox,” she said.

“I felt like I didn’t belong there any more. I was wined and dined and promised more ‘bad girl’ storylines by Matthew Robinson, the executive producer at the time, but I had to be honest and graciously said no.”

But Michelle admitted she was still shocked to find Cindy had been killed off dying in childbirth while off screen in 1998.

The actress only found out from a writer that Cindy’s funeral scenes had been filmed, after she started shooting BBC drama Sunburn. Cindy’s death took place off-screen, when she died in childbirth in prison.

“If I hadn’t been working, I think I would have been very upset,” she explained.

Michelle, who joined rival soap Coronation Street in 2011 and reprised the role of Cindy for a Children In Need sketch last November, said she could have been persuaded to return for the show’s 30th anniversary by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.

“Dominic told me that he thought killing off Cindy was the worst thing EastEnders could have done,” she said.

“I haven’t ever had that day where I wanted to go back, but if anyone could have persuaded me, and Cindy wasn’t dead, it would have been Dominic. Now really feels like EastEnders’s time.”