EastEnders executive producer Diederick Santer has admitted that bringing back Dirty Den five years ago was a mistake that damaged the show.
Leslie Grantham's character was brought back from the dead in 2002, but Santer believes the storyline was too unbelievable and damaged the soap.
He said: "There was a phase in EastEnders when it became too accelerated and a bit unbelievable. The return of Dirty Den in 2002 says it all.
"He was dead. You can't bring him back. It's a Bobby Ewing in the shower moment. It undermined the show and did lasting damage."
I think it was a great storyline when they brought him back, and he played in some excellent roles, like his feud with Phil Mitchell and Andy Hunter, then Johnny Alan etc, but I agree it was way too unrealistic.
Its deffo done damage to the credibility of the soap, because everyone refers to how they bought him back from the dead when they are judjing how unrealistic the soap can be, the storyline itself was actually quite believeable, there was just something about it that didnt quite fit however.
Having said that, it took ratings from a low of like 6 and 7 million per episode to like 12 million per episode, and the most watched programme on television trouncing Corrie for a long time.
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