British Soap Characters Back from the Dead

Some of the other Soap Creations who Managed to Avoid the Grave

Feb 16, 2009

The news is out that Garry Hobbs is set to return to Walford after seemingly committing suicide but he isn't the first so here's more "undead" soap characters.

The big gossip in the world of soaps is that EastEnder's loveable loser Garry Hobbs has faked his own death only to make a shock appearance at his own memorial service a few weeks later. Of course Garry is not the first or last character to come back from the grave so here’s a compilation of others who have avoided moving onto the next life.

Probably the most famous example of grave dodging in popular British soaps. Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) is one of the most infamous characters on British TV after getting involved with gangsters, getting his teenage daughter’s friend pregnant and even divorced his wife Angie on Christmas Day. After falling on the wrong side of East End gang The Firm he was shot by the side of a canal and seemingly dead but had gone to hide in Spain.

Den came back to England in 2003 to the shock of everyone, especially daughter Sharon, but was dispatched a few years later by his wife Chrissie and buried under his beloved pub The Queen Vic.

EastEnders again proving that they are the kings of bringing people back from the dead. During the 90s Grant (Ross Kemp) and his brother Phil were the centre of almost everything in Walford but they also has a rocky relationship. In 1999 Phil discovered that Grant had slept with his wife Kathy and caused his brother to plunge into the Thames after shooting at him with a handgun.

But that wasn’t the end as he was shown to survive when Phil saw him board a plane with his daughter. Grant has since returned a few times, most notably to help free his brother from prison.

Kim (Claire King) had many enemies in Emmerdale due to her numerous affairs with just about every man in the village. But the height of her nastiness came in 1997 when she faked her own death and then forced her husband Frank, who had served time in prison for her murder, to have a heart attack and watched as he died.

She left the village in 1999 and has not been seen again despite rumours of her making a future appearance.

Serial rapist Andy (Warren Brown) was one of the most evil soap characters since Coronation Street’s Richard Hillman and EastEnders’ Trevor Morgan. He regularly spiked drinks and took advantage of woman, and even encouraged his friend Sam to do the same. Viewers were led to believe that Andy had died after being pushed off a quarry but he returned months later to get revenge on those who tried to kill him.

Andy was eventually killed after becoming impaled on an arrow during a confrontation in a warehouse.

This one is just a rumour at the moment and isn’t strictly a comeback in the natural sense but apparently trainee meat seller Graeme Proctor (Craig Gazey) is to “possessed” by the ghost of Fred Elliot by adopting his mannerisms and sayings whenever he puts Fred’s old hat on. The butcher, who had a distinctive way of speaking (“Our Ashley, I say, our Ashley”), died of a heart attack in October 2006.

Whether or not it is actually going to happen it is still bad enough to be a hilarious story and even if it does turn out to be false it just proves that the ridiculous nature of soaps seems to have no boundaries.

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