‘Emmerdale’ bosses have teased a former character will return to the show in March in some special Belfast-based episodes.
Producers Laura Shaw and Kate Brooks have told fans a number of the soap’s stars will be heading to the Northern Irish capital to shoot some eps, and the characters will bump into someone who hasn’t been in the village for "quite a while".
Laura said: "In March we’ve got some special episodes coming up where we go to Belfast.
"A group of our characters go to Belfast and there is going to be some fun and japes over there.
"What we can reveal is maybe they’re going to bump into somebody who was in our village quite a while ago who we’ve not seen for a while."
Laura also dropped a strong hint that the mystery character will be heading back to the village after the group’s Belfast jaunt.
She added: "And maybe that person is going to be coming back to the village with them?"
Speculation has been rife as to who the mystery character could be with some fans suggesting Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley) – but she is expected to return to the village earlier than March.
Lisa recently admitted she turned down a lengthier ‘Emmerdale’ return due to other commitments.
She said: "The first initial offer was for a long period, but because of work and my commitments, there was an original storyline which has been flipped.
"It won’t be what people expect, which is even better. It leaves things very much open for the new year, shall we say.
"I had a secret meeting with the show and I had time to have a think about whether it was the right thing, but it didn’t take me a long time once they told me the story."
Adam Barton – played by Adam Thomas – has also been talked about as a potential returnee after he went on the run, and Andy Sugden (Kelvin Fletcher) also went on the run in 2016.
Emmerdale favourite to return in Belfast special
