EastEnders call up the Mitchells

EastEnders is to revive some of its bestknown characters in an attempt to boost ratings.

Producers want to reunite the squabbling Mitchell family to help the BBC1 soap fight back against Coronation Street.

It follows the successful return of 'Dirty' Den Watts last year. Ratings rocketed to 17million when he reappeared after a 14-year absence.

However, they have fallen back to around 12million after new families such as the Ferreiras failed to capture the public's imagination.

Approaches are being made to Steve McFadden ( who played Phil Mitchell), Ross Kemp (Grant Mitchell) and Gillian Taylforth (Phil's ex-wife Kathy) to see if their characters can be brought back over the next year.

EastEnders executive producer Louise Berridge is due to discuss the long-term future of the show with BBC bosses over the next week. Coronation Street is winning four of the five top spots in the ratings chart and won a prestigious Bafta award - while for the first time EastEnders wasn't even nominated.

Attempts to introduce new Albert Square residents have not proved as popular as hoped and some characters will be axed to make way for the familiar faces.

It is likely to prove expensive to lure back the big names - Leslie Grantham is understood to have been given £200,000 to rejoin the soap.

With Barbara Windsor - who plays Peggy Mitchell - also due back next year, the return of the Mitchells could prove dynamite viewing. Den' s daughter Sharon - Grant's exwife - has already returned.

One insider said: 'It'd be like going back in time to when EastEnders was in its heyday.'

The feuding Mitchell clan provided EastEnders with some of its most explosive plot lines - including the Who Shot Phil? cliffhanger. McFadden left the soap six months ago for a year-long sabbatical but has not had great success.

His only primetime show has been fronting a series called Britain's Hardest for Sky.

BBC sources said Miss Berridge has already asked for him to return.

Mr Kemp, 39, was recently voted the most popular ex-soap star in a TV Times poll.

He left to join ITV on a twoyear deal in 2001 but that has not been renewed. Kemp is about to appear on screen in the two-part thriller A Line in the Sand.

Apart from making a third series of SAS drama Ultimate Force for ITV he said yesterday he does not have any other TV projects planned.

Talking about a return to EastEnders, Mr Kemp said: 'You can never say never.'

Since she left in 1997, Miss Taylforth has starred in ITV1 drama Footballer's Wives. Sources said she has not ruled out a return to EastEnders.

The BBC is about to begin a huge advertising campaign for the soap.