Samantha Womack doesn't want to ruin her 'EastEnders' legacy.
The 40-year-old actress will return to the soap this week as baby snatcher Ronnie Mitchell and she admitted she has no idea if the character will "succeed" after two years away.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper's We Love TV magazine: "[I'm staying for] six months at the moment, mainly because I don't know if the character is going to succeed.
"I don't want to be flogging a dead horse, so I thought, 'Right, I'll go back, see if it works, and then regroup in six months'.
"The one thing I wouldn't want to do is take away what we achieved, which was to create this massive character."
The star needed no persuading to reprise her role, and she explained she was only keen on coming back to the show if she could develop her character after Ronnie spent two years in prison for snatching Kat Moon's baby Tommy following the death of her own child James.
She said: "I was excited. I felt as if Ronnie had lost her way and I wanted her to come back and gain strength.
"She was unfinished business. I definitely felt that the character and the storylines had exhausted themselves in that scenario.
"It certainly feels like I'm able to come back with new boots on, which I really wanted to do."
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