In soap-land, anything is possible - even resurrection.
And EastEnders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks have all left viewers utterly shocked by bringing some of our favourite characters back from the dead, with a convoluted and bizarre excuse as to where on earth they've been.
Some pretend to have been murdered in a bid to frame someone else, while others are part of an elaborate insurance scam.
And soap fans seem to love a surprise resurrection, with EastEnders' ' Dirty' Den Watts's big comeback voted the best of all time in an AOL poll of more than 23,000 people.
Let's take a look at some of the wildest returns from the grave we've seen on our screens, from Nick Cotton to Kathy Beale and Kim Tate.
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'Dirty' Den Watts
Dirty Den's return to Albert Square after he was presumed dead, became one of the most famous and shocking moments in EastEnders ' history.
The character, played by Leslie Grantham, was believed to have been killed by a gang member, shot and drowned in the canal in 1989.
A splash was heard - but as we all know, if a death happens off-screen in TV, it can't be relied upon.
Sharon Watts identified what she thought was her father's body - but it was actually the gang member who had been killed for bungling Den's murder.
He'd had his teeth removed and Den's signet ring planted on him.
When Den's son Dennis Rickman arrived in Walford and investigated his dad's supposed death, he discovered that Den had in fact survived and was living in hiding in Spain.
Fourteen years later, Den returned and gave his daughter Sharon a huge shock with the iconic line: "Hello, princess."
He was later murdered by ex-wife Chrissie Watts - who tried to frame Sam Mitchell in a long-running whodunnit.
Kat Slater
Kat Slater, played by Jessie Wallace, was pronounced dead in 2018 by Big Mo who claimed she'd fallen off a boat.
Her devastated family threw a party at the Queen Vic to raise money for Kat's funeral - and they were surprised to say the least when Kat herself actually turned up.
In Kat's spinoff show, Kat & Alfie: Redwater, she'd last been seen getting thrown from a boat, landing in the water and getting injured by a propeller.
But the Walford resident had since been living in Spain with Alfie and their children, and Mo had been scheming to raise funds because she was in financial difficulty.
Mo had lied to a man she met online to get her hands on his cash - but his furious daughter turned at in the Square, demanding the money back.
Baffled to be arriving at a benefit held in her own honour, Kat explained to the confused party-goers that Mo had made a mistake, and a brutal bar fight ensued.
Kathy Beale
In 2000, Ian Beale's mum and cafe owner Kathy Beale, played by Gillian Taylforth, left the Square for a new life in South Africa.
But then came the heartbreaking news she'd been killed in a car crash in 2006 - off camera.
However, it later transpired she'd been after the insurance money, and she made her dramatic return in 2015, coinciding with the show's 35th anniversary.
It emerged that she had been bullied into faking her own death by abusive husband Gavin Sullivan (Paul Nicholas) but thankfully her loved ones managed to free her from his clutches.
Kathy's old flame Phil Mitchell had discovered she was still alive, and after hiding her at first, he convinced her to come home - where she's stayed ever since.
Her storyline was inspired by John Darwin, a British prison officer who faked his death by a canoeing accident in 2002, in a bid to get his life insurance money, before fleeing to Panama with his wife Anne.
He "turned up" five years later, proclaiming not to remember where he had been, with his two sons having believed him dead all that time.
John and Anne were eventually found out and jailed for six years in prison.
Mercedes McQueen
In 2014, Hollyoaks fans were convinced they'd watched Mercedes McQueen meet a sticky end at the hands of gangsters Grace Black and James Nightingale, who appeared to stab her to death.
But just over a year later, Mercedes, who is played by Jennifer Metcalfe, sauntered back into the village like nothing had happened.
She had been secretly living in the French Riviera, and was helping Grace frame Freddie Roscoe for her murder - having seemingly forgiven Grace for all the stabbing.
Grace then dispatched Freddie’s brother Joe to France so that he could see Mercedes in the flesh, and it was revealed that the plan all along was for Mercedes to cause a stir when she returned.
The beef between Mercedes and Grace didn't end there - Mercedes shot Grace a few years later, before Grace returned the favour with her own gun, and Mercedes then ran Grace over in her car.
Kim Tate
Emmerdale's best villain Kim Tate, played by Claire King, faked her own death in unbelievable scenes in 1997.
Kim had hired a lookalike sex worker to drive around the village while she was actually on holiday in the Caribbean.
Part of the plan was for the sex worker to drive Kim's car off a quarry and into the water, but escaping in time and only pretending to be dead.
But it went wrong - the woman got stuck in the car for real and tragically drowned.
Kim's car was found by Andy Hopwood, and the body was believed to be Kim - with many village residents convinced her husband Frank Tate had killed her.
Months later, Kim gave Frank the shock of his life when she returned - literally.
He was so taken aback, he suffered from a heart attack, and she emotionlessly watched him die.
Checking he was dead using her compact mirror, Kim then re-applied her makeup and carried on her life as normal.
Years later, Kim would fake her own death once again in 2021 in a bid to exact revenge on her son Jamie, who was secretly poisoning her - though he now seems to have taken a leaf out of his mum's book after mysteriously going missing.
Nick Cotton
'Nasty' Nick Cotton left his mum Dot absolutely devastated when he was announced dead in 2014.
It was claimed he'd died from a drug overdose and Dot, who he had always terrorised, had conflicting feelings.
But Nick came back that very same year in a bid to extort money from his son Charlie, and he also cut the brakes on Ronnie Mitchell's car, leading to her almost dying in a car crash while driving to hospital in labour.
Long-suffering Dot hid Nick in an unused house and even helped get him heroin, but they fell out when Nick showed zero compassion for Ronnie, who was in a coma.
Later, Dot found Nick unconscious from a drug overdose - for real this time.
He briefly regained consciousness and admitted to Dot that he murdered Reg Cox back in 1985, and his mother held him as he died, refusing to call for medical assistance after decades of being abused by him.
Dot confessed to killing Nick by letting him die, and she served four months in jail for his manslaughter.
Gary Windass
Corrie fans were heartbroken when it was announced Gary Windass (Mikey North) had died in a car explosion in Ukraine in 2017.
But months later, he made an underwhelming return as Sarah and Bethany Platt returned home to find him sitting on the sofa, offering them a cuppa.
Sarah had been devastated at the news of her boyfriend's death, but had accepted it as the St Christopher necklace she gave him was found in the wreckage.
She and Gary's mother Anna had been told by police there were no survivors in the crash.
Fans of the soap were confused, as they had presumed Gary's return would be a bigger storyline that would air at Christmas, but he was welcomed back all the same.
However, his comeback turned sour when Sarah realised Gary had cheated on her and got another woman pregnant while she believed him dead.
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