There's so much scope for her character still and I feel that the ill-advised decision to bring Danniella back as Sam back in 2009/10 shouldn't prevent the character from returning.

Let's face it, the idea to bring Danniella back (and by doing so, reverting all of the character's development) made a mockery of the character. Some even believe it ruined the character. So, having been 4 years now since she was last on screen, why not just bring Kim Medcalf back and actually stick with her this time? Danniella was in it so little in 2009/10 that casual viewers probably don't even remember her. DTC has been meaning to right some of the wrongs during his reign at EE so why not sort out the Sam Mitchell situation? If he leaves it as it is, Sam will never be able to come back. Recasting the role back to the more popular Sam is the only way and I don't think it'll be as ridiculous as it may first seem.

Sadly the Sam ship has sailed.

bringing back Kim would be a joke now and very disrespectful to Daniella. Why kick someone while shes down? She will bounce back like before. Drug addiction is something that exists and can't be ignored. Sharon fills this role now.

Bringing back Daniella will just lead to another chav mum and this role is already filled by Lola, Bianca, Kat.

Another recast would alienate viewers

killing her off is an option but its too soon after Lucy.

I dont see any future longterm for Daniella as Sam Mitchell so either the character never returns again or the next best option is to get Kim Medcalf back.
However I dont believe now is the right time and it could be taken as heartless to Daniella to do it presently.However I do think it was very disrespectful of tptb to Kim to bring Daniella back after recasting her in the role.

I've said it for a long time, a job-share is the only way to do it without it seeming farcical.

Daniella can film Mon-Weds so she can go out and get coked up at the weekends, and Kim can film Thurs-Sat.

for gods sake kim wanted to leave ee and didnt want to return hence why danielle was brought back in the first place people need to accept kim isnt ever coming back and sam mitchel isnt needed at the moment anyway.

Arguably going Danniella > Kim > Danniella is a joke anyway. They've got nothing left to lose by going back to Kim and keeping her in the role until she decides to leave. I can understand that now wouldn't be the best time with Danniella's troubles but in thee near future I think Kim should come back. It was completely disrespectful how DS didn't ask Kim to return. I loved him as an EP but that was one of his few terrible decisions.

Ive never heard she didnt want to return?Was she asked?I dont think Sam was needed in 2009-10 anyway tbh.

DS wanted Danniella back for the Ricky/Bianca storyline because she had great chemistry with them and DS saw Danniella as the true Sam Mitchell. I don't think Kim was asked back at all but if you want to provide a source, I'm more than willing to eat my words.

Sam will always be an important character for the show. The original Mitchell sister, she has lots of family and links on the square and a great past. Let's face it, if Danniella never returned in 2009/10, Sam would be back by now.

I have no strong feelings either way

What if Peggy gets an anonymous phone call. Sam and Mandy Salter were swapped at birth.

Danniella was Sam just like Melissa was Lucy. What was disrespectful was recasting the role in the first place. They only reason Kim lasted is because Bab's was forced into a break through illness and Steve went on a 12 month break. So to keep the Mitchell's in the show they used Sam but Kim was always out of her depth. She had zero chemistry with any of her screen family. When Steve, Ross and Bab's returned in 2005, Kim looked like an imposter and very much out of place. Kim had no chemistry with Sid Owen which caused their 2002 planned reunion to be dropped completely and in turn resulted in the correct decision to bring back Danniella in 2009.

Danniella's second return in 2010 was so much better than the 2009 one. Kirkwood wanted her back full time but Danniella moved to America for that period so couldn't.

Maybe once Danniella is back on her feet DTC will bring her back. He also said she was his Sam. Seems like alot on the show never believed in Kim.

Kim needs to return with slim shady

I can't bear DW's Sam. I liked Kim in the role.

It took me ages to accept Kim as Sam. In fact I only warmed to her during the final few months of her being on screen in 2005. Danniella will always be my Sam because that's the Sam I grew up with but I respect Kim for the period in which she played her. People always say Kim matured Sam but she didn't. Kim's Sam was still the same loose legged, brainless tart she always was under Danniella. Just Kim had a posher face so people took her differently to Danniella's more chav exterior. Its amazing what a difference appearance makes. Its worth remembering. Danniella was cast in this role as she had the best chemistry with Steve and Ross when the role was being screen tested. It really was her part. I never understood the decision to recast as recasting wasn't something EE ever did with main characters except in the case of Mark Fowler. I know Bab's herself took over the role of Peggy but Peggy had only featured a hand full of times previously.

The most tragic thing about all this is how much of a train wreck Danniella's life has been at times. If only she had never become an addict things could and would have been very different. I don't think we will see her back because her role is filled by Ronnie and Roxy. Rita Simons is obviously with EE for the long haul so in essence she is playing out the role of Sam within Roxy.

Kim will always be Sam to me. I couldn't stand Sam before Kim and couldn't stand her when Daniella return either.

I refute that she had no chemistry with Steve (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qim5W26qJ0k), Kim simply had more class. She was just the better actress, there is no two ways about it.

This is proof (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_9cxnc3los) of that. A new face but still Sam! In the years that followed, Kim moulded Sam into a more sustainable character that was more than just a piece of eye candy or love interest.

I normally hate recasts but I thought Kim did really well. I do agree that Roxy fills the ditzy blonde role now. Whatever transpires I wish Daniella well and hope she kicks this.

The usage of recasting in EastEnders is one of the silliest things about it. Everyone whines about Dirty Den being "resurrrected" yet has no problem with characters having complete body swaps and personality transplants. I honestly think they should have put a rule in force early on that characters cannot be recasted. The only exception I'd make is in the case of Mark Fowler since the actor died in real life and the character was important. Obviously child actors are fair game for a recast since it's sometimes necessary to replace a child who can't act with one who can. I do think, however, they left it too late to recast Lucy again and that the constant head swapping of Ben is fecking absurd.

Now I did like Kim's Sam, possibly more than Daniella's, but she could easily have been a Mitchell cousin rather than Sam and she could have returned to the series now. The most ridiculous recast was Peggy. She went from a tall, overweight, not especially attractive frumpy woman to a small, petite, glamorous dolly bird. The old Peggy is long forgotten now but I remember it took me a long time to come round to Barbara Windsor (of all people) as this new version of Peggy.

Great post BA. Perhaps Peggy went to one of those transformation clinics.

I remember Tony Jordon saying he hated recasts and resented them happening. That's why they didn't do the simple thing of recasting Dan Ferriera when the actor playing him got deported. So it does seem odd he signed off the recasting of Sam when the Mitchell's were his baby. Unless Mal Young and John Yorke ordered the recast. It happened on John Yorke's watch yet it was John who later insisted it had to be Danniella who returned. Maybe Yorke felt guilty about recasting or realised the whole thing had been a mistake.

This.

Daniella has been given many chances by EastEnders and now that she has fallen back into the drugs again, I don't think there is anything wrong with bringing back Kim. I wouldn't blame Kim if she declined though, after they it seemed chose Daniella over her in 2009.

Daniella also seems to prefer short stints these days. I think it worked for the Archie whodunnit, but as Sam's an important character, it won't work when they need to reinforce the Mitchells.

From the interview she gave last week, it seems she was taking cocaine while she was pregnant. I've lost all sympathy for her.

Ironically recasting Dan Ferreira would probably have worked better than all the kidney bollocks we got landed with, especially as he was going to be killed off anyway!

I think it took the p a bit to recast Sam back again so quickly and for some utterly pointless Ricky/Bianca love triangle rehash, then making her a Jack conquest.

It wasn't worth it recasting Sam back to Daniella. She only stayed for a few months in 2009 and a few weeks in 2010. A Pretty pointless exercise only to leave the character lumbered with yet another spawn of Jack Branning. They made their bed with Kim Medcalf and it worked out for the most part. They should have let sleeping dogs lie instead of trying to recreate past glories with a rehash of the Ricky/Bianca/Sam storyline.

It was a poor plot full stop but I'd have been happy to see Kim give it a bash if they were intent on rehashing it - at least doing it with Kim would have felt different instead of a direct carbon copy of the 90's plot.

As I've already said, I refute that Kim had little chemistry with the other actors. I thought she worked alongside Steve and Babs rather well, it was different but I thought it was a good different. I don't have any memories of Kim and Sid working together but I think Kim could easily have pulled it off and both Kim and Patsy are strong enough actors that the sparring between the pair would have been good.

All this "chemistry" stuff is just someone's preference for a particular actor or set of actors. Kim worked perfectly fine with the Mitchells. She's a good actress. The reason it didn't work out with Ricky is because Sid Owen is not. He only works with Daniella and Patsy because of the nostalgia associated with them. If anyone needed replacing it was him since he can't create so called chemistry with any other love interest. The reason it may not have been what the writers hoped for is because it's not the same actress in the role but that was their decision. There was nothing especially earth shattering about the combination of Sid Owen, Patsy Palmer and Daniella Westbrook. The writng certainly wasn't anything spectacular in either version of that storyline to warrant a repeat or the ill judged return of Westbrook.

This. I don't think Santer intended to use Sam so as to complete Jack's Mitchell set. Kirkwood was in full control by the time they did the paternity test. Maybe Santer had some involvement in the pregnancy, but I think he would have had the sense to make it a Sam/Ricky baby. It was a past glory but at least that way, the baby would have been a legacy character. One could argue he is because of the Mitchell line, but the whole Spawn of Sperminator Branning thing seems to overshadow it.