This year marks the end of an era for 'EastEnders', as we see the leading matriarch Peggy Mitchell - played by Dame Barbara Windsor - make her final appearance following her re-diagnosis of cancer. Plus, Ross Kemp will bring her son Grant back after ten years for one final Mitchell reunion.

Ross KempRoss Kemp is back again in Albert Square

Kemp appeared in almost a thousand episodes of the East London soup, playing Albert Square's hard-man Grant Mitchell alongside on-screen brother Steve McFadden as Phil Mitchell. He made a dramatic departure in 2006, while Peggy herself left the Square in 2010 and only made brief returns in the following years.

This year though is the last we'll see of Peggy, and so it's only appropriate that she and her beloved sons are reunited for one last dramatic moment together. 'When I was approached about returning to EastEnders for Barbara's final episodes, it was something I could not turn down', Kemp said in a statement. 'Barbara is a very close friend, so when I learned of the storyline it felt right that the Mitchell brothers are reunited with their mother for the last time. I am really looking forward to going back to EastEnders and filming what are set to be some classic EastEnders episodes.'

More: Ross Kemp insisted he wouldn't return last year

It'll be an emotional few episodes for 'EastEnders' fans (no doubt they'll be extremely used to it), with Peggy's cancer returning - this time terminal - and finally taking the old soul from us sometime in the Spring. Of course, Phil has stuck around for the longest, but what will the death of his mother spell for his future in Walford?

'To have the Mitchell brothers come face to face again, having to face losing their mother, is an opportunity to show Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden at their very best', says the show's executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.