With seemingly as many lives as a cat, after he came from the dead years after his 'murder', Den returned to the screens with the immortal lines "Hello princess!" to his daughter Sharon.

Dirty Den's immortality was later put to the test in a confrontation with the "three witches of Walford" – as dubbed by the papers – Chrissie, Zoe and Sam. After destroying his relationship with his daughter and taunting him, Den turned nasty and attacked Chrissie. Defended her, Zoe grabbing the nearest object – a dog-shaped doorstop – and hit him over the head.

She ran off, but even that didn't finish him off, however there was no coming back from a second blow to the head in cold blood by wife Chrissie as he shouted "You'll never get me out of the Vic!" and that was the case as he was later buried there to cover-up the murder.