Enders' Ricky and Bianca to tie the knot... again!

Enders' Ricky and Bianca to tie the knot... again! (Image credit: BBC)

EastEnders’ favourite Ricky Butcher is set to ask long running on-off lover Bianca Jackson to marry him again at Christmas. The pair will tie the knot in February next year in an effort to boost ratings, The Mirror has reported. When Ricky and Bianca first got married the wedding was watched by 22 million fans in 1997 - but episodes of the soap are getting an average of just under nine million viewers at the moment. Bianca's mum Carol, sister Sonia and brother Robbie are set to return to the soap for the storyline - with Lindsay Coulsen, Natalie Cassidy and Dean Gaffney joining the cast for the celebrations. A show insider told The Mirror: "Ricky and Bianca getting hitched again is what viewers have been dreaming of from the moment they arrived back in Albert Square. "This will hopefully be the happy ending everyone is waiting for. We could well be looking at the greatest love story ever told. It's going to be emotional." The added: "When Ricky fell for Sam again and they got engaged, Bianca was gutted. But Sam is already cheating on him with Jack Branning. "One way or another, Ricky and Bianca were meant to be together." Eastenders: Last Tango in Walford - a DVD looking at Ricky and Bianca's rollercoaster relationship - will also be released in February. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's new weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.