James Alexandrou: 'The time's not right for me to return to EastEnders' (VIDEO)

James Alexandrou says the time isn't right for him to return to EastEnders, despite his screen wife Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) returning to Albert Square this year.

James played Martin Fowler on EastEnders between 1996-2007, but left to start a new life with Sonia and their daughter Rebecca. Sonia is now back in Walford, supporting her mum Carol while she's fighting breast cancer, but without Martin.

James told What's on TV: "Natalie called me when she went back in it and she was so happy and it seems like there's a really nice atmosphere there and I know that when Danny Dyer came in it really energised it and he's great for the show.

"For the first time in a long time I was really going, 'Could I do it? Could I do it? ...But I don't think the time's right for me right now. But it's never a no – it's just not right now."

James is currently playing Iago in a production of Shakespeare's Othello at London's Leicester Square Theatre until April 26.

Watch James talk about EastEnders and his burgeoning film writing and directing career:

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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.