Vicki Fowler is back on EastEnders, reunited with her sister Sharon Watts onscreen after decades with a new actress taking on the role.

Monday’s episode of the BBC soap aired her comeback ahead of her uncle Martin Fowler’s funeral, with spoilers revealing the return prior to the episode. The role has been recast with original Vicki actress Scarlett Alice Johnson replaced by Alice Haig.

Viewers witnessing the return were quick to comment on this ahead of the episode airing on Monday night, having dropped early on BBC iPlayer as normal. Warning, the rest of this article contains spoilers from Monday’s episode so look away now if you don’t want to see!

Sharon had just had a showdown with her on/off flame Phil Mitchell just as it seemed they might reconcile. Phil’s battle with his mental health saw the former couple grow closer again.

There was a kiss and both of them were thrilled, clearly wanting to give things another go. Sharon knew Phil’s feelings for her which he’d initially kept to himself, and she revealed they were mutual.

Vicki Fowler is back on EastEnders, reunited with her sister Sharon Watts (Image: BBC)

But just as things took a happy turn, the pair ended up rowing after Phil found out about Sharon sleeping with his brother Grant Mitchell recently. Phil raged at her and refused to forgive her, sending a tearful Sharon packing.

With that a black cab pulled up onto the Square, and Vicki was seen getting out of it with her new flame Ross and his son Joel. As Phil fumed at Sharon outside and told her she didn’t deserve family, Vicki interrupted to defend her sibling.

The role has been recast with original Vicki actress Scarlett Alice Johnson replaced by Alice Haig(Image: BBC)

This time around Vicki sounds British meaning the accent has left for good. Other fans were confused that she didn’t have an Australian accent given she’d been there most of the time since she left decades earlier.

One fan commented online: “Weird not to hear the fake American accent lol,” as another agreed: “So weird about the accent – such a dramatic entrance but hey it’s EastEnders so what do you expect.”

A third viewer joked: “I’m gutted Vicki didn’t say ‘G’day’ to Sharon and asked her to ‘put another shrimp on the Barbie’.” A fourth said: “Didn’t Vicky used to have that American accent? It must have just vanished.”

A final comment read: “I’m excited to see what they’ve done with her character but honestly it’s a bit weird that she has quite a strong London accent. Like she’s been away from London for 20 years and when she left her accent was just neutral not American but just a completely neutral English accent so I don’t know. Maybe she’s been around lots of Londoners wherever she’s been living and that’s why her accent’s changed.”