Fair City star Jenny Kavanagh has told RTÉ Entertainment that her character Cleo Collins' return to Carrigstown will be longer than planned because "more and more opportunities" open up for the onetime tearaway on her old stomping ground.
Dubliner Kavanagh is back home from France to reprise her role as Cleo after more than a decade away from the RTÉ soap.
Cleo surprises her closest friend Dolores on Sunday night's episode - and there's plenty of drama to come.
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"A load of things happen and that's why she stays," teased Kavanagh.
"It's a visit that gets extended because she realises, 'Actually, there's a bit more going on here. And I'm going to stick around and suss it out'.
"As a result of her staying, more and more opportunities, let's say, open up. It's not a flying visit."
The shoot-from-the-hip Cleo was a Fair City fan-favourite over the years. Kavanagh says that although the character has grown up - and mellowed - in her time away, she is still able to give as good as she gets if the need arises.
"She was that character that you loved to see do alright but also loved to snigger at how spiky she got, how cheeky she got. [You saw] how much she fought through stuff - understandably, given her circumstances and where she'd come from. And also, [you would] kind of cringe at [her] - 'Oh God, no. You don't need to do that. Don't say that'. She just sort of put her foot in it as a teenager!
"To be totally honest, I don't know a whole lot about what she's been doing or what she's been up to. I think it will be the whole 'more will be revealed' thing because a decade is a long time.
"She's definitely quite centred in herself and I think when I originally knew I was coming back... there was a long time between when I knew I was coming back and what those dates were and when I got a script. In that time, it was that whole, 'I wonder what she's been doing?' It's almost like she's a different person.
Kavanagh said that Cleo's exit from Carrigstown feels like a lifetime ago and only yesterday.
"I realised how much I miss her just by playing her again," she continued. "I had to rewatch some tapes. I had to remember her accent and remember her ways and expressions. Although we do share the same face, there are very different expressions that go on and that bolshiness and that sassiness.
"Falling into that and the muscle memory coming back - I just realised I really adore playing her. I really love the way the writers write for her and I think they have some fun with her as well. She is that character still - that no-filter, 'I'm going to say this'. That's really fun.
"The arc of that storyline when I was in Fair City before was all about the softening of Cleo and her realising she had love around her so she could relax. She could be funny, she could chill out. She didn't have to spike at everybody that said hello to her. And I think that's where she's at now. There's an awful lot more warmth in Cleo that we were only beginning to see towards the end of her last time on the screen.
"As an actor, the gritty stuff is always really fun to play. But then there's the other side of loving Cleo and going, 'God, I hope she's alright. I hope she's done ok for herself'. And it seems that that is the case so far."
Fair City airs on RTÉ One on Sundays and Tuesdays to Thursdays.
