We just have to report on Eastenders from time to time as they don’t half keep us gripped with ridiculousness.

The current running issue on the Square, minus Janine and her devil baby is Ian Beale’s disappearance. We last saw him in the midst of brake down aimlessly wondering the roads barefoot as he struggled to cope with his wife, Mandy leaving him and Phil being on his back to keep his sons murdering ways schtum.

Now Ian is set to return and as he has never been a hugely liked character everyone is a live with chatter about his hobo-esque new look.

Eastenders is getting slammed for the unbelievable plot line as it unfolds but then when was Eastenders believable? Is that not the point? If a soap was like real life the would be a small possibility of one murder, probably one or two break ups, a kid who’s problems extend as far as not being allowed to dye there hair and then being all emo about it and an affair that happens once, when drunk at on office party.

Other than that the cafe would just sell sandwiches and would only be busy at lunch time with people queueing for take aways, no one would talk to each other in the Queen Vic because they wouldn’t know one another let along the 20 year old students that work behind the bar and the chippy would have the odd drunken debate and argument.

What excitement!

So back to the implausible but necessary return of Ian Beale. We will get our first on screen glimpse of Ian (Adam Woodyatt) as a bearded and homeless tramp later this summer as it emerges that he didn’t get very far on his shoeless journey, just to the nearest underpass where he hung out for a few months and grew a beard.

What will happen in Ian’s return to the Square? Who knows. What we do know is that someone thought it was time to highlight both breakdowns and homelessness at the same time and there will be a number to call if you have experienced anything similar at the end of the show.