Following Mandy's initial exit, Stapleton claimed that she was asked to reprise the role on several occasions; she turned these offers down until producer Bryan Kirkwood negotiated her comeback in 2011.

[3] Mandy arrives in Albert Square in March 1992 when her hospitalised mother, Lorraine (Linda Henry), leaves her in Pat Butcher's (Pam St Clement) care.

Mandy later cleans Dr Legg's (Leonard Fenton) GP surgery, but after stealing prescription slips and selling them to drug dealers, she is sacked.

All alone, Mandy leaves Albert Square in January 1994, repaying the Fowlers' kindness by stealing Pauline's purse and hitching a ride with a lorry driver, who is heading west on the M11.

Ian, who is going through financial difficulties and is behaving erratically, refuses to let Mandy grieve and goes ahead with his plans to bring their wedding forward.

On their wedding day, Mandy is perturbed by Ian's increasingly strange behaviour and refuses to marry him, revealing that she has been forcing herself to love him.

When Lucy discovers Ian's credit card being used in a Rochester hotel a week later, she and Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) go in search of him.

She left the series temporarily a few weeks later; in the storyline she went back to her mother's flat, but she returned by the summer of 1992 as a regular character, squatting in the soap's setting of Albert Square.

[5] During her initial stint in the soap, the character was featured in storylines about child and drug abuse, homelessness, blackmail, theft and prostitution (in the form of clipping).

He described her as "poisonous [...] the daughter of a dodgy old lush that Pat had picked up in a hostess bar, and she arrived in Walford to work out some grudge she held against the entire world."

He added that "she lied, cheated and stole", suggesting that "there have been very few characters as entirely loathesome as Mandy Salter [...] The serpent in an East End eden.

"[6] Author of EastEnders: Who's who?, Kate Lock, suggested that, "You wanted to feel sorry for homeless waif Mandy but her deviousness made it hard to even like her.

[11] A lone character without family in the serial, Mandy was essentially homeless, and when she was unable to squat or rely on the kindness of strangers, she slept rough on the streets.

[13] In January 1993 she told Inside Soap, "I have always thought the homeless situation was terrible, but through my research into playing Mandy, I have realised just how many young people it affects.

[7] In the storyline, Mandy introduced Aidan to alcohol and drugs and a swift decline for the couple culminated in them becoming homeless and sleeping on the streets or in abandoned squats.

Aidan slipped into a depression, culminating in a suicide attempt, when in the Christmas Day 1993 episodes, he decided to jump off the top of a tower block.

The producers' original plan had been for Aidan to succeed in his suicide bid; however, in the book EastEnders: The First Ten Years, author Colin Brake has revealed that "the powers-that-be" at the BBC intervened in the storyline.

[4] In the revised version, Mandy arrived just in time to stop Aidan jumping to his death, her love for him convincing him not to end his life.

In reality, Stapleton had grown tired of all the attention she received from being in such a high-profile show, and despite being offered a contract to continue, she quit the role.

I'm not ready to go back to Mandy just yet' [...] The publicity with something regarding EastEnders is huge and sometimes you end up feeling like a famous person rather than an actress — I wanted my work to be more fulfilling than that.

Stapleton revealed that she was approached about returning by executive producer Bryan Kirkwood in February 2010, after she was invited to watch the live episode of EastEnders that was transmitted for its 25th anniversary.

[9] It was reported that Mandy had grown up slightly, but that she was still fun, chaotic and wild and she was tipped to cause trouble for at least one of Walford's well-known residents.

[21] In her return storyline, Mandy is found working as a lap dancer by Ian Beale, who offers her a place to stay back in Walford.

[21] Stapleton also suggested that although she thought it would be nice for Mandy and Ian to have a happy ending, she was unsure that they would ever get married as she did not deem it necessary for them and felt it would change their relationship.

Described as a bad mother who allowed Mandy to "run wild on the streets" in her teenage years, it was suggested that Lorraine had not altered and remained a "brash" character.

[36] Mandy's departure circled around Ian's fragile emotional and mental state resulting from financial ruin and his brother Ben's confession that he murdered Heather Trott.

"[36] The culmination of the storyline was scripted to coincide and facilitate actor Adam Woodyatt's temporary break from the soap opera, with his character Ian being off-screen for approximately six weeks following his breakdown.

[39] According to Josephine Monroe, author of The EastEnders Programme Guide, Mandy Salter was one of the most hated characters on television during her reign; a "teenager from hell".

[40] Stapleton has alleged that some viewers hated Mandy so much, due to her despicable deeds on-screen, that she was subjected to taunts in the street and her car was regularly vandalised.

[40] Underpinning the character of Mandy was a storyline about child abuse, and Stapleton has revealed that she received "a lot" of letters from children in the same situation.