Early suspects were Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) and Kelvin Carpenter (Paul J. Medford), but then four possible suspects are seen leaving Albert Square early in the episode: Tony Carpenter (Oscar James), Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson), and Den Watts.

Her reintroduction was part of the soap's attempt to rebuild the Watts clan, a successful family headed by Den, which had featured prominently in the 1980s.

During the character's original stint, a storyline featuring Vicki being kidnapped was criticised due to its coincidental airing alongside the real-life abduction and murder of toddler James Bulger.

16-year-old Michelle Fowler gets pregnant in 1985 after a one-night stand with her best friend Sharon's (Letitia Dean) father, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).

Vicki survives meningitis but Dr Legg (Leonard Fenton) fails to diagnose it, reuniting Michelle and Sharon.

Michelle and Clyde are caught by the police when trying to flee the country and Vicki and Kofi are sent to a children's home, but are later collected by their grandmothers.

When she becomes pregnant by Spencer Moon (Christopher Parker), Sharon, who believes she is infertile, offers Vicki £10,000 to give her the baby to bring up as her own.

Dennis soon tells Vicki that Den, who had supposedly died in 1989, is alive and living in Spain, and she brings him back to the Square to reunite with his family.

Although they aren't biologically related, Vicki cannot accept it and rebels by dating Ash Ferreira (Raji James), which ends when he realizes that she is using him to get at her siblings.

In 2004, an 18-year-old Vicki starts a relationship with her 46-year-old college lecturer, Tommy Grant (Robert Cavanah); her family, particularly stepmother Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), are outraged.

Exploiting a Whodunit angle, viewers were not initially told who was the father, and press interest in the fledgling show escalated as journalists attempted to guess.

Written by series co-creator/script-editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith, it was considered a landmark episode in the show's history.

Four possible suspects were seen leaving the Square early in the episode: Tony Carpenter (Oscar James), Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson), and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).

The role was recast to Samantha Leigh Martin, who learned to call Susan Tully "Mummy Shell" and referred to Letitia Dean who played her mum's best friend, "Daddy Sharon".

"[3] Tully worried about this when it came to filming scenes in 1989 where Vicki contracted meningitis and was hospitalised and placed in an incubator with tubes attached to her body.

[3] In 1995, after 9 years onscreen being featured in various plot lines such as kidnapping, Vicki was written out of EastEnders, moving to America with Michelle.

The auditionees were asked to perform a monologue in front of a camera and do a screen test with one of the actors already in the show, Christopher Parker, who played Spencer Moon.

"[6] The character made her reappearance in January 2003, turning up unexpectedly at her grandmother Pauline's (Wendy Richard) house.

[4] To signify the character's eight years living in America, Johnson was required to use an American accent while playing Vicki.

Discussing working with Leslie Grantham, who played Vicki's "iconic" father Den, Johnson said, "I was 2 when he left EastEnders [in 1989] so I never witnessed the hype surrounding him.

[9] Johnson filmed her final scenes in October and her departure coincided with that of Vicki's half-sister, Sharon (Letitia Dean).

[10] Media reports claimed that there were plans to bring Vicki back the following year, played by a new actress; this proved to be false.

Following her departure from EastEnders, Johnson was more candid in her reasons for leaving: "I've had a great time but it got to the point where I was sat in bed at night thinking: 'Tomorrow will my character be crying, getting drunk or having an argument?'.

"[12] According to author Hilary Kingsley, the scenes in EastEnders' early years that showed toddler Vicki "chattering happily" with the baby actor who played her uncle Martin (Jon Peyton Price) were viewer favourites.

In what has been described as a "coincidence of ill-timing", the storyline was screened at the same time as the real-life abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger.

The BBC was forced to transmit a health warning prior to the airing of the episodes, announcing that the storyline would be "resolved positively".

[13] In the book, Social Issues in Television, a senior, nameless script editor opined that the abduction storyline sought to engage the audience at the expense of any parent's realistic concerns: "We get it wrong when we take the easy route like the kidnap snatch with Vicki.

"[5] However, when the accent was altered from American to British, this received criticism too with Ian Hyland from the Daily Mirror describing it as "hilarious" and branding the character "Go Away Again Vicki".

[14] He added, "Presumably the producers decided the reason viewers found her so annoying was her whiny American voice.

Johnson claims she received abusive letters from fans of the show and that she was stopped in the street twice by older women who told her "it was quite wrong [...] to have got rid of the baby.