back. He commented, "with a vintage original such as Sharon as [EastEnders'] latest weapon in the ratings war, it's hard to see what can go wrong." During a period of falling ratings amid heavy media criticism aimed at EastEnders in 2004, executive producer Louise Berridge spoke to the press about reasons for viewer complaints. She claimed that one reason viewers felt EastEnders had been weaker in 2004, was because some were displeased when storylines that they "love", such as the Sharon-Dennis romance, were not featured prominently at all times. She commented, "it's disappointing to read that a large number of viewers feel the show has been weaker over this past year—although to some extent I fear this was inevitable. In a way, it has been a victim of its own success. The phenomenal popularity of the Kat and Alfie storyline was such that some viewers complained if these characters were not the centre of every storyline. A similar thing is happening with the tremendously successful 'Shannis' storyline (the affair between Dennis and Sharon)—people love it so much, hundreds are writing in demanding to see more of it." Sarah Ellis of Inside Soap said that the magazine's staff had never been so excited as they were when they heard Sharon was returning in 2012. She said that they were "dying" to know which male character Sharon will take an interest in first. Ross Kemp who played Grant Mitchell and Steve McFadden who plays Phil Mitchell expressed pleasure at the return of Sharon and Letitia Dean in 2012, with McFadden suggesting that Letitia's former stint in EastEnders was part of a golden era of the soap opera. He described her return as brilliant. Media reporter for The Guardian, Stuart Heritage, was critical about EastEnders decision to reintroduce Sharon for the third time in 2012, suggesting that it meant that the programme had run out of original ideas. Heritage commented, "Even Letitia Dean has probably lost count of the times she's left and returned as Sharon. She's spent the last 18 years running away to the United States, only to come back to buy a pub or bury her mum, or to have sex with a Mitchell brother, or the other Mitchell brother, or her own adopted sibling, or to confront her inexplicably twice-dead father. Often Sharon's haircut will imperceptibly change upon her arrival, but everything else—the quivering lip, the worrying breathlessness, the