On TV, you’re never really dead. When a beloved character is killed off on your favourite show, you can be forgiven some scepticism. Who’s to say they won’t be miraculously revived in future?
The BBC hit The Night Manager brought arms-dealing antagonist Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) back to life mid-series to face off against his old adversary, MI6 agent Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston). The action duly cranked up several gears, building temptingly towards Sunday’s finale. Will Roper be eliminated for good this time?
Making a comeback! … Richard Dormer as Gerry in Blue Lights. Photograph: Steffan Hill/BBC/Gallagher Films/Two Cities Television
Meanwhile, devotees of Bafta-winning Belfast police drama Blue Lights were abuzz at this week’s news that fan favourite Constable Gerry Cliff (Richard Dormer) – tragically shot dead during the debut series – will be making a shock return in the forthcoming fourth run. We’re assuming it’ll be in flashback, exploring his shadowy past in special branch, but will find out for sure when it airs this autumn.
Yep, returning from the grave has become something of a TV trope. We’ve picked TV’s 10 best Lazarus moments. Beware: plot spoilers aplenty …
10 Jon Snow (Game of Thrones, 2011-2019)
“They stabbed me. Olly put a knife in my heart. I shouldn’t be here.” Westeros heads went into mourning when Jon Snow (Kit Harington) perished in the season five finale, stabbed by the mutinous brothers of the Night’s Watch and left bleeding out in the snow. Luckily for the Bastard of the North, red priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) was able to resurrect him two episodes into season six. This mystery was never satisfactorily explained and seen by some as the start of the show’s decline in quality. The fur-shouldered favourite might have been better served by staying dead.
9 Dan Conner (Roseanne/The Conners, 1988-2025)
Goodman’s alive! Patriarch Dan (John Goodman) was retrospectively revealed to have died of a heart attack in the blue collar comedy’s eighth season. The lovable goofball seen throughout season nine was apparently a figment of his grieving wife’s imagination. Happily, the 2017 revival undid his death. When Dan reappeared, he cracked a meta joke to Roseanne about killing him off (“I’m sleeping! Why does everybody always think I’m dead?”) and lived to star in spin-off The Conners – by which time Roseanne was dead and he was a widower. Confused? So are we.
8 Nathan Young (Misfits, 2009-2013)Nathan (Robert Sheehan). Photograph: Mark Johnson/Tony Buckingham/UNP
Howard Overman’s streetwise sci-fi romp was an underrated gem, following a ragtag crew of young offenders who gained supernatural abilities after being caught in an electrical storm. Among its breakout stars was Robert Sheehan as gobby rebel Nathan, who became increasingly salty that he didn’t seem to have a superpower. That is, until he fell from the community centre roof and was impaled on railings, before awaking in a coffin and realising he was immortal. After his mates dug him up, he was so annoyingly smug (“I bloody knew it!”) that they soon wished they hadn’t.
7 Rory Williams (Doctor Who, 2010–2012)
He wasn’t the coolest Tardis companion – fiance of the more kickass Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), he was frequently a gooseberry to her sparky vibe with the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) – but Arthur Darvill’s bumbling sidekick evolved into an unlikely hero. He was shot dead by a Silurian but revived by the Autons as a Roman Centurion to lure the Doctor into fabled futuristic prison, the Pandorica. Restored to his own timeline, Rory finally married Amy, had a daughter (who became River Song – go with it), before the couple were zapped back in time by the Weeping Angels and lived happily ever after. How’s that for a timey-wimey character arc?
6 Kenny McCormick (South Park, 1997-present)
It became the Colorado comedy’s first catchphrase: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny.” The mute eighth-grader in the orange parka suffered a gruesome death in every episode of the first five seasons – including having his head bitten off by Ozzy Osborne – before returning the following week to meet the same fate. It totalled nearly 100 resurrections until the joke grew stale for creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They’ve since explained that Kenny is cursed, meaning he’s killed but never stays dead and nobody can remember.
5 Richard Roper (The Night Manager, 2016-2026)
“When you’ve slain the dragon, always check its breath.” So warns Richard Onslow Roper (“My friends call me Dickie but you’re not one of them”), played with polite menace by Hugh Laurie, in the long-awaited sequel to John le Carré’s elegant espionage thriller. Hotelier turned spook Jonathan Pine was convinced his war-mongering nemesis – AKA “the worst man in the world” – had been executed by Syrians. He even helped identify his corpse. He reckoned without Roper’s ability to bribe, lie, kill and rise from the ashes of chaos. The rematch is on.
4 Buffy Summers (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 1997-2003)Came back not just once but thrice! … Buffy. Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy
The Buffster came back from the dead not once but thrice. Our teen heroine, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, was bitten by a vampire (occupational hazard), flatlined in hospital and most memorably, sacrificed herself to save little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). The latter was supposed to be permanent but when the show was renewed for two more seasons, showrunner Joss Whedon had to bring her back. Resident Sunnydale witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) cast a resurrection spell, forgetting it meant Buffy would have to claw her way out of her own grave. Buffy complained she’d been “ripped out of heaven” but her comeback drew one of the show’s biggest ever audiences. If the apocalypse comes, beep her.
3 Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock, 2010-2017)
In second season finale The Reichenbach Fall, Benedict Cumberbatch’s otter-cheekboned sleuth hurled himself off the roof of Barts hospital, his signature Belstaff overcoat flapping in the breeze, and was scraped off the pavement by paramedics. Don’t fret, Cumberfans. He’d fooled arch foe Moriarty by faking his death using a strategically placed airbag, a body double, several accomplices and a squash ball to stop his pulse. Allegedly. Dr Watson (Martin Freeman) wasn’t best pleased to see his pal alive and well two years later, punching him on the nose for putting him through the grief.
2 Dirty Den (EastEnders, 1985-2005)‘‘Ello princess’ … Leslie Grantham as Dirty Den and Letitia Dean as Sharon Watts. Photograph: BBC
“‘Ello, princess.” With that two-word greeting, soap’s most gasp-inducing resurrection was complete. Dodgy pub landlord Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) was shot by a hitman in 1989 and plopped into Walford canal. It turned out he wasn’t brown bread but survived and did a runner to Spain. His momentous comeback was watched by 16 million viewers. His Dirtyness was murdered for real two years later, bludgeoned with the Queen Vic bust and buried under the beer cellar.
1 Bobby Ewing (Dallas, 1978-91)
The original. The infamous one. Both the best and worst at the same time. In the most ridiculed reverse-ferret in TV history, the demise of Texan oil baron Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) was written off as “just a dream” when he reappeared in the shower a full season later as if nothing had happened. Viewers of the shoulder-padded supersoap were heartbroken when the much nicer younger brother of villainous JR was mown down by a car and died in hospital. Yet a shameless twist saw the tragedy – and the entire ninth series – retconned as a bad dream of his wife, Pam, (Victoria Principal). The preposterous plotline was kept so secret that even the cast didn’t know until it aired. Probably wise. They wouldn’t have been able to keep straight faces.