EastEnders star Shane Richie has revealed that his character, Alfie Moon, was originally set to be introduced during an affair with the late Barbara Windsor 's character, Peggy Mitchell. Shane, who will return to the BBC One soap later this month, first arrived in Albert Square in 2002. During his time on the programme, his relationship with Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) made him become a fan favourite character.
Upon first arriving in Walford, Alfie and Peggy worked together at the Queen Vic and he affectionately called her 'The Duchess'. Shane has now revealed that the original plan was for the pair to become lovers in a storyline that was inspired by the 1967 film, The Graduate, which starred Dustin Hoffman. The film depicted an age-gap romance between Hoffman's character and Mrs Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft.
Shane recalled: "When I turned up 20 years ago, [writer] Tony Jordan was going to create The Graduate story with Alfie and Peggy. Yes, and I was gonna be Dustin Hoffman - I don’t know how that was going to work - and then we were going to recreate The Graduate story."
