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."
Read more: EastEnders announces Shane Richie is returning as Alfie Moon
He added, during his interview with Radio Times : "And then, off-camera, I met Jessie (Wallace) and we were having a right laugh, and the writers saw this chemistry. That relationship happened by accident, and from now keeps escalating.
"Now, 20 years later, all these things that have happened between Kat and Alfie, and there's still a spark."
It remains to be seen if that "spark" will still be there for Kat and Alfie when he returns to the soap. He will now be at the centre of a love quadrangle with Kat, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean).
EastEnders airs on BBC One on Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
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