EastEnders star Shane Richie reflects on scrapped storyline for Alfie

EastEnders star Shane Richie has spoken about a planned storyline for his character Alfie Moon that never came to fruition.

When Alfie was first introduced to Walford in 2002, show bosses intended for him to go down a very different path compared to what eventually transpired.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other media at a recent EastEnders press conference, Shane recalled how producers originally wanted Alfie and Peggy Mitchell to become lovers.

The plans fell by the wayside when the EastEnders team noticed that Shane was developing a strong working relationship with Jessie Wallace, who plays Kat Slater.

BBC

Shane explained: "20 years ago, the whole Kat and Alfie thing purely happened by accident. Do you know what was supposed to happen?

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"When I turned up 20 years ago, Tony Jordan was going to recreate The Graduate story with Alfie and Peggy! Did anyone know about this?

"I was going to be Dustin Hoffman. I don't think that was going to work!"

He added: "But then off camera, me and Jessie were having a right laugh and the writers saw this chemistry and purely that relationship happened by accident."

BBC

Shane has hinted at this cancelled storyline before, including on The Graham Norton Show in 2015.

In 2017, he also tweeted a photo of himself with Dame Barbara Windsor and teased: "A storyline on Easties back in 2002 was talked about but never came to screen, would've changed everything, but you don't wanna know!"

Next week, EastEnders airs a special flashback episode which shows how Peggy Mitchell and her family lived in 1979.

Jaime Winstone plays the role of Peggy in the one-off scenes, having previously portrayed Dame Barbara in the 2017 BBC drama Babs.

BBC

Jaime recently paid tribute to Dame Barbara, who sadly died in 2020, for helping her to prepare for the biopic a few years ago.

She said: "I played Barbara before and became quite close to her. It was an amazing milestone for me in my career. I hadn't quite got to the point where I'd finished with her and sadly she passed away and we all lost an amazing icon and landlord to our nation, but also a very good friend.

"When this came up, it did just suddenly come into my life: 'Oh my God, EastEnders. What do I do with that? How do I go about that? I've got a background in film and TV, but EastEnders is an institution and we've all grown up with it'.

"I spoke to [EastEnders' executive producer] Chris [Clenshaw] and wanted to get the idea of how we were going to do this: 'What do you mean it's a flashback episode? What is this?'

"I've played so many parts in Barbara's life and the one part I hadn't played was Peggy Mitchell and it had been niggling away at me for a while. I just felt that this is something I should do, it would bookend my journey with her."

Check out Digital Spy's full coverage from EastEnders' autumn press event:

- EastEnders confirms Dot Branning death storyline as soap pays tribute to June Brown

- EastEnders breaks silence on Sid Owen's return as Ricky Butcher

- EastEnders casts Navin Chowdhry as newcomer Nish Panesar

- EastEnders' new boss Chris Clenshaw shares vision for show's future

- EastEnders boss promises shock DI Keeble revelation in Mitchell flashback episode

- EastEnders to introduce a face from Sam Mitchell's past

- EastEnders boss teases ending of Mick and Janine story

- EastEnders teases Mitchell flashback twists with new images and spoilers

- EastEnders boss reveals dramatic arrival for Freddie Slater as Bobby Brazier takes on role

- EastEnders newcomer Bobby Brazier reveals emotional scenes for Freddie Slater

- EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw explains why he's bringing back Alfie Moon