EastEnders spoilers follow.
EastEnders star Navin Chowdhry has revealed the special leaving gift he received after his character Nish Panesar’s dramatic exit from the show.
This week, dying Nish attempted to cause chaos one last time by disrupting Suki and Eve’s wedding day following his escape from prison.
Ravi and Vinny’s intervention meant that the couple were able to get married in peace, but Nish managed to get away from his children, and he put poison in Eve’s champagne glass.
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As Eve lay unconscious, Nish wanted him and Suki to die together, and there was a tense stand-off between the pair. It ended with Ravi pushing his dad off the balcony, but Nish dragged Suki to the ground with him.
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While Suki survived the fall, Nish died instantly, officially bringing an end to actor Chowdhry’s time on the show, after playing the villain for over two years.
He revealed that executive producer Chris Clenshaw gave him a special leaving present that has a very significant meaning.
"I’ve got my Albert Square board," he said, "and Chris Clenshaw gave me some cufflinks. Obviously cufflinks were a big part of the Sixmas story, and a big part of Nish’s journey.
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"He gave me the most beautiful set of cufflinks with the EastEnders Thames logo, and I will wear them with huge pride. I will now always have a little bit of Walford with me whenever I wear my suit."
While Nish’s final scenes were explosive on-screen, Chowdhry explained that off screen it was emotional for the cast to film his ending.
He said: "It’s been the most wonderful adventure that I could have hoped for. My last day of filming was a very emotional one. There were tears from quite a lot of us on the day. It’s meant so much to be a part of this journey."
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Chowdhry also paid tribute to his Panesar family co-stars, in particular Balvinder Sopal, who plays Nish’s ex-wife Suki.
"With Bal, it’s been an absolute joy," he explained. "We’ve had such a laugh, there’s so much love, there’s been tears, there’s been joy. It’s never felt unnatural. It has always just felt so easy and comfortable to explore what we wanted to do.
"It doesn’t happen all the time, and I just feel incredibly lucky for the collection of people that were put together. There was so much love and respect and laughter amongst our group."
EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.
