BBC EastEnders’ Alfie Moon star Shane Richie teases soap’s 40th anniversary storyline

EastEnders’ Alfie Moon star Shane Richie has teased details about the BBC One soap’s upcoming 40th anniversary.

The iconic soap first aired on 19 February 1985 and next year, in February 2025, it will be 40 years of Albert Square. Alfie star Shane, 59, appeared on Tuesday’s Lorraine to talk about his character’s heartbreaking prostate cancer storyline.

During the interview, chat got onto EastEnders’ upcoming 40th anniversary to which Shane said: “There’s a lot of buzz now at work. I’ve been there, just what, nearly 22 years, so there’s a lot of buzz about what may or may not happen story wise, so everyone’s really excited!

“It’s great being part of an ensemble, that’s what I love! The people behind the scenes, that work on some of these wonderful storylines, just are incredible and they’re the unsung heroes really of EastEnders!”

Elsewhere, talking about his character’s prostate cancer storyline, Shane said: “This was a storyline I wasn’t expecting to do. I was brought up to the office by our boss, Chris Clenshaw, who is doing a fantastic job with the big Christmas storyline they did.

“So this was going to run alongside it and funnily enough, the week he brought me up, I go for a men’s health check once a year, I go for a men’s health check and everything was fine. Two days later, I got a phone call would I go up and see Chris our boss.

“We sat down, I’m thinking he’s going to talk about Kat and Alfie, or a future storyline. He said: ‘How do you feel about doing a storyline where Alfie has prostate cancer’ and I was like: ‘Oh my God! Only two days previously, I’d been for a men’s health check!’ so that was a bit of a shock, out of the blue!”

On Monday’s episode, in powerful and heartbreaking scenes, Alfie couldn’t get to the toilet in time at the Queen Vic while having a drink with his friends and had an accident, leaving the character mortified.

Shane said of the inspiration behind the storyline: “When the story was put to me, I had a friend of mine recently who has just gone through prostate cancer and treatment. He’s a keen golfer, he was telling me that he just finished playing golf, was at the bar with his friends and uncontrollably just wet himself.

“I remember thinking about this, thinking: ‘Okay, this is so important to tell the story’ and I remember sitting with Chris, telling him if we’re going to play this, can we do a scene where Alfie, wherever it happens, wets himself, thinking it may or may not happen.”

After learning it would be making the script, Shane admitted he was “so nervous” about getting it right and getting the tone right. He added: “I think we’re doing the story justice.”