Perry Fenwick is convinced he’s going to be sacked from ‘EastEnders’.
The 54-year-old actor has portrayed unlucky-in-life funeral director Billy Mitchell for 19 years but doesn’t know if he’ll make the big milestone of two decades in 2018 because he’s yet to be offered another contract and is concerned he’s about to be axed.
Speaking to Woman’s Own magazine, he said: "I joined in 1998 so I’ve been on ‘EastEnders’ for 19 years. But I’m not sure if I’ll still be there for my 20th year. It’s up to the bosses. They’ve got to offer me another contract."
Billy first arrived in Walford at the end of 1998 and has been involved in a number of major storylines over the years. Most recently he was riddled with grief after his cousins Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell (Samantha Womack and Rita Simons) drowned in a pool.
Although it’s highly unlikely he’ll be given the chop anytime soon as he plays one of the most-loved characters in the programme, Perry is no doubt concerned after Samantha and Rita revealed they didn’t actually want to be written out of the show – but were.
Samantha, 44, said: "I didn’t want her to die in the first place. You don’t expect that after nine years. It was a shock. I’d love her to come back but when you’ve seen a corpse in a coffin, I’m not sure how likely that is. I was so sad when they killed her.
"I liked the character and the relationship between her and her sister. I liked the early days, when Larry Lamb was playing our father – that was when I enjoyed it the most.
"When it go a bit fantastical, it was harder to believe the character as much. She was threatening to kill people but she was a mother which I found harder to play."
Perry Fenwick to be axed from EastEnders?
