Shane Richie would jump at the chance to return to ‘EastEnders’.
The 53-year-old actor walked away from the long-running soap at the beginning of last year when his character Alfie Moon fled Walford with his wife Kat (Jessie Wallace) at the end of January in order to find her long-lost son in Ireland.
But he has admitted he wouldn’t even have to think about it if the producers rung him up and asked him if he’d like to re-join the soap because he loved working there.
Shane – who joined ‘EastEnders’ in 2002 – said: "Trust me, if I get the phone call from EastEnders . . . I loved being there. I’ve got a lot of friends that are still there.
"If I got the phone call to come back, I’d love the idea.
"Every time, you get actors, they always say, ‘Never say never’. And I’ve watched and I’ve gone, ‘Shut up, never say never!’ Because all these actors make out it’s their decision whether they go back or not, and it’s b******s. It’s never their decision."
Although he and Jessie left the programme almost two years ago, they’ve been very busy as the adoption storyline led to their own spin-off show ‘Redwater’.
The series, which turned out to be a flop, concluded back in June and fans were left wondering whether Albert Square’s golden couple had managed to survive.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: "Thankfully, Kat and Alfie are not dead. That’s as much as I know."
Meanwhile, Shane isn’t the only one who wants to reprise his role in the soap as Laila Morse – who played ‘Big Mo’ Slater – is also keen to return to the East End.
She said recently: "I had no idea that would be the end of it. Really and truly, I never left! I think I’m with Kat and Alfie in Spain right now, helping them with their kids. But there was no party of anything like that when I left – and that’s after 16 years in the show! … I hope they bring us all back – I loved working on ‘EastEnders’."
Shane Richie would jump at the chance to return to EastEnders
