Kristian Kiehling wishes his character Aleks Shirovs’ ‘EastEnders’ exit included a siege and Nigel Farage.
The 38-year-old actor left the BBC soap in the episode that air last (16.04.15), after his market inspector alter ego discovered his girlfriend Roxy Mitchell had been cheating on him with her sister’s husband Charlie Cotton.
Before exiting Albert Square, Aleks’ was also confronted by Tamwar Masood for overcharging the market traders on their rents and pocketing the cash himself.
Kristian eventually made the decision to scurry away from Walford with his estranged wife and their daughter but he has revealed he suggested a more spectacular scenario for his departure to executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins, by sending him an article about The Siege of Sidney Street in 1911, where two Latvian anarchists held out in an East End tenement for seven hours against 200 police and armed soldiers, with thousands of Londoners looking on.
Kristian said: "I could picture myself holed up in the Queen Vic armed to the teeth and with my daughter at my side. The whole cast including Nigel Farage as a guest star could have been looking on. Naturally, such a scenario would have been way over the BBC budget, so we chose a somewhat muted exit. And, as a matter of fact, Latvians are generally not known to be very temperamental."
The Latvian actor also spoke about how much Rita Simons and Sam Womack – who play sisters Roxy and Ronnie Mitchell – made him laugh when they worked together on the soap.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Kristian said: "Rita was a great on-screen partner and made me laugh a lot in between scenes. With Rita and Sam Womack together on set, I had a hell of a time keeping a straight face."
Kristian Kiehling wanted explosive EastEnders exit
