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Shane Richie discusses whether he would return to EastEnders

The actor played Alfie Moon in the BBC soap.

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Olivier Awards 2019 – London

Shane Richie has said he would “love” to go back to EastEnders.

The actor, who is set to feature in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, said he has “good memories” of appearing in the soap.

Richie, who played Alfie Moon, has had three stints on EastEnders – with the most recent coming in 2019.

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When asked if he would return to the programme, he said: “I’d love to.

“It would be lovely. I love the show, I’ve got so many good memories of it.”

Richie added: “Alfie thankfully is still alive – I think he’s still on the run in Spain, I think he still owes money to Phil Mitchell.”

The 56-year-old also discussed his upcoming appearance on I’m A Celebrity, saying he hopes “people don’t fall out”.

“I hate confrontation,” he added.

“I’m all for opinions and I’m happy to listen to someone else’s opinion, but when it starts getting a bit angry… I’m one for trying to lighten the situation.”

He said his children want to see him “suffer” while he takes part in the programme.

Richie added: “I don’t want to embarrass my children.

“So if anything is going to get me through the trials and challenges, it will be thinking about my kids.”

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He said he has previously been asked to take part in the ITV programme.

“I’d just started in EastEnders so I couldn’t get out to do it, and then they stopped asking because I was always busy,” he said.

He said when he was asked this time he thought “there’s going to come a time when they stop asking”.

Richie said he has seen the Welsh castle, where this series is being filmed, while he was working on a programme he recorded last year called Caravanning With Shane Richie.

“The first episode was me filming in Rhyl, on a caravan site,” he said.

“And every day, me and the family would pass this castle up the hills. ‘Doesn’t that look spooky? Bet it’s haunted.’

“And that’s the bloody castle! Which I didn’t want to go to because I thought it was haunted, and now I’m going to be sleeping in it.”

Richie also discussed comments he made earlier this week, when he said he is “skint” after all his work was cancelled because of the pandemic.

He said that while he has saved up “for a rainy day”, he did not expect “the rainy day would last eight months”.

He added: “I’ll be alright, because if worst comes to worst, I’ll go out and do a stand up tour, I’ll find something to do.

“I’ll resurrect a musical, I’ll find something.”

I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! begins on ITV on Sunday.

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