Kat Slater & Alfie Moon

[Perdita]

I remember they used to be very popular indeed and I remember the viewers being excited when they were brought back.. as I said earlier, I think the storylines fore them have let them down, short term excitement maybe but not for me. Shame really. Will I miss them if they really don´t come back? No, to be honest, I would not, not many Slaters left and no more Moons ... maybe it is the right time to put an end to Kalfie or whatever they were called

[Perdita]

But there's bigger - and more sinister - things ahead for the soap's beloved Kat and Alfie, if Shane Richie's comments are anything to go by.


Speaking to Digital Spy after the awards, Richie and co-star Jessie Wallace teased the upcoming spin-off series that will see their characters head to Ireland to search for Kat's long-lost son.


Viewers who are expecting to see the standard EastEnders formula with some Irish accents thrown in are in for a surprise, according to Richie.


He said: "It's a bit like Broadchurch meets The Wicker Man. I've read the first script - about a third of the way through I was going, 'No, Kat and Alfie, turn around, you should not be there'."


While the six-part series features two of Albert Square's most recognisable faces, the drama has "absolutely nothing to do with EastEnders", Shane added.

The pair also spoke about the "bittersweet" return of Ross Kemp as Grant Mitchell, when his character returns to see his dying mother Peggy, as Barbara Windsor says goodbye to the show for good.


Does this mean we will never see her son on Albert Square??? Never going to meet his other family?

[Dazzle]

Does this mean we will never see her son on Albert Square??? Never going to meet his other family?

The more I think about it, the more I realise it doesn't make sense that Kat won't return to Albert Square. Why go to the trouble of casting a new Belinda or writing in a secret son if she's gone for good?

[Rear window]

The more I think about it, the more I realise it doesn't make sense that Kat won't return to Albert Square. Why go to the trouble of casting a new Belinda or writing in a secret son if she's gone for good?

Yes it doesn't make sense unless Belinda is suddenly going to move to the square?

[Rear window]

The more I think about it, the more I realise it doesn't make sense that Kat won't return to Albert Square. Why go to the trouble of casting a new Belinda or writing in a secret son if she's gone for good?

Yes it doesn't make sense unless Belinda is suddenly going to move to the square?

[sarah c]

Yes it doesn't make sense unless Belinda is suddenly going to move to the square?

Belinda will never ( or would never) return to the Square as she married to move out, act posh and pretend she wasn't a slater??

[tammyy2j]

Stacey needs someone around her so if Kat is gone and Jean and Big Mo won't return then Belinda could but she and Stacey don't seem very close

I think Kat and her son if alive need to come back to the main show

[Perdita]

Ireland can put their mind at ease - Shane Richie has promised that the upcoming EastEnders Irish spinoff will be respectful to the country.

The last time the BBC soap went to Ireland in 1997, the episodes sparked controversy over their portrayal of Irish life. The BBC even issued an apology afterwards.

But Richie told the Irish Examiner that EastEnders won't be repeating the same mistakes.

"The kneejerk reaction was that, 'Oh, EastEnders are going to come over here and play the dopey card'. That's not the case," he said.

"The producer, Dominic Treadwell-Collins, is from a big Cork family. He wants to set the record straight."

Richie also revealed that numerous scenes from the tragic cot death storyline back in 2011 had to be cut and reshot.

"We've both got children, and you obviously tap into that when you are acting," he explained.

"There was a lot of stuff that didn't make it on screen. The funeral, which had a little coffin, was shot on a closed set and we just went to pieces. We were a mess.

"The producers watched and said they couldn't put it out. They felt it was too real. We were gutted - the whole thing had to be reshot."

EastEnders airs on BBC One.

[Perdita]

EastEnders star Shane Richie wants Kat and Alfie Moon's upcoming spinoff show to be a returning series.

The popular Walford couple will take centre stage in their very own six-part drama later this year, which has the working title of Redwater.

Redwater will be set in Ireland after the Moons decide to move there to seek answers over Kat's long-lost son. Although only one series has been confirmed, Richie has high hopes for the project's long-term future.

"At the moment we are committed to one series, and like anything if it does well, we'd like to think it will be ongoing," he told the Daily Record. "With the storylines we've heard, I'd be very surprised if it wasn't a long runner. That's the plan.

"Kat and Alfie have set up in Ireland and will they stay there? I'd love to think I would spend three or four months of the year filming in Ireland and going out there with my family."

Kat and Alfie's exits from Walford were originally billed as a break from the show, but Richie and his on-screen wife Jessie Wallace have since appeared more coy about whether they'll actually be back.

And asked whether we could ever see the couple back running the Queen Vic again (what would Danny Dyer say?), Richie replied: "That's probably it now, unless something drastic happens and they say we need Kat and Alfie back to run the pub. They are coping fine without us."

Richie recently told Digital Spy that Kat and Alfie's show is "a bit like Broadchurch meets The Wicker Man".

He said last month: "I've read the first script - about a third of the way through I was going, 'No, Kat and Alfie, turn around, you should not be there'

[Perdita]

Two years since it was first announced, the EastEnders spinoff Redwater will finally hit our screens and tell us what happened to Kat and Alfie after they left the Square.

The six-episode run will answer questions like 'who is Kat's son?', and ex-EastEnders boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who was involved in the spinoff, says there are plenty more avenues to explore should the show get another series.

Speaking to The Sun, he said: "We've talked about who could come in for series two and I've always said that you could delve into Alfie's dad.

Alfie's actor Shane Richie chipped in to say: "Alfie's always believed that his mum and dad were killed, I said to Dom that they went into witness protection."

Dominic joked that that was exactly what happened and added: "I would bring Michael Crawford in as Shane's father. That would be a gift."

Dominic Treadwell-Collins also spoke to Digital Spy about the possibility of a second series (among many other things), stating that although he was no longer at the BBC, he's worked to set up a second run as best he can.

"Throughout the series, we have very carefully laid down secrets and hinted at other characters," he explained. "The end of this series will feel like a midpoint – not an ending.

"We leave it on the mother of all cliffhangers at the end of episode six."


Kat and Alfie: Redwater will begin on Thursday, May 18 at 8pm on BBC One.

Digital Spy