Brilliant news over at Eastenders where the producers have pulled off a serious coup by luring The Bill legend Christopher Ellison aka DCI Frank Burnside to the soap.
The Bill and Eastenders have a long history of using the same actors but Burnside is probably the biggest name to jump ship from Sun Hill to Albert Square.
Easties has been long short of some alpha male characters and if anyone fits 'the bill' to shake up the square it's Ellison, who portrayed probably the most popular character in the history of ITV 1's cop drama.
If the script writers have got their brains engaged (probably not - this is Eastenders after all) then they will use Ellison as the next gangster, hardman type figure that this program desperately needs. Phil Mitchell has been in need of a decent adversary for years and desperately needs another hard nut to lock horns with - Burnside could be just the man.
Sadly, we have our doubts that Ellison may have been miscasted in what could be a role for an aging philanderer. The Sun reports that the character Ellison will portray is a chap called Len who romances wrinkly Pat Butcher while on her holidays. Bless.
Hopefully this will lead to something more meaty for 'Len' in the future and his romance with Fat Pat will just be a plot device to get him into the square.
Eastenders has been short on dodgy geezers for some time and the soap is at it's best when it has some tough talking hardmen taking centre stage. They desperately miss the likes of Den Watts, Steve Owen, Dan Sullivan, Grant Mitchell and Jonny Allen.
This could be the shot in the arm in EE needs to spearhead a change in fortunes - lets just hope the script writers don't blow it!
Ellison joins initially for 4 episodes and if 'The Powers That Be' have got any sense they will secure his services for as long as possible after this.
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