EastEnders: Peter Beale returns to Walford with yet ANOTHER new face

Soap fans are used to seeing former characters return with new faces - i.e the previous actor didn't want to return to the role but an upcoming storyline required the character to come back.

Sometimes, there are more than a couple of iterations of one particular character, and it becomes a bit of a running joke among soap fans - Ben Mitchell, we're looking at you. But as EastEnders prepare to bring back Peter Beale, he's now been played by more actors than Ben!

Yep, Peter will be returning to the Square after Ben Hardy left the role in 2015 - this time played by Dayle Hudson. The last time we saw the character, he'd discovered that his younger half-brother Bobby had accidentally murdered his twin sister, Lucy, and he fled to join his other half-brother Steven in New Zealand with then-fiancée Lauren Branning.

EastEnders will be Dayle's first TV appearance, and he said of the role, "I am really grateful and excited to have the opportunity to work on such an institution of British television, alongside some incredible actors. Peter has been away for some time so I can’t wait to find out what he’s been up to and I’m very excited to see what the future holds for him."

Executive Producer Jon Sen added, "As soon as I met Dayle, I knew he’d be the one to bring Peter Beale back to Walford. Peter’s a young man with a big heart but a bruised soul and Dayle’s a talented actor who captures his complexity perfectly. I welcome him to the company and can’t wait to start working with him."

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Dayle will be the seventh actor to play Peter; the role was originated by child actor Francis Brittin-Snell after the character was born on the show, staying in the role for three years before being taken over by Alex Stevens for one year.

After two more actors, Thomas Law took over the role in 2006 until 2010, and Ben Hardy played Peter from 2013 to 2015.

EastEnders airs on Mondays and Fridays at 8pm, and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One.

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• Eastenders