Redwater: EastEnders’ Kat and Alfie are back on our screens tonight in new drama

WHEN EastEnders last visited Ireland, in 1997, it caused a stir for all the wrong reasons.

Locals were depicted as rowdy, drunk or surly, farm animals were shown roaming streets around Dublin, and the BBC had to issue an apology for offence caused.

Two decades on, spin-off drama Redwater aims to depict a more-realistic, contemporary Ireland.

At its core are Albert- Square favourites Kat and Alfie Moon, who quit Walford for Spain last year.

The pair, played by Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie, have now come to Ireland to track down the son Kat gave up for adoption when she was just 14.

If you’re expecting EastEnders-esque high drama and “doof doofs”, however, think again.

According to Shane, this is more “Broadchurch meets The Wicker Man”.

“You’re hoping to bring the EastEnders audience with you, but also the audience that doesn’t watch it — people who watch, for want of a better word, ‘high-brow’ drama, which I like to think this is,” says the London-born star, 53.

“In all the episodes, there is no reference to Walford, and that’s quite brave and I think it pays off.”

Even Kat’s beloved leopard print has been replaced with a more- bohemian style.

“You do start to play the character differently as you start to pull it back, whereas if you’re dressed brassy, then you’re going to be brassy,” says Jessie, 45.

While the acting and costumes might be pared back, the show isn’t short of gripping moments.

Kat’s hunt for her long-lost son is only the start of the drama in the fictional village, as producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins notes: “Kat and Alfie become the catalyst for all these secrets exploding in the town.”

Alfie, meanwhile, is “in a very dark place” and battling a brain tumour.

Jessie and Shane are joined by an impressive ensemble cast, including veteran Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan and The Commitments star Maria Doyle Kennedy.

“Every character has their story to tell. Some are solo stories and some intertwine with other characters,” says Shane. “This community has a dark history.”

The location for filming was Dunmore East in Co. Waterford — an incredibly picturesque fishing village, but not quite what Jessie and Shane were expecting when they heard they had landed their own show.

“We thought we were going to Spain,” said Shane. “We had this great idea we were going to rent villas.”

“I had already packed my bikinis!” Jessie chips in.

Swimwear disappointment aside, the stars soon felt at home.

“The first couple of days, I remember us being there and signing autographs and having pictures, which of course we were happy to do, and then it stopped,” says Shane.

“We’d go into the pub and we’d become locals.

“And if tourists would come up, the locals would say: ‘No, leave them alone.’

“We were like their property. We had the best time.”

Kat and Alfie’s romance captured EastEnders fans’ imaginations as soon as the pair first locked eyes in the Queen Vic in 2002.

Shane recalls: “The crew were all around the monitor when they saw it, and saw us chatting off screen and said: ‘These two should be together.’

“Back then, millions tuned in and waited for, I think, 14 months for them to kiss.

“We’ve played every emotion, split up, had infidelity, death, rape, cot-death, baby swapping, the house burning down, but the audience has stuck by us.”

In real life, the pair are “like brother and sister”, according to Jessie.

“We argue, then won’t talk for a day, then we’re talking again. He makes me laugh all the time,” she says.