Shane Ritchie was born in Harlesden on 11th March 1964. Raised by his Irish parents - Harry a bin man and Lily a cleaner; he remembers being ’so skint that my parents couldn’t afford a TV until I was 11’. He didn’t like school very much, apart from the drama lessons, and did amateur dramatics in his spare time. At 16 he travelled to Plymouth on the promise of a DJ-ing job, but when the job fell through he ended up sleeping rough on a park bench, before being charged with vagrancy!

Shane auditioned for Pontins to be a Bluecoat that summer, and lied about his age, pretending he was 18. He got the job and enjoyed being a 16-year-old bouncer and turning away older lads trying to get into the holiday camp bar. Shane also called the bingo, organized Donkey Derby’s and was part of the live entertainment in the evenings.

He enjoyed doing stand up comedy and went on to do gigs with Lenny Henry - who persuaded Shane to change his surname to Richie. Work offers started coming in and he worked with Cannon & Ball - who christened Shane ’The Legend!’

When Shane finished his contract with Pontin’s he had his first appearance on TV - in a variety show called Summertime Special. He impressed the producers so much that they asked him to appear regularly. This led to a gradual build up of Shane on the box - he hosted many shows such as Up to Something, You Gotta Be Joking, and Caught in the Act. He was also the fella to be found doing outside broadcasts for SKY One at the BAFTA’s. By 1992 he had added dozens of DAZ commercials and a childrens show ’Run the Risk’ on CBBC’s Going Live. In between all this Shane was also starring as Kenickie in the stage show Grease. He took time out to film the show ’Win, Lose or Draw’ - which was loved by grannies and students alike and he ran riot - cracking jokes about Dale Winton, doing impressions, singing - and running the quiz!

1994 saw Shane take over the lead role in Grease as Danny Zuko and yet more TV shows - Lucky Numbers and ’The Shane Richie Experience’! The last received a lot of press attention - some bad, some good as a couple would win a quiz to get married live on air. After a while the show was called ’Love Me Do’.

At the end of 1997, Shane started to write his own musical - Boogie Nights. This was a huge success and the only other actor to have written, starred in and produced a play at the Savoy theatre in London was the late, great Noel Coward!

But it has been playing as Alfie Moon - the wideboy pub landlord in EastEnders, that has managed to cast off the cheesy gameshow host persona and won Shane a host of new fans. In fact, the character of Alfie has been a tonic to Eastenders, and Shane has fitted in like he should have always been a part of the Vic.

Shane married Coleen Nolan (the youngest of The Nolan Sisters) and they have two children Shane Juinor and Jake. Shane and Coleen divorced in 1998, and Shane now lives with his girlfriend Christie Goddard. They live in Buckinhamshire, not bad for the boy from Brent!
February 2008