EastEnders Should they recast Peter Beale?

[Canon]

EastEnders is up to their old tricks again tonight, leaving us wondering about a potential Peter Beale return by mentioning him in countless scenes.

Friday night's episode (December 9) sees the absent character's name crop up in conversation yet again, as it's his birthday and his family can't help wondering how he's doing over in New Zealand.

The popular character hasn't been seen on our screens since February 2015, when Ben Hardy bowed out from the role to crack Hollywood in X-Men: Apocalypse. He's since made it pretty clear that he has no plans to return anytime soon, leaving producers in a bit of a Peter Beale pickle.

Peter will always be a key part of the Beale clan, so with Ben not interested in coming back, should producers just bite the bullet and recast? It's a topic that has EastEnders fans divided – and we're exactly the same here at Digital Spy...

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http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/eas...tenders-just-hurry-up-and-recast-peter-beale/

 

[Canon]

Recasting Martin Fowler has worked out quite well, but less so with Johnny Carter. Maybe they could do a Sam Mitchell and bring back the previous actor who played Peter, Thomas Law. Does the show and the current Beale storylines really even need the character right now?

 

[James from London]

I think Thomas Law is doing his own thing now, some American fairytale musical thing he got so excited tweeting about I finally stopped following him. I really liked him as Peter though. I don't mind if they recast the character so long as there's a good enough reason to bring him back. In a way, Peter's absence gives him quite a strong presence at the moment. He's almost more interesting because he's not there.

I guess one of the reasons Martin's return worked so well is that they waited a really long time to do it and then gave him a really solid function when he did come back.

 

[Angela Chilling]

I don't mind recasts if they get a strong actor as the replacement. It's been quite easy to accept the new Martin Fowler because the new actor is a good, if not a better actor than the original guy that played the role. Johnny Carter, on the other hard, was replaced with a weaker actor in the role so it's taken longer to accept him as Johnny. I think recasting Peter Beale could work.

 

[Walford Boy]

In a word no. I think Ben has said he would like to return as a guest artist, but not on a permanent basis.