ROCKY’S HORROR NO-SHOW!

Eastenders’ Brian Conley on the boozy blunder that ruins his character’s special meal with daughter Sonia

Rocky’s bid to be a proper dad to Sonia looks doomed in Eastenders this week when he’s late for a Father’s Day meal and she finds him in the pub. ‘Rocky has the right intentions but there’s always something that trips him up and ends in disappointment for his daughter,’ says Brian Conley, who plays him. ‘Rocky wants to impress everyone on the Square but he really just needs to concentrate on Sonia and building up their relationship, which he is keen to do – if only alcohol were not involved!’

It’s an up-and-down week for Sonia’s estranged dad, who came to Albert Square last month after she reached out to him. He tries to fix a leak in Sonia’s kitchen, but botches it. Later, while helping Kathy in the cafe, he boasts to the customers about Sonia, prompting her to organise the Father’s Day meal. Unfortunately, he lets her down again – and then she sees something on his mobile which makes her suspicious…

‘I don’t want to give too much away, but what happens is good, and I’ve been so excited to play the storyline,’ says Brian, 59. He’s won a host of awards as one of the UK’S most popular comedians, actors and singers, and has appeared a record eight times on the Royal Variety Performance, as well as on 2012’s I’m A Celebrity and Strictly in 2017. With such an impressive CV, it’s little wonder he wasn’t required to go through the usual soap recruitment process.

‘I got a call from Eastenders in November saying they’d like me to be in it. Which is lucky, because I’m rubbish at auditions!’ he laughs.

Brian says Eastenders bosses have written Rocky in his own image, as a larger-than-life Londoner. ‘They do write the characters to fit the actors

and like Rocky I’ve always had the gift of the gab,’ he says. ‘Rocky embellishes things – you don’t know if anything he says is true.’

Rocky is also a ladies’ man, who this week tries his luck with Kathy and makes a connection with Shirley. ‘He’s a bit of a smoothie, a bit romantic, he’ll bring a flower on a date, and makes women laugh,’ Brian says.

Despite his vast experience, Brian, who is married with two daughters, admits Eastenders is unlike anything he’s ever been in before. ‘I’ll

soon have been in this industry 50 years,’ he says, ‘but unlike in theatre, the turnaround on Eastenders is quick, which I’m not used to. It’s like joining a speeding train. But everybody’s been so accommodating because I’m new. What an honour to be here at all, especially during such a tough time for actors. That’s why, when I was on that Square the first time, I cried. I appreciated how many other people would love to be here and just be part of it.’