An EastEnders legend has promised storylines ‘never seen on television before’ and ‘lots of surprises’ in the coming months.

It’s been a hectic period for the BBC soap with new Executive Producer Ben Wadey ringing in the changes on Albert Square.

Replacing Chris Clenshaw, who held the position for three years, Ben brought back Michelle Ryan as Zoe Slater following two decades of fan demands

On top of this, Ben recast Oscar Branning, with new actor Pierre Moullier proving to be a big hit with viewers through his charm and humour.

The coming weeks will also see Ricky Champ’s Stuart Highway and Max Bowden’s Ben Mitchell coming back for an upcoming funeral.

On top of this, Nicholas Bailey’s Anthony Trueman and Jake Wood’s Max Branning will be back in Walford before the year is out.

The programme has also seen exits under its new boss, with Clair Norris and Matthew James Morrison both axed following several years entertaining viewers as Bernie Taylor and Felix Baker.

In terms of storylines, Ben is exploring Kat Slater running the Queen Vic with Stacey Slater and wayward teenager Joel Marshall’s toxic masculinity.

One person who is impressed by Ben’s start is Rudolph Walker, who has has played Patrick Trueman since 2001.

Working on the programme for 24 years, Rudolph is excited about the next chapter for the BBC One show after speaking to Ben about his plans for the Walford residents.

Praising Ben’s predecessor Chris for setting the plans in motion, Rudolph believes EastEnders will continue to go from strength-to-strength.

He told the new issue of Best of British magazine: “We have a new executive producer, Ben Wadey, who is fantastic. In fact, the last executive producer was also fantastic, Chris Clenshaw, and he’s built EastEnders up to a quality that is just unbelievable, using all the actors.

“Ben is great. He’s come in. He’s very positive about the future of EastEnders. And I have very high hopes that we are going to see things that maybe we’ve never seen on television before. Or if we did, it hasn’t been highlighted.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more of that. There are lots of surprises and more to come from EastEnders over the months and years.”

Another star who has given Ben his flowers is George Knight actor Colin Salmon, who recently spoke of his confidence in Ben’s vision for the soap going forward.

He explained to The Mirror: “I have always been a fan. There’s great writing, we all work really hard. I think the authenticity of the humour of the East End, it’s that you get stuff thrown at you and go, ‘Oh that’s fine, we’ll deal with it’.

“Then it all comes crashing down later, like in life. We’re in a very good place with the show and it’s fantastic for us.”