EastEnders legend Adam Woodyatt finally gets A List treatment but its taken 40 years

EXCLUSIVE: The actor has been playing Ian Beale on the soap for almost four decades and bosses are now rewarding his hard work by giving him one of the top dressing rooms

Adam has played Ian since the first ever episode of EastEnders aired on BBC One in 1985(Image: BBC)

EastEnders legend Adam Woodyatt is finally getting the A List treatment.

The actor has been playing Ian Beale on the soap for almost four decades and bosses are now rewarding his hard work by giving him one of the top dressing rooms.

It’s been a long time coming, but he’s over the moon about it.

Adam said: “When I started out, there was three of us crammed into a dressing room. It was so small that now it would be for one person.

“The dressing rooms upstairs were where the stars were — that was Wendy Richard and Anna Wing and Gretchen Franklin.

He's been a part of the show for decades(Image: BBC)

“But now all these years later, someone has had to move the dressing rooms around and I’ve been moved from being near where the sets to one of the ones upstairs.

“I’m really chuffed because I’m now in Gretchen Franklin’s old dressing room.

“Finally I’ve got one of them… Forty years it took!”

Adam has played Ian since the first ever episode of EastEnders aired on BBC One in 1985.

It has earned him a place in soap history as the show’s longest-serving star.

It has earned him a place in soap history(Image: BBC)

Even after all this time, he is still thrilled to have the role.

He said: “I can still remember first stepping onto Albert Square when it was still being built in 1984.

“That is one of the iconic moments for anybody joining the cast.

“You tend to go through an alleyway and suddenly it opens out in front of you. It’s just the most incredible sight.”

Working on a soap is notoriously tough.

He's been part of many dramatic storylines(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

EastEnders airs four times a week, so stars have to work around the clock to get all the scenes filmed.

Adam said: “Days are long, but there’s a lot of humour and fun between the cast… none of it we can repeat and none it we can remember.

“We do have a lot of fun.”

Adam has been involved in a string of big storylines over the years including murder, homelessness and bankruptcy.

But it’s Ian’s saga with Cindy, played by Michelle Collins, that will always be his most memorable storyline.

Ian’s saga with Cindy will always be his most memorable storyline(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

The characters got together in the 90s and soon became one of the most iconic soap couples of all time.

In 1998, it emerged Cindy had died, but last year she made a shock return and it emerged she’d actually faked her own death.

Over Christmas the pair were back at the centre of the action as her latest affair was exposed by a recording in the Queen Vic.

Adam said: “My advice to Ian would be, ‘Get out’. But he won’t. It’s like those Halloween film where the kids are walking up the garden path with sound effects in the background.

EastEnders will mark its 40th anniversary with a special week in February(Image: BBC)

“Ian and Cindy is one of those love stories that is going to keep going.

“Hopefully there is a resolution to everything that’s happened over Christmas and they find a way forward.

“You can have Ian without Cindy. But it’s better to have Ian with Cindy. It’s a bit like George and Mildred!”

EastEnders will mark its 40th anniversary with a special week in February that will include a live episode.

He's had his fair share of weddings(Image: BBC)

Adam is promising it will be TV gold.

He said: “I can safely say for all of us that we picked up the scripts and went, ‘What the…’.

“It was, ‘How the hell are we going to do this?’. We’ve filmed everything leading up to the live episode and it’s honestly brilliant.”

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