30 DAILY STAR, Saturday, May 10, 2008 31 EXCLUSIVE: ON FAME, FORTUNE, THE BAD OLD DAYS AND THE SHADOW OF EASTENDER ALFIE

FAMILY MAN: ■ Shane now and, below, in the days when he played happy families with ex-wife I’llI’llI’ll nevnevneveeerrr bebebe overoverover and their two children

STRIKING IT RICH: From left, Shane in his new show, in Skins and with Nana Moon thethethe MoMoMoononon HAPPILY remarried now, have done it if it had been my first with his fourth child on trip outside of EastEnders, though. the way, Shane Richie is That would’ve been the kiss of BOOT-IFUL: death.” meant to have put his ■ Shane is Shane’s grateful for his three bed-hopping days long returning to our years on the BBC soap, ending on behind him. screens in Sky One Christmas Day 2005 when Alfie and So what the hell was he gameshow Don’t Kat trundled off into the sunset. Forget The Lyrics “But I’m not always going to be playing at a few weeks back, humble about it,” he adds. “I had a snogging a 17-year-old? 20-year career before that. And I Shane was playing at being a kind of did all right. pervert, since you ask, in a one-off “It’s funny now but when an role in E4’s teen drama Skins. episode of The Shane Richie “That was a weird one,” he tells Experience got six million viewers me. “Did you see it? To be honest, it was deemed a bag of sh **, I’d never watched the show, but my basically. Whereas if you get six teenage boys had – and when the million now, you’re Ant and Dec.” part came in they said I had to do it. If there’s one thing that riles “So I read the script – pervy Shane these days it’s how easy he drama teacher snogs 17-year-old. reckons it’s become to get famous – And my first reaction was: ‘Yeah, and then lose it. all right then.’” “People who come out of shows For the 44-year-old ex-EastEnders like Big Brother, you know, my

star, mind you, reality hit home on Pictures: STARR WAYNE heart breaks for some of them. day one of filming. They’ve had a taste of ‘Welcome to “I get there, right, and this girl The Ivy’, trying to get that fairy goes: ‘I just wanna say, me and my dust magic from the few grade-A family, we really loved .’ celebs they may mix with. They’re “And then, while that’s still sink- hoping it’ll rub off on them but it ing in, the director’s suddenly doesn’t. shouting: ‘Action!’” “And they crash and burn. This Shane chuckles at what he had to isn’t the world I lived in even when do next. I was with Coleen. You had a career “The fact is, I’ve got underpants based on talent, as opposed to who older than her.” you fell out of a club with. Bang Famous There was a time, of course, when “What’s interesting now, and bad boy Shane Richie would happily Russell Brand is a prime example, play away for real. A lot. is you actually forget what “I got wrapped up in the whole some of this lot do for a business,” he confesses, recalling living. My 15-year-old his days of heavy boozing and goes: ‘Who’s this bloke, shameless sleeping around. Dad, who just sh*gs birds?’” “At 32 I even had my own So does Shane have any advice Saturday night show promoting for people suddenly thrust into the monogamy (The Shane Richie spotlight? Experience) – and there I was “Oh, this is gonna come across having an affair. I was bang out of like an old fart, isn’t it? Thanks, order.” Mike.” His darkest days, he reckons, You’re welcome, mate… were the mid-1990s. “But, seriously, the secret is to “I had my TV show, I had the Daz treat it as a business, a nine-to-five adverts, I was getting paid trillions job, and go home when it’s over.” to recreate Grease in Manchester, Not that it’s always the celebs, “I’d got David Beckham in the mind you, who lose touch with dressing room, Mr and Mrs Alex reality. “You’d be surprised by how Ferguson, half the cast of many people genuinely believe the Coronation Street, I was being EastEnders storylines,” he adds. wined and dined, getting a police “With the Alfie and Nana Moon escort every time I went out… thing, we were actually sent “And then I’d come home, do the brochures from real-life retirement school run and the eyes would mist homes: ‘Dear Mr Moon, we under- over and I’d think: ‘I’ve totally lost stand your nan is unwell…’ the plot.’ “You sort of think: ‘Wow…’” “I wasn’t Oasis. I wasn’t a rock ’n’ And that’s not all. roll star. I was a guy married to the The kids, ironically, are currently know I have to, it’s part of the deal, where warbling punters can win a “We were even offered a youngest of . I had two eyeing up showbiz careers of their but only if I can tie them in with fortune by remembering the words Caribbean cruise. babies. own. my family. Otherwise, f*** it.” to top tunes. “A famous cruise company wrote “I should have f***ing known Shane and new wife Christie, who Shane then jokingly reminds me I Shane admits he hesitated when and said they’d happily take the better. But I didn’t. I learnt my is 15 years younger than him, tied slagged him off in these pages a the chance cropped up to host it. whole Moon family if they needed a lesson and lost my family.” the knot last July. They have a two- while back. “Without sounding like a knob,” break from the Square. That family was his wife Coleen – year-old boy Mackenzie with their “Don’t listen to any of these he says, “I didn’t want to shut down “Can you imagine? I’d have had to these days a regular on ITV1’s second child due in August. f***ing actors who say they don’t what I’d done as an actor (he’s got walk around the ship pretending to Loose Women – and eldest sons In fact, Christie has just popped read reviews,” he chuckles. “They other big dramas lined up, includ- be Alfie for two weeks, looking Shane Jnr and Jake, now 19 and 15 off for her latest scan while Shane all do.” ing a possible Minder remake). after Nana Moon. respectively. and I are chatting. The deal on this occasion is to “But I wanted something I could “Genius, ain’t it? Love it!” Shane and Coleen, 42, divorced in “I kind of don’t like doing inter- plug his new Sunday night Sky One have a laugh with. And I won’t lie to ● Don’t Forget The Lyrics is on Sky 1999 after nine years of marriage. views any more,” he tells me. “I gameshow Don’t Forget The Lyrics, you, the money’s great. I wouldn’t One tomorrow at 7pm. ‘II should should have have kn knoownwn better, better, but but I I didn’t didn’t and and I I lost lost my my family family’