EastEnders star reveals torch tan

EastEnders star Perry Fenwick has revealed he is getting a fake tan treatment especially for carrying the Olympic torch.

Billy Mitchell will carry the Olympic flame through Albert Square in a special live episode next Monday as part of the official Torch Relay, before dashing to be with granddaughter Lola Pearce, played by Danielle Harold, when she goes into labour.

Parts of the episode have been filmed in advance to be broadcast with the live footage.

Perry revealed: "We've all been under strict rules about haircuts and all that because of continuity. Funnily enough, when we filmed the stuff before we were quite brown then, me and little Danielle, because it was very warm.

"So I think it's a little bit of the old St Tropez going on on Monday night!"

The 50-year-old actor - who has been in the soap for 14 years - also revealed he wants to claim the torch for himself.

Asked if it would be kept in the EastEnders studio he laughed: "I don't know about that, I want it myself, mate! I'm the one who's running it. We'll have to see where that ends up, but I want that myself."

Billy's stretch of the torch relay is a leisurely 300 metre jog, but Perry will have to sprint off camera across the set in time for the next live scene.

He said: "What the viewers won't see is the running around that I'm doing off screen... it's all about me getting from one set to another and getting all the words out in the right order and not falling over and not putting the torch out."

:: EastEnders' Olympic episodes air on Monday July 23 at 8pm and 9pm on BBC One.