As fans of EastEnders will know, Matt Lapinskas has been axed from the show and his role as Anthony Moon, and has in fact now filmed his final scenes…

Just as his real life girlfriend Shona McGarty has returned to the soap following a month-long suspension for poor timekeeping. More on that in a moment…

But first, as we reported recently, Anthony’s exit storyline is that in his brother Tyler’s (Tony Discipline) absence, naïve Anthony will play a game of high-stakes poker with Derek and Joey Branning – who are of course played by Jamie Foreman and David Witts respectively – and lose everything.

He’ll lose The Emporium to crooked Derek and he’ll also be forced to leave Walford by the shady businessman who is of course unhappy that his daughter Alice (Jasmyn Banks) is a little bit in love with Anthony…

While speaking to Inside Soap about Anthony’s banishment from the Square, and of course therefore his own departure, Matt said, “I was quite disappointed when I found out Anthony would be leaving – I’d have liked to do a lot more stuff with him.”

He added, “It’s a shame not to be a part of what’s coming up – I’d have loved to explore Anthony’s gambling problem in more depth, made him more of a player.”

However, he concluded, “I’ve worked with amazing actors and made some great friends…

“Tony and I are still best mates. And while I never went in expecting to find love, I met my girlfriend Shona there.”

And getting back to Shona, she wasn’t on set to watch her beau film his final scenes because last month, she was given a one-month suspension from the soap for her consistently poor timekeeping.

The show’s new producer Lorraine Newman hauled Shona – who plays Whitney Dean – over the coals after some of the show’s stars complained to her that Shona’s tardiness was disrupting their own schedules.

However, that suspension is now over, and according to the Daily Mail, Shona is back on set having apologised for her “lack of professionalism.”

The paper also reports that Shona was fined “thousands of pounds” in order to recompense the show’s bosses for having to pay the overtime costs of keeping cast and crew longer on-set than they should have been.

I wonder if she’s learned her lesson?