EastEnders' Liam Butcher actor James Forde becomes a builder after quitting soap in 2015
10 February 2020, 11:16
Actor James Forde, who played Liam Butcher in EastEnders, has left behind his acting career.
Eastenders’ star James Forde has revealed he’s now working as a builder after quitting the BBC soap.
The actor arrived in Walford in 2008 as Bianca Jackson’s son, Liam Butcher along with her other three kids Tiffany Butcher, Morgan Butcher and Whitney Dean.
But since leaving the show in 2015, the 23-year-old is now working as a builder, regularly sharing snaps on his Instagram page.
Posting to his 45k followers, one snap sees James wearing a hard hat and high vis jacket, along with the caption: “Bob the builder 🔨”.
And fans were quick to comment on the snap, as one wrote: "Lovely pic of you."
Another asked: "Do you do construction now?" to which he replied: "Yeah."
A third said: "Looking good my dude."
When a fourth wrote: “Life after eastenders lol a full time job,” James hit back: “yeah it’s called normality mate.”
Others asked if he’d ever return to the soap, with someone asking "Are you still doing acting when are you returning to Eastenders?"
James had many huge storylines in EastEnders after he made his debut at just 11-years-old as the troubled son of Bianca Jackson and Ricky Butcher.
The teen joined a gang, which involved him getting arrested and stabbed by one of the other members, and was also shown struggling with his dyslexia diagnosis.
Liam left Walford with his girlfriend Cindy Williams and their baby daughter Beth, to start a new life together in Germany with dad Ricky.
His final drama involved demanding £100,000 from Jayne Beale, or he would tell the police that Bobby killed Lucy.
After Jane promised that she would pay him regularly, he and Cindy left The Square and haven’t been back since.
Meanwhile, former Eastenders star, Katie Jarvis, opened up about becoming a security guard at B&M store in Romford last October.
The young mum - who played Hayley Slater - departed the BBC soap in February and was praised by fans for ditching acting to 'provide for her family'.