Ricky Groves has swapped Albert Square for the world of infomercials with an appearance in a social media ad promoting mould remover.
The soap actor, 57, who played hapless mechanic Gary Hobbs in the soap for in nine years before being axed in 2009, donned a blue polo shirt for hardware company Must Have Ideas UK.
Ricky still as confident as ever in front of the camera gushed over the product’s ‘patented formula’ while performing a demonstration.
The actor first joined EastEnders as part of the Slater family with his character married to Lynn (Elaine Lordan) before embarking on numerous flings ahead of his unlikely romance with show stunner Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon).
He went on to appear in Celebrity Coach Trip and Strictly Come Dancing before making a surprise one off return to Eastenders in February 2025.
Ricky split from wife and co-star Hannah Waterman, who played Laura Beale, in 2009 after he said the actress revealed she had been having an affair with now husband Huw Higginson.
Ricky Groves, 57, has swapped Albert Square for the world of infomercials with an appearance in a social media ad promoting mould remover
The soap actor played mechanic Gary Hobbs in the soap for in nine years before being axed in 2009, donned a blue polo shirt for hardware company Must Have Ideas UK
The couple went on to welcome a son, before moving to Australia where they tied the knot and Hannah appeared in rival soap Home and Away.
The actress, who had dramatically lost two-and-a-half stone as part of a fitness regime which featured in a DVD, was still married at the time to Ricky, who blamed her exercise DVD for the break-up.
She made no secret of her admiration for him, saying: ‘Huw is lovely in real life. When there’s only two of you (on stage), you have to absolutely trust each other … he is a rock.’
She left Ricky on New Year’s Eve 2009, before Huw moved into her Essex home in June 2010 after having issues in his own marriage to Geraldine Dove-Higginson, with whom he shares a daughter.
Huw married Geraldine, a stage manager and former art director on The Bill, in 1997.
‘I’ve been friends with Huw on and off for 10 years. We first met when he played my pervy landlord in EastEnders, but since then we’ve been in two plays together,’ Hannah recalled of their relationship in a 2011 interview.
‘Huw came a bit unstuck in his personal life and I was on tour with Calendar Girls, so he stayed at my house for a while. He moved in in June, and things progressed quite quickly from there!
‘We’ve kept things quiet because we’re both quite private people. We wanted to give our relationship time to grow away from the public eye. We spoke early on in our relationship about the fact we’d like a family.’
Ricky still as confident as ever in front of the camera gushed over the product’s ‘patented formula’ while performing a demonstration
The actor first joined EastEndersas part of the Slater family ahead of his character’s unlikely romance with show stunner Dawn Swann ( Kara Tointon)
He went on to appear in Strictly Come Dancing before making a surprise one off return to Eastenders in February 2025 (pictured with co-star Cliff Parisi)
Huw, who played lovable but dimwitted police officer George Garfield in The Bill, co-starred alongside Waterman in plays Rattle Of A Single Man and Killing Time in 2009.
Last month EastEnders legend Pat Butcher has made a surprise return to the show today despite being killed off in 2012.
Pam St Clement, now 83, reprised her famous character for an episode dedicated to Nigel Bates’s battle with dementia.
In the heartbreaking scenes aired on 22 December, Nigel (Paul Bradley) gets lost and wanders into the Queen Vic in search of a taxi.
While there, he finds himself surrounded by characters who will be familiar to longstanding EastEnders fans, including the infamous Pat Butcher, who died of cancer over a decade ago.
An exacerbated Michael asks: ‘What do you have to do to get a taxi in this place?’
Pat Butcher replies: ‘And a very Merry Christmas to you and all sweetheart.’
But while EastEnders fans will undoubtedly be delighted to see Pat back on their screens, Pam admits that it was not easy reprising the role after such a long time out of character.
Ricky split from wife and co-star Hannah Waterman after he said the actress revealed she had been having an affair with now husband Huw Higginson (pictured in 2007)
The couple went on to welcome a son, before moving to Australia where they tied the knot and Hannah appeared in rival soap Home and Away
She said: ‘I think I was a bit bewildered, and a bit bowled over.
‘Coming back to jump into those clothes and make-up again was strangely difficult.
‘I thought it was going to be much easier, but I think I’ve probably been through the point in my life, having played her, where I had divested myself of her.
‘Her accoutrement, her clothes, her make-up and everything else, and I thought I had, but the strange thing is that the public don’t because it’s so fresh.
‘That’s probably because there are a lot of repeats that go on, on television, like classics and things like that.’
The actress said that she has been shocked by the enduring popularity of her iconic character, especially amongst younger people.
She said: ‘There are youngsters that come up, and you think “thank you very much” but how do you know me? You’re too young! “Oh no, we watch it on the television” and indeed they do, and it’s nice to have that following.’
