EastEnders favourite Martin Fowler was forced to reveal his real age on Monday’s episode after an awkward Albert Square birthday blunder

EastEnders favourite Martin Fowler was forced to reveal his real age on Monday’s episode.

During the latest instalment, Albert Square decided to throw a surprise birthday party for Martin as they even decorated his market stall with 40 signs, balloons and banners. Honey Mitchell revealed she had made invites for his 40th bash, inviting all of his fellow market traders.

However, Martin was left mortified over the fuss as he was forced to reveal his real age, saying: “Except it’s not my 40th!” This prompted Eve Unwin to jump in with: “See, I told you, he’s 43!” as a red-faced Martin pointed out that he is in fact 39. Despite the age blunder, Honey insisted they could still celebrate his birthday. Soap fans will recall that Martin was born in July 1985 and went down in soap history as the first baby born in EastEnders.

Taking to Twitter, now X, viewers were quick to react to the scenes as one person said: “They think its Martin Fowlers 40th Birthday on #Eastenders … … I was confused as Martin was born after Eastenders started … … until Martin reminded them it was only his 39th!!! @bbceastenders”, a different account put: “Happy birthday Martin #EastEnders”, another wrote: “Omg I remember watching Martin being born… @bbceastenders #Eastenders” while another added: “martin’s face when honey and eve said he was 40 #EastEnders.”

It comes as original Martin Fowler star James Alexandrou revealed earlier this year that he recently returned to EastEnders 17 years after his exit – albeit in a slightly different role. The Call the Midwife star, 39, took on the role of Albert Square legend Martin Fowler from 1996 until 2007. The role has now been taken over by James Bye, who has portrayed the loveable character since 2014.

However, despite his soap exit 17 years ago and Martin being played by another actor, James revealed earlier this year that he recently return to Walford – although as a shadow director. Speaking to Johnny Seifert on Secure The Insecure Podcast, the soap legend revealed: “I kind of did go back recently, I shadowed as a director.”

Explaining what that involves, he continued: “What that means is you go and follow the director and see how they direct the show, and it just so happened that James Bye was on the day that I was shadowing, so I didn’t know that he knew I was there.

“I think he apparently caught wind of it, and he came on to do a scene, and he kind of went: ‘Oh, it’s you!’ and we just kind of had this… it was a strange moment, it was a really strange moment, because we don’t know each other at all, and the only thing that bonds us are these words on a page called Martin Fowler and it was a really nice moment.”