16m watch Kat jilt fiance for Alfie

Nearly 16 million viewers saw Kat Slater ditch her fiancee on her EastEnders wedding day, unofficial figures showed today.

But the show failed to match the recent return of “dirty” Den Watts which was seen by more than 17 million viewers in September.

Weekday episodes of EastEnders usually pull in an average audience of 11.2 million.

Albert Square fans saw Queen Vic boss Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) make it to the wedding to stop Kat (Jessie Wallace) from marrying gangster Andy Hunter on Friday.

The audience peaked at 15.9 million, while an average of 15.5 million stuck with the show for its entirety.

More than 17 million people had watched Den (Leslie Grantham) return to Walford after a 14-year absence, to utter the words “’ello princess” to daughter Sharon.

A BBC spokeswoman said of the wedding episode: “We are delighted with these viewing figures. The current storylines are fantastic and its not the end of the Kat and Alfie story.”

Viewers saw Kat fall into his arms and admit she loved him, after months of anticipation in their will-they, won’t-they relationship.

Richie said filming the scenes felt like they were making “a little bit of soap history”.

In an interview with Heat magazine published tomorrow, he said: “We were so excited filming it. We were both aware of how important these scenes are to Kat and Alfie’s fans and we also felt like we were making a little bit of soap history.

“We were like two giggling schoolkids. The scenes were shot over a couple of days and are some of the best we’ve filmed so far.”

And Wallace said the scenes felt like a real wedding. The actress, who is herself due to marry policeman Dave Morgan, said: “It feels like I’ve done it already now.”