EastEnders star Danny Dyer has quit the soap in order to move to Sky.
The actor has hung up his "golden handcuffs" after signing a six-figure deal with the satellite channel, and it's hard to imagine the soap without the actor.
While it is unclear when the soap star will make the move, Danny's departure has already threatened to plunge the show into chaos, with BBC bosses fretting how to write an explosive ending for landlord Mick.
Dyer was confirmed as a cast member on 1 October 2013, when the BBC announced he would be playing Mick Carter, the landlord of the Queen Victoria pub.
His character was first mentioned when sisters Shirley and Tina visited his visit his partner Linda at her mum's pub in Watford.
Mick was introduced as Shirley Carter's younger brother on Christmas day of 2013 after she and Phil Mitchell had a tense moment at the pub.
Since then, Mick has been right at the start of a number of explosive storylines since then, including an affair with his daughter-in-law, a heist gone wrong, and the rape of his wife by his brother.
Viewers were left aghast when a shock storyline revealed that Shirley was in fact Mick's mother, not his sister, after his brother Dean raped Mick's to-be wife Linda.
Dyer received commendations for these performances after fans were struck by the actor's range.
Mick's ongoing rivalry with fellow EastEnders legend Phil Mitchell was a defining feature of the show from the moment that Mick walked on set as landlord of the Queen Vic, with the pair regularly embroiled in a dispute; however, the pair enjoyed a respite from their onscreen warring when Phil saved Mick from the evil Aidan Maguire in 2018.
Dyer took a break from the show in 2017 after his drinking reportedly got out of control.
BBC bosses were alleged to have words with the actor after crew members reported that the star talked to them “as if they were nothing” and claimed: “I’m God here.”
A source claimed to The Sun at the time : “Danny’s behaviour on set has been out of control for months.
“He could be nice one minute and the next he’d be ranting and raving, babbling about how s**t things are, and storming off.
“People would be waiting to do a shot and he’d just walk off, going: ‘This f***ing job is s**t.’ This would be ‘s**t’, that would be ‘s***t.’
He returned later that year after a month-long hiatus, coming back to a dramatic new plotline, with mum Shirley having forged his signature to sell the pub's freehold.
Dyer took another break from the soap the next year while he was in prison off-screen, this time for two months. His third break from the show happened in 2021 when on-screen partner Linda temporarily exited the show.
In 2018, one of the most emblematic scenes of Mick's stint on the show made audiences howl, with the pub landlord coming to blows with Marky the pizza boy, played by Niall O'Mara, who accused Mick of having stolen his moped.
And in 2021, Dyer was joined on the soap by daughter and former Love Island star Dani, who appeared as cab driver Jeanette who gave Mick a ride.
How Dyer's exit will play out has not yet been revealed, but Mick Carter has given us a number of memorable moments over his eight years on the show so far.
