Stepping into the shoes of Detective Cetin Ikmen in the new BBC2 series last July, he sported a bushy, grey beard and starred alongside Yasemin Allen, who played Cetin's female counterpart, Detective Ayse Farsakoglu.
The cast and crew have been preparing for the huge anniversary milestone for a while now, with several iconic cast members returning, including Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves), Minty Peterson (Cliff Parisi) and Phil Mitchell's infamous brother Grant, played by Ross Kemp.
The Turkish Detective was created for TV by American film company Miramax, and inspired by English author Barbara Nadel's The Cetin Ikmen Crime Novels.
In 2014, he clinched the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Winter Sleep, and in 2018, he bagged an Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor for his portrayal of Agah Beyoglu in the Turkish crime drama Sahsiyet (Persona).
A special live episode on Thursday, 20 February, will see Denise Fox (Diane Parish) finally choose between her husband, Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), and her lover, Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara), in a decision that will be made – in a first for the show – by the voting public.
