{"id":483200,"date":"2026-03-19T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483200\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:58:09","slug":"eastenders-airs-acting-debut-of-deafblind-child-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483200\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders airs acting debut of deafblind child star"},"content":{"rendered":"

A five-year-old deafblind child actor made his acting debut in EastEnders<\/a> tonight, playing a pre-school boy named Arlo who paid a visit to Lauren and Peter Beale. Harvey Hind’s mum Kimberly expressed hope that his appearance will set a fantastic example for other disabled children.<\/p>\n

Scenes tonight saw Arlo and his mum call round to see the Beales, after their child Jimmy was revealed to be blind last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arlo’s mum gave the long-running characters advice on raising a blind child, and reassured them about Jimmy’s future.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders confirms momentous Zoe and Josh meeting – as Cindy secret is exposed<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking via the charity Sense<\/a>, who support disabled children and adults with complex needs, Kimberly Hind said: \u201cI hope Harvey featuring in EastEnders shows other disabled children, especially those who are deafblind, that they can achieve anything. <\/p>\n

“Harvey loves being in the spotlight but for us the most important thing will always be raising awareness and breaking down barriers so every disabled child gets the same opportunities as anyone else.”<\/p>\n

Of the experience on set, she added: \u201cHarvey did amazingly at the filming, I\u2019m so proud of him. There were four cameras on him but he took it all in his stride.”<\/p>\n

Harvey, who was the face of Sense’s 2025 Christmas appeal, was diagnosed as blind at three months old. He uses a red-and-white striped cain, uses BSL to communicate and has cochlear implants, which give him access to sound.<\/p>\n

\"eastenders<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders kicks off Oscar Branning love triangle in new scenes<\/a>
<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so anxious when I found out Harvey was deafblind, so his character\u2019s storyline resonated with me a lot,” Kimberly added. <\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t have any experience with disability and I kept imagining the worst-case scenarios. Luckily, with the support of organisations like Sense, Harvey is now a really happy child who is eager to learn, loves exploring and has a cheeky personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonight’s episode<\/a> also saw Lauren and Peter being shocked to learn how much it would cost for Jimmy to attend a specialist nursery.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Billy began to grow concerned about Bea’s obsession with his family<\/a>, and Josh continued to push for answers about Jasmine.<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs on Mondays – Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.<\/p>\n

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode<\/a> delves into next week\u2019s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale- from Jodie\u2019s latest move in Weatherfield, to Oscar\u2019s new romance on the Square!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A five-year-old deafblind child actor made his acting debut in EastEnders tonight, playing a pre-school boy named Arlo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[147950,379,171679,381,96,1156,171678,148025,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-483200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-0218dc10-b48e-4a82-9e96-80e83e3c17c5","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-eastenders-welcomes-deafblind-child-star-in-beale-scenes","tag-subsection-eastenders","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}