EastEnders actor Elijah Holloway has spoken about his character Harry Mitchell’s surprising friendship with Kojo Asare.

The duo having been working together at the garage for a while now and, despite them being very different people, they’ve become firm friends.

“Harry doesn’t have many friends, and his family is really dysfunctional, so Kojo is very special to him,” the actor said.

“Harry is a naughty boy and hot-headed, but he’s fiercely loyal to the people he loves.

“Underneath it all, he’s a kid who just wants to be loved, and Kojo is the first person to have really seen that in him. Kojo doesn’t have any of the preconceptions that other people might have about Harry, so he’s a light in Harry’s life amongst all the darkness.

“Harry won’t let anyone disrespect or take advantage of Kojo. He sees the purity that Kojo has and loves him for it. Kojo is such an innocent soul, so anyone who tries to pick on him when Harry is there isn’t going to get away with it.”

Harry will stand by Kojo in scenes set to air next week. Running low on money after Bernie drained the Panesar bank accounts, Ravi Gulati turns to drug dealing to raise cash quickly for, among other things, Avani’s expensive birthday party.

Related: EastEnders‘ Michelle Collins reveals how her new role compares to Cindy Beale

He’s forced to hide his car in the garage when the police come looking, which leads to Harry and Kojo finding the stash.

“They are both shocked, but Kojo is horrified,” Holloway continued. “Kojo’s reaction is what motivates Harry to tell Ravi that he needs to get rid of the stash because there’s no way they are going to be messing with drugs.

“He doesn’t want Kojo feeling uncomfortable, and Harry’s got a strict ‘no drugs’ rule himself when it comes to business. He takes Kojo’s feelings very seriously.”

The stash soon goes missing, and fingers are being pointed all over. Harry knows what happens to people when drugs go missing, but still refuses to let anyone blame Kojo.

Holloway added that Harry “loves Kojo [and] knows what might happen to Kojo if he got blamed for the drugs going missing. Harry believes he can deal with the consequences better than Kojo could.”

He also called it an “absolute privilege” working with Kojo actor Dayo Koleosho, and stated: “I love working with Dayo and it’s easy to have the sort of rapport and chemistry that Harry and Kojo have on screen when it’s already there in real life.”