Former EastEnders star John Altman accuses soap bosses of being too politically correct
Echoes Leslie Grantham‘s comments about ‘consistency‘
DAYS after ex EastEnders star Leslie Grantham slammed the show for lack of ‘consistency’, his former co-star John Altman has added his own two cents.
John, who played Dot Cotton’s villainous son Nasty Nick on the long-running BBC soap, accused writers of making his character too politically correct.
Nick was a fixture in Walford on and off for 30 years before finally being killed off last year.
Opening up about his thoughts, he said: "In the old days, you could decide if your character was going to have a cigarette in a scene. Now, you need written permission from someone.
"Nick had a line about Fatboy saying: 'At least that P**i has gone,' and then Dot told him off.”
He continued to : “Nick Cotton is a racist psychopath. They stopped filming and changed it to: 'At least that illegal immigrant has gone'. It's not what Nick Cotton would say."
The 64-year-old has made no secret about the fact his request to show bosses to spare his on-screen alter-ego’s life fell on death ears.
He also pointed the finger of blame at the show’s decision to air four nights a week as opposed to the original three when it first began back in the 80s.
"Producers do get a bit trigger-happy at times. It's a short-term injection of higher viewing figures but then they settle back to what they were before. I think the quality was better when there were fewer episodes.”
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Leslie Grantham starred in the east London set soap between 1985 and 1989 and then again in 2003 to 2005.
He accused it of losing its way.
Speaking to , he explained: "Julia Smith and Tony Holland created a series which was a microcosm of what was happening in the rest of the country.
"Over the years, it's now become 'The Krays'.
"You expect violence. People still say to me, 'We hated you but you made us laugh'. In the bits I've seen, there are tough guys and there are comedy characters and the two don't interweave.
"With Den and Angie (Anita Dobson), one minute he'd make you laugh, the next he'd cut your legs off.
There was humour. Everyone thought Den was a lovable rogue. He wasn't evil, he was just Jack the lad.
"When he came back a second time, he suddenly became this Machiavellian character. I'm not saying it was better when I was in it, but when you're doing four episodes a week, you can't keep up that level of consistency."