Former EastEnders star John Altman has criticised the show for becoming too politically correct, admitting that they had to rewrite a scene involving 'Nasty' Nick Cotton and Fatboy last year.
The actor played Walford's most iconic villain intermittently for 30 years, before being killed off as part of EastEnders' 30th anniversary celebrations in 2015.
"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," Altman told Metro.
"The other occasion was when Nick had a line about Fatboy saying: 'At least that P**i has gone,' and then Dot told him off.
"Nick Cotton is a racist psychopath. They stopped filming and change it to: 'At least that illegal immigrant has gone'. It's not what Nick Cotton would say."
And Altman also thinks that the quality of the show has suffered in recent years as the number of weekly episodes has gone up, slamming the show's decision to kill off its bigger characters.
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"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," he said. "I think the quality was better when there were fewer episodes.
"I'm not being nostalgic or pining for the good old days but in the earlier episodes, the storylines were deeper and you got to know the characters better. When you have more characters, you can't spend as much time with each of them.
"Doing four episodes a week is hard work. It's like being on a treadmill. You have to knuckle down to it.
"You're getting scripts all the time, it's like doing exams every week, but it means your short-term memory gets better."
Altman has recently admitted that he tried to get the EastEnders producers to change their minds about killing off 'Nasty' Nick .
And he's not the only ex-EastEnders cast member to take aim at the show this week.
Leslie Grantham, who played Dirty Den, lamented the decision to retcon his famous 'Hello princess' greeting to adopted daughter Sharon – and he wants more humour and less violence on the Square, too.
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