The BBC issued an immediate apology after ex-EastEnders star John Altman, famed for his role as Nick Cotton, made a controversial remark during a radio interview. The 72-year-old actor was on BBC Radio 4's World At One on Wednesday (February 19) to chat about the iconic soap on its 40th anniversary.
John, who portrayed Dot Cotton's notorious son Nick from the very first episode in 1985 until his character was killed off in 2015 during the 30th-anniversary episodes, reminisced about his time on the show. In conversation with host Sarah Montague and scriptwriter Ann Marie di Mambro, John was quizzed on whether he had the freedom to ad-lib any of his lines during his infamous spats with various characters over the years.
"During the early days with June [his on-screen mother Dot Cotton] it was really flexible. You didn't have to ask permission to have a cigarette. You could just do it. June and I used to improvise," reports the Manchester Evening News. "We knew our characters so well. We wouldn't change it drastically. We'd put in words or a line here and there to make it comical. Just to liven it up a bit," he explained.
Reflecting on his return to EastEnders in the 2010, John noted how things had changed, noting that the production team altered a racially insensitive term in the script to "illegal immigrant". He shared: "I suppose I can say it on air, if you don't mind, but Nick referred to someone who was living with Dot as a p***. They start filming and they said, 'Oh I don't think we can say that'.".
Interrupting John, Sarah quickly interjected: "No, I don't think we can." John then claimed that "people do unfortunately still say it these days", Sarah countered with a firm "they don't". "They changed it to illegal immigrant so this is just an example of what happened with the script. They just went with that line rather than the previous one," John explained.
Before moving on, Sarah highlighted the significance of removing offensive language from scripts, noting that words have the power to "influencing behaviour". John countered: "At the time, I think Nick come across as an example of how people wouldn't want to be and he always got his comeuppance.".
Later in the show, following the interview segment, Sarah issued an apology for the language used during the discussion, stating: "Can I apologise. It wasn't appropriate in the old days, and it wasn't appropriate now, for what John Altman said.". EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and available to stream on BBC iPlayer from 6am.
