BBC forced to apologise as EastEnders star says a racial slur live on air

BBC Radio 4’s Sarah Montague was forced to issue an apology after EastEnders star John Altman said a racial slur live on air. 

The presenter was interviewing John about his role as the legendary villain Nick Cotton when talk turned to whether he had ever improvised any lines. 

Discussing his scenes with his on-screen mother Dot Cotton, played by June Brown, he said: ‘During the early days with June 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…

‘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.’

John – who first appeared on the soap in the 1980s – went on to note the differences to filming when he returned in the late Noughties, recalling an incident when show bosses changed a racial slur in the script to ‘illegal immigrant’.

He said: ‘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**i. They start filming and they said, “Oh I don’t think we can say that”‘. 

BBC Radio 4’s Sarah Montague was forced to issue an apology after EastEnders star John Altman (pictured in 2022) said a racial slur live on air

The presenter was interviewing John about his role as the legendary villain Nick Cotton when talk turned to whether he had ever improvised any lines

Interjecting, Sarah stated: ‘No, I don’t think we can [say that].’

John then claimed that ‘people do unfortunately still say it these days’, to which Sarah insisted ‘they don’t’.

He continued: ‘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.’

Earlier in the interview, John confessed he was shocked watching back old clips from the show, admitting a lot had changed in 40 years. 

He revealed: ‘I was watching an old clip of Nick Cotton approaching Kelvin (Paul J Medford) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) on the street.

‘I won’t say what he said to them – son of a Caribbean guy on the show – and I couldn’t believe what Nick Cotton was saying!

‘It would not be broadcast these days but there you go. It’s pretty interesting looking back to 40 years ago what was portrayed.’ 

Later in the episode, Sarah apologised for the language used in the interview, saying: ‘Can I apologise. It wasn’t appropriate in the old days, and it wasn’t appropriate now, for what John Altman said.’

After John revealed that his script had been changed to remove the slur ‘p**i’, Sarah stated ‘No, I don’t think we can [say that]’ and later apologised to listeners for the slur 

John appeared in the first episode of EastEnders and was an integral part of the show’s first big storyline – murdering elderly resident Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton).

He quickly became the soap’s biggest villain, embodying an antagonist, a drug-user and a murderer. 

Yet John left the soap in 1991 after refusing to accept a gay storyline for his character.

The star said he was written out after raising concerns about the proposed storyline because Nick had originally been portrayed as straight.

Speaking to BANG Showbiz in 2019, he explained: ‘They tried to make Nick Cotton gay, it was years ago now. 

‘I went in there straight, and so did the other guy, Lofty (Tom Watt) who was a bit of a lovable bozo in the early days. 

‘Anyway, they suddenly decided that he weren’t gay, they were gonna make him gay, and I didn’t think that was a good idea as it would’ve changed Nick’s character completely, really.  

‘So I went to the producer, I said, “I hear you’ve got this idea, but I don’t think it will work,” and she said, “Well, write him out,” and I walked away. 

‘She was really harsh. But, I went back. I was just written out for that period. If I’d have gone in playing a gay character, fine. 

‘But to suddenly make the character… I dunno, to me, as an actor, it would’ve been wrong. I don’t think the public would’ve wanted it either.’

John’s final departure came when he was killed off in 2015 and died in his mother’s arms after a fatal reaction to heroin for which Dot did not seek medical help (pictured with June Brown)

John later returned to the soap, appearing in 1993, 1998 and between 2000 and 2001, 2008 and 2009 and finally from 2014 to 2015. 

He was central to some of EastEnders’ darkest storylines, including the murder of Eddie Royle (Michael Melia), several plots to murder his mother Dot and accidentally causing the death of his son Ashley (Frankie Fitzgerald) after sabotaging a motorbike.  

His final departure came when he was killed off in 2015. 

He died in his on-screen mother’s arms after a fatal reaction to heroin for which Dot did not seek medical help.