John Altman feels sorry for the writers of 'EastEnders'.
John Altman
The 69-year-old actor - who played Nick Cotton in the BBC soap - has revealed he'd hate to be a writer on the show, as it's so tough to develop new and original storylines year after year.
He explained: "It’s hard. I wouldn’t want to be a writer on it, to come up with something that hasn’t been repeated before - like a murder, a divorce, drug addiction, burglary.
"You can’t avoid repeating old storylines with different characters."
Despite this, John - who recently released an album, 'Never Too Late To Rock and Roll, and has a new single out called 'Looking For The Love of My Life' - is confident that the long-running show will be on TV for years to come.
The former soap star compared the passion viewers have for 'EastEnders' and 'Coronation Street' to supporting a sports team.
He told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column: "I’ve never thought about it ending. 'Coronation Street' has been going since 1960. It’s like having a football team. They are pretty die-hard fans."
John recently revealed he made £25 in royalties from 'EastEnders' re-runs in 2020.
The actor admitted he still earns money from repeat episodes of the show featuring his villainous character.
John - whose character was killed off in 2015 - said: "Back in the early days, 'EastEnders' used to have an omnibus every Sunday and we'd receive 80 percent of our original fee. Very nice!
"Last year I got about £25 for some old repeated episodes of 'EastEnders'!"
John also revealed that in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, he's still managed to earn a reasonable living over the last year.
The actor explained that he'd earned "about £24,000 from pantomimes, guest slots on shows such as 'Pointless Celebrities', and celebrity video messaging during the COVID lockdown".
Speaking about his earnings, he added: "I also managed to record my album and an audio version of my autobiography."
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