BBC forced to issue apology as EastEnders star uses racial slur on air

The BBC swiftly issued an apology after ex-EastEnders star John Altman, who became a household name as Nick Cotton, made a controversial comment during a radio interview. On Wednesday (February 19), the veteran actor appeared on BBC Radio 4's World At One to celebrate the soap's 40th anniversary and share memories from his time on the show.

John Altman, who played the infamous Nick Cotton, Dot's bad boy son, from the first episode in 1985 till his character met his end in 2015, reminisced about his experiences on EastEnders while speaking to host Sarah Montague and scriptwriter Ann Marie di Mambro. During their discussion, he was asked if he had ever gone off-script during his legendary on-screen arguments.

"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," according to the Manchester Evening News report.

"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 elaborated.

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Looking back at his comeback to EastEnders in 2010, John observed notable changes within the production. He pointed out how the team revised a part of the script that contained a racially insensitive term to "illegal immigrant", reports the Mirror.

He revealed: "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'."

Sarah quickly cut in: "No, I don't think we can."

Despite John remarking that "people do unfortunately still say it these days", Sarah firmly responded, "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," he elaborated.

Sarah then stressed the importance of removing such offensive terms from scripts as they have the potential to "influencing behaviour". John pointed out that at that time, "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."

Subsequent to the interview, Sarah took a moment to excuse the choice of words used during the conversation, saying: "Can I apologise. It wasn't appropriate in the old days, and it wasn't appropriate now, for what John Altman said."