HE gave us one of TV’s greatest villains in the form of EastEnders’ Nasty Nick – but despite loathing his character, actor John Altman says he loved the edgy show it produced.
Now he fears that our woke world is diluting the punchiness of some of our best loved shows, particularly when we’re even getting trigger warnings on old school sitcoms.
John, who’s starring in new horror film The Last Grail Hunter, said: “I watched an old episode of EastEnders recently and I couldn’t believe the content of the dialogue. It was unbelievable, really.
“You’d never allow people to use it these days, even though it was real what Nick Cotton was saying – he’s a racist, drug dealing, murderer.”
John shot to fame in 1985 playing Nasty Nick, the wayward son of long-suffering Dot Cotton played by June Brown.
In that time he’s seen the Tv landscape drastically change, including the introduction of trigger warnings at the start of some shows.
He said: “All that stuff, ‘the content of this programme might upset some people’, I doubt it upsets anyone to be quite honest. Let alone the people they might think they’re upsetting.
“You see some old Only Fools and Horses and Del Boy saying certain phrases that you wouldn’t use now, but that’s what they were using and people still do.
“I saw that a university has gone through the works of Shakespeare and eliminated 300 items, or cut them out, or put them on a warning list. Unbelievable! I never thought it would come to that.”
Keir: Isle be back for love
THE Apprentice candidate Keir Shave has opened up about his relationship status for the first time since it emerged he enjoyed a secret fling with fellow contestant Amber-Rose Badrudin.
The hunk who was fired on last night’s show, was accused by TV bosses of breaking the show’s strict “no touching” rule with Amber-Rose after the pair were spotted half-naked together in a hotel room during filming.
But Keir insisted he is very single and wouldn’t mind going back on TV to try and find love.
He said: “I would go on Love Island – 100 per cent. If anyone from Love Island reads this – get me on!
“I am concentrating on the business but . . . if Love Island calls then I am in.”
Lotus Aimee is Lou-ded
SHE’S currently busier than ever, starring in two huge dramas – Sky’s The White Lotus and Netflix’s Toxic Town.
But it’s Aimee Lou Wood’s bank balance that shows just how much of a hit she is in TV land.
Her latest accounts show she has equity to the value of £1.7million and has paid a total of £609,000 in tax in 2023 and 2024 – that would suggest she earned a whopping £2.4m during that period.
Not bad for an actress who only got her big break six years ago on Netflix’s Sex Education.
Though she still has some catching up to do with her co-stars Asa Butterfield and current Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, who have been multimillionaires for some time now.
However, she has some more money-spinning shows on the horizon, including BBC Three comedy drama Film Club with Suranne Jones and upcoming film Sweet Dreams.
COMEDY series Room 101 is heading to BBC Radio 4 seven years after it was last on TV. The show, where guests discuss their pet hates, started on the radio then went on to TV in 1994. It had several hosts including Paul Merton, who’s now returning to front it on the radio.
Sarah’s own way on Big C
property guru Sarah Beeny has opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis – saying she did not want it to “own” her life.
She was given the all-clear in 2023 and the same year made a Channel 4 documentary about her experience. Now, talking in the latest edition of TV Mag – available in tomorrow’s edition of The Sun – she discusses appearing on The Great Celebrity Bake Off For Stand up to Cancer, which returns to Channel 4 on Sunday.
Sarah said: “I didn’t want anything to change because of cancer. I didn’t want to be able to say: ‘Oh, that was like this before cancer, and I was like this after cancer.’
“I thought: ‘No, you’re not owning that, cancer’.”
PARAMOUNT+ has renewed the 2024 breakout hit Landman for a second series. Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore, the West Texas-set show is a gripping tale of people trying to make a fortune in the world of oil rigs where roughnecks and billionaires exist cheek by jowl.
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