Former EastEnder Derek Martin says the soap is losing viewers because it is trying too hard to appeal to a younger audience.
The BBC show’s oldest cast member, 93-year-old June Brown, quit as Dot Cotton last week.
And Derek, 87, who played Charlie Slater for 15 years, believes viewing figures are falling because it is using too many younger actors.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Derek said: “The whole thing has changed. When I joined in 2000 with the
Slaters, the show focused on all the different families – people of all ages.
“But now it seems to have gone down the Hollyoaks route. I know you’ve got to have young people but in a square in the east end of London, you’d have old and young mixed together.
“It’s a much younger cast. I sound like an old codger, but it’s true. They’re getting four or five million viewers now. Years ago, we were getting 10 or 12 million. It used to be you had to get eight million for a programme to keep going on the BBC.”
June, who played Dot for 35 years, said on Friday she had quit for good because she was disappointed with her recent storylines.
She said: “I went back to do a good story. Alas and alack, when I got back it had gone up in smoke. Alas and alack, I will never go back.”
Derek said: “June was up front, if she thought you were being silly or anyone was spinning a yarn, she would put you in your place. I think she’d had enough.”
Derek – whose character died of a heart attack – has struggled to get work since.
He said: “They can’t forget Charlie – he’s been dead for four years!”
