Former EastEnders actor to front BBC Three documentary on drugs

Former EastEnders star James Alexandrou is to front a documentary exploring the effects of cannabis for BBC Three.

The actor, who played Martin Fowler in the BBC soap, was pictured in tabloid newspaper The Sun allegedly smoking cannabis in 2008.

Cannabis: What’s the Harm? is being produced with the co-operation of the UK Border Agency and Avon & Somerset drugs squad and will form part of a season of programmes called Dangerous Pleasures, which will air next year.

Other programmes in the season include Is Oral Sex Safe?, fronted by actress Jaime Winstone, and Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents in which parents covertly follow their teenage offspring’s antics in a foreign holiday resort.

There will also be programmes on binge drinking, hip-hop and more on drugs as well.

Alexandrou is best known for his EastEnders role, in which he succeeded Jon Peyton-Price in 1996 after the then-producer decided to increase Martin’s presence in the show.  The character went on to feature in a number of ‘teenage tearaway’ storylines before marrying Sonia (Natalie Cassidy). He quit the soap in 2006.