Derek Martin defends EastEnders plot

Derek Martin has defended the controversial baby-swap plot in EastEnders.

 

Derek Martin has defended the controversial baby-swap plot in EastEnders. The actor plays cabbie and Slater family patriarch Charlie in the BBC soap. The actor will make his on-screen exit in EastEnders later this week after ten years in the role of Charlie. Appearing on ITV’s breakfast programme Daybreak today the actor defended the plot and also said people treat EastEnders as if it’s real.

 

“Don’t forget, EastEnders is a drama. I know a lot of people out there think of it as real life. I mean people come up to me and say, ‘Charlie, why is that Kat having a go at you?’. They really believe it. I mean, they send wreaths in for funerals and children’s clothes in for births. But the cot death is a thing that happens, and the swap – can I say cinematic license? You see it in movies: they go over the top, it’s the way they go. I mean, there’s lots of people would say, ‘okay, fine – accept it as a drama’.” – Derek Martin on Daybreak

 

The plot in EastEnders has proved to be the soaps most controversial in terms of the number of complaints it has generated. Last week it emerged that actress Samantha Womack, who plays Ronnie Branning, had quit the soap and according to tabloids it was over the storyline. However, tabloid stories over the weekend that fellow actors Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie were also planning on quitting the soap have been denied. The two actors issued statements over the weekend denying the reports and committing themselves to EastEnders.