Tom Watt praises current EastEnders cast's work ethic

Tom Watt has a lot of respect for the work ethic of the \'EastEnders\' cast.

The former cobbles star - who played George \'Lofty\' Holloway on the soap from its launch in 1985 until 1988 - has returned to the show so that his character can attend Dr. Legg\'s funeral this week, and he admitted a lot has changed over the last 30 years.

He told ITV\'s \'This Morning\': "They are grafting now! I mean, we did two episodes a week which meant you could rehearse it like a play.

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"Now, you just go... these people are so on it! The guys who are doing it now, one it\'s proper hard graft, and two they\'re so focused. I was really, really impressed."

Despite being one of the original cast members, Tom laughed off the idea that he had returned to his "patch".

He said: "No, I think there\'s been a few people through since! I think I\'ve had to relinquish ownership."

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His comments come after Tom admitted he would be open to a regular \'EastEnders\' return after reprising the role of Lofty.

He previously said: "Well I don\'t know, they\'ve never said. If they did, yeah I like acting, I really like acting, it\'s not that I\'m not doing it because I don\'t like acting, I\'m not great at waiting for the phone to ring.

"I love acting, I had a really good time. It\'s harder work now. They work a lot harder than we did. We did two episodes a week. They do twice as much."