John Altman had a showdown with a "really harsh" \'EastEnders\' producer when she tried to "make Nick Cotton gay".
The 67-year-old star played \'Nasty\' Nick Cotton on and off from 1985 until the Walford villain\'s eventual death in 2015, but he once objected to a plot idea that would\'ve seen Nick develop feelings for another man, which resulted in the star leaving the show.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "They tried to make Nick Cotton gay, it was years ago now. I went in there straight, and so did the other guy, Lofty, who was a bit of a lovable bozo in the early days.
"Anyway, they suddenly decided that he weren\'t gay, they were gonna make him gay, and I didn\'t think that was a good idea as it would\'ve changed Nick\'s character completely, really.
"So I went to the producer, I said, \'I hear you\'ve got this idea, but I don\'t think it will work,\' and she said, \'Well, write him out,\' and I walked away.
"She was really harsh."
As well as objecting to the idea, he didn\'t think the public "would\'ve wanted" that storyline for his character.
He said: "But, I went back. I was just written out for that period.
"If I\'d have gone in playing a gay character, fine. But to suddenly make the character ... I dunno, to me, as an actor, it would\'ve been wrong.
"I don\'t think the public would\'ve wanted it either."
John wrote "a lot" about his \'EastEnders\' memories in his autobiography \'In the Nick of Time\'.
He added: "It\'s the story of John Altman, and it incorporates quite a lot about \'EastEnders\' over the years, from when I went in, up until the final death scene with Dot.
"And there\'s a load of stuff in it people may not know about.
"If you wanna know how Nick Cotton is quite accurate, then read the book and you\'ll see that I did all the research that I needed to, really."
