Cliff Parisi feels \'EastEnders\' has "lost its sense of humour".
The 59-year-old actor used to play Minty Peterson on the BBC One soap between 2002 and 2010, and he has admitted that in recent times the show has become very dark and could do with bringing back a bit of light-hearted comedy.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the \'Only Fools and Horses: The Musical\' anniversary performance in London on Thursday night (27.02.20), he quipped: "I always found it quite hard sometimes, and I\'ve post-traumatic stress on occasions after watching it."
Before he continued: "The East End is a fun place to live, otherwise no one would live there.
"Life is tough in those poor areas but there more and more middle class people moving there, and also people laugh.
"In tragedy there\'s humour. I think it\'s lost its laugh, it\'s lost its sense of humour.
"I love it, I watch it from time to time and I think it\'s got some of the best actors in the country and some of the best writers.
"I still feel like it needs a bit of humour.
"Sometimes I just wanna see Dot Cotton talking about the price of rich tea biscuits, and moaning about the fact that they\'ve gone up 10p. We just wanna see normal people with normal problems."
Cliff - who competed on \'I\'m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!\' last year - insisted that he loves the show though, and praised the writers and actors.
The \'Call the Midwife\' star also admitted it was "tough" working on the soap because there is very little time to film every episode.
He added: "I don\'t wanna slag it off because it\'s been brilliant to me, and it was brilliant whilst I was there. I\'ve always said there\'s room for a bit of a laugh.
"I think the best writers and some of the best actors I\'ve ever worked with are in that show.
"t\'s a tough show to do, you\'ve got to be on your game because the scripts come late and there\'s a lot to learn working on 12 episodes at the same time."
