Louise Jameson claims she may have been cut from \'EastEnders\' because she didn\'t want her character to become "racist".
The 68-year-old actress - who played Rosa di Marco for two years until her exit was revealed in the press in 2000 - wasn\'t happy with the direction BBC bosses wanted to take her alter ego in, as she pointed out how blurred the lines can be between the soap world and reality.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, she said: "Shortly before that announcement they\'d wanted to run a particular story that I wasn\'t happy with and I wonder if that was the beginning of my demise.
"They were going to make Rosa racist. It\'s not that I wouldn\'t play a racist if the overall feel was anti-racism.
"But when you\'re in a soap, people identify you so strongly with the character you\'re playing so I didn\'t want to appear racist."
Louise was "really annoyed" with the way her departure was revealed, claiming she only found out about the story "the night before".
She added: "I was really annoyed about the way my exit was announced. I was told the night before it appeared in the papers under the headline, \'Di Marcos Axed\'.
"I thought they could have run it by me a bit beforehand so I could tell my family. It just wasn\'t respectful."
In the 1970s, she became a household name when she played warrior Leela, the companion of Tom Baker\'s Fourth Doctor in BBC sci-fi series \'Doctor Who\', with the character still proving to be a fan favourite amongst Whovians now.
Once she was done with her trips in the TARDIS, Louise then landed the leading role of Blanche Simmons in the first two series of historical war drama \'Tenko\', before starring for five years in \'Bergerac\' as Susan Young, the girlfriend of Jim Bergerac.
Before heading to Albert Square, Louise portrayed Pandora\'s mother Tania Braithwaite in both \'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4\' and \'The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole\', which are based on the books by Sue Townsend.
More recently she has appeared in \'Doctors\', \'Holby City\' and \'Doc Martin\'.
