Ross Kemp says that EastEnders cast are overworked
- ️Fri Jul 07 2017
Legendary EastEnders hardman Ross Kemp is the latest ex-cast member to weigh in on the soap's change in leadership.
Late last month, former EastEnders producer John Yorke stepped in as showrunner when prior head writer Sean O'Connor abruptly left the series to work on film projects.
During O'Connor's year-long tenure, he actually worked with Kemp when the iconic Grant Mitchell was brought back for a very limited run in the summer and early autumn of 2016.
However, Ross is now admitting to The Sun that he wasn't entirely satisfied working with O'Connor — and particularly complained that he witnessed the cast being overworked.
"[O'Connor] reminded me of a sort of schoolteacher of a kind of third-rate public school," Ross quipped. "That's not really what you want for the cast of EastEnders."
In terms of his accusation that the cast were overworked, Ross added: "You write it well, you cast it well and you do the right things... The cast are earning more than the executive producers, which makes it a very odd power balance, doesn't it?"
Digital Spy has reached out to EastEnders for clarification and/or a response to Ross's complaints. Despite his disappointment in the prior regime, Ross isn't ruling out returning to Albert Square once again in the future.
"It's great they haven't killed Grant off," he said. "I'm very happy the Mitchell brothers are still alive and hopefully they will ride again at some point."
When news of O'Connor's departure was announced, one of those ex-cast members refusing to pile on was Samantha Womack — despite the fact that the producer took the highly controversial decision to kill off Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell earlier this year.
"My heart goes out to [Sean] and everyone struggling in the show," she said. "I'm always wary of making one single person a scapegoat. Ideas are brought to him too. It's easy to pin the blame on one person, I don't think it's helpful."
EastEnders continues tonight (July 7) at 8pm on BBC One. Ross Kemp: Extreme World starts on Sunday (July 9) at 9pm on Sky1 and NOW TV.
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