John Altman not in contact with EastEnders stars - and only sees them 'at funerals'
John Altman, who played Nick Cotton on-and-off for three decades, has admitted he does not speak to any of his former co-stars.
John Altman is not in contact with his old 'EastEnders' co-stars.
The 72-year-old acting legend played nasty Nick Cotton from the soap's first episode on February 19, 1985, and then on a sporadic basis until the character's demise during the programme's 30th anniversary week in 2015.
Despite the hit BBC One show turning 40 in 2025, and some of the cast members he worked with, including Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) and Letitia Dean (Sharon Watts), still on Albert Square, he is not in touch with them, and only catches up with the stars at funerals.
Speaking to TV presenter Hayley Palmer at her audience with Saturday night show at The Hippodrome Casino in London, John admitted: "I don't really keep in contact with any of the cast members.
"I just tend to see them at funerals or at charity nights - there's been too many funerals.
"When you are at 'EastEnders', you have to sort of cut yourself off from the world as you are at it every single day of the week.
"Even on the weekend, you are always learning lines - it's not glamorous!
"So when you're not in it, they are all still in 'that world' and I'm in the normal world."
Nick was the son of Dot Cotton, played by the late June Brown, and because the pair knew their characters so well, they were able to "improvise" on set.
He said: "June and I knew our characters so well that we just kept on improvising.
"The crew must have been looking around wondering where all the missing pages of script had gone!"
John is starring in a new horror film called 'The Last Grail Hunter', which will be available to stream on Prime later this year.
He plays the lead character Johnny Calvi, a failed grail hunter battling with alcoholism who makes one last attempt to find the Holy Grail - the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, in the Mark Christopher Lee written and directed flick.
