Martin Kemp has blasted his former ‘EastEnders’ co-stars, describing them as “moany”.
The Spandau Ballet star, who played Albert Square’s resident bad boy Steve Owen between 1998 and 2002, also credits the BBC soap with helping him overcome depression.
He told The Notebook: “Some of these people had the best job in the world, but they moaned about it all the time. I couldn’t stand it. However, EastEnders will always be special to me.”
The 55-year-old, who is back on our screens as a judge on ‘Let It Shine’, also revealed the soap helped him overcome four years of depression, caused by his brain tumour diagnosis.
He added: “Before I took the role of Steve Owen, I’d been in a terrible depression for four years after having two brain tumours. My brain was left in such a state, if I wanted to walk left I’d turn right.
“I didn’t know what I was capable of, so it was a godsend and it changed the way I was seen.
“Instead of being Martin Kemp, brain tumour - which I hated - I became Martin Kemp from Eastenders.”
Meanwhile, ‘Let It Shine’ has won the first round of the Saturday night TV ratings war.
The BBC’s latest talent show pulled in 400,000 more viewers than ‘The Voice UK’.
While each show’s various stars played down talk of a ratings battle, the broadcasters’ schedules meant they went head-to-head, and ‘Let It Shine’ triumphed, with an average of 6.3million viewers watching, according to figures from overnights.tv.