EastEnders star Louise Jameson axed from the show after refusing to play racist

A former EastEnders actor has suggested she was axed from the soap after she refused to play a racist.

Louise Jameson portrayed Rosa di Marco on the BBC series from 1998 until 2000, when her character was written out.

While soap matriarchs are usually given dramatic exits, Rosa died of a heart attack off-screen after moving to Leicester.

Jameson has now said that she felt “gutted” by the story, and only found out she was leaving the soap via a newspaper article.

She also said that she was potentially axed from the series after a row over a dark storyline that she did not want to take part in.

Jameson told The Mirror: “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.

“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,” she continued. “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.”

Following EastEnders, Jameson appeared in series including Holby City, Doctors and Toast of London.

EastEnders recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, with Australian soap Neighbours hinting that the two series are set in the same universe.