EXCLUSIVE Richard Blackwood: 'EastEnders care too much to give us stupid storylines'

It has been a tumultuous year for EastEnders, with the BBC One soap hitting the headlines when executive producer Sean O’Connor abruptly left the show after just over one year, forcing bosses to bring in former exec, John Yorke, as a temporary replacement.

It was widely speculated at the time that O’Connor’s sudden departure was a result of unrest among the cast and crew, with it even being claimed that some of the soap’s stars had threatened to quit over storylines that O’Connor wanted to implement.

However, when we caught up with Richard Blackwood at the National Lottery Awards, it was clear to see that morale among the ‘Enders cast is at an all time high, with the star – who plays Vincent Hubbard – assuring us that the much-loved soap is “in good hands” and that Christmas in Albert Square is going to be as dramatic and exciting as ever, thanks to a certain Max Branning.

Speaking exclusively to Yahoo Celeb UK, Richard explained: “There’s a lot of things happening, you have to understand that we don’t do things by halves – we want to make sure that you are not going anywhere.

“There’s a great storyline for Christmas but I don’t want to say too much, just know that it’s going to be… explosive.

“I don’t want to say what will happen but it is going to be good.”

Opening up about the new exec producer, Richard continued: “John is great, he has been on the show before and understands it better than most so we are in good hands.

“With anybody that comes in, especially somebody that knows the show, we as actors aren’t worried. We know that we are given the work, we do the work to the best of our ability, and we are a team.

“We look at it like a ship, we all have our part to play and John without a doubt has the commanding skills to steer us right.”

The actor also hit back at claims that cast members have been unhappy with recent storylines, telling us: “We get input but everybody cares about the show, so we arent going to get any stupid storylines.

“We aren’t going to get abducted by aliens or anything, and if we do then we will have a sit down.

“If it works for the story then it’s cool – remember we are playing characters.”

When asked how he would feel if show bosses introduced a story that saw Vincent cheat on his wife, Kim Fox, Richard admitted that he would be “heartbroken” – but that he wouldn’t kick up a fuss.

“It is the character’s story,” he explained, “So if it’s something that works for the story and will get the audience gripped and is constructive then yes, of course.

“It’ll break your heart because you don’t want it to happen but if it correlates for the way the story is going then that makes sense.”

And when it comes to the critics, Richard confessed that he pays them no attention – even avoiding Twitter in a bid to focus his energy on producing as good a show as possible.

He told us: “For most of us, the actors, we don’t really look at Twitter comments because we just want to give you a great show.

“We hope that you are invested in the characters and if you’re not then that’s a shame but we hope that you are and we hope that we give you enough to make you follow the characters and go with them and that’s all that we can do.

“I still watch the show and I think that means a lot because it’s like when you leave work and you don’t want to be reminded of work… Instead, I come home and actually tune in and watch it.

“We don’t really know what’s going on in the other storylines, so to watch it and go: ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was happening’ is great.”

Finally, we had to get Richard’s opinion on his ‘Enders castmate, Davood Ghadami’s, involvement in Strictly Come Dancing this year, with the star revealing that he’d jump at the chance to take part on the show himself.

He told us: “Dav is a good friend of mine, besides a work colleague Dav is a great friend and a lovely guy and anybody who knows him can never say anything bad about him.

“He has a good heart and I will always support him.

“If they asked me [on Strictly] then I would but it’s about Dav right now – if they ever come knocking then I’m there.”

And we don’t know about you but that is something that we’d bloomin’ love to see.

The National Lottery Awards 2017 – the annual search for the UK’s favourite Lottery funded projects – will be broadcast on Wednesday 27th September at 10.45pm on BBC1. To find out more visit www.lotterygoodcauses.or g.uk

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