Former EastEnders actor Derek Martin says the soap is losing viewers because it is trying too hard to appeal to a younger audience.
The BBC show’s oldest cast member, 93-year-old June Brown, quit as Dot Cotton this week.
And Derek, 87, who played Charlie Slater for 15 years, believes viewing figures are falling because it is trying to be like Hollyoaks and using too many younger actors.
Derek said: “The whole thing has changed. When I joined in 2000 with the Slaters, the show focused on all the different families.
“In the Queen Vic, you’d have the Slaters at one table, then the Fowlers, the Mitchells, the Patricks – people of all ages.
“But now, it seems to have gone down the Hollyoaks route. I know you’ve got to have young people, but in a square in the East End of London, you’d have old and young mixed together.
"I feel they don’t do so much of that now.
“It’s a much younger cast. I sound like an old codger, but it’s true. They’re getting four or five million viewers now.
"Years ago, we were getting 10 or 12 million. It used to be you had to get eight million for a programme to keep going on the BBC.”
June, who played Dot for 35 years, said on Friday she had quit for good because was disappointed with her recent storylines.
She said: “I went back to do a good story. Alas and alack, when I got back it had gone up in smoke.
"I got a small part, a very small part. And that ended up as a big wet fart. Alas and alack, I will never go back.”
Derek said: “June was lovely, I had quite a few scenes over the years. She was very helpful, friendly, down to earth – what you see is what you get.
“She was up front, if she thought you were being silly or anyone was spinning a yarn, she would put you in your place. We’d have long chats. Her dressing room was next to mine. I had Barbara Wind-sor one side and June the other.
“June loved to smoke, as everyone knows. I’ve got to be honest, it’s a wonder she’s been alive this long, because she just didn’t stop smoking.
“She made me laugh a lot. I never saw her miserable. All I’ve got is fond memories of her.
“I think she’d had enough.”
Derek – whose character died of a heart attack in the arms of on-screen daughter Kat Slater, played by Jessie Wallace– has struggled to get work since.
He said: “I can’t get any work, because they can’t forget Charlie – he’s been dead for four years! Also, I look too young for my age.
“They say they want someone in their 80s and, when I turn up, they say, ‘Well you only look 70.’”
He added: “I’m going to live until 100. I swim four days a week and do a bit of rowing and biking in the gym. I listen to rap music, I email, text, bank online – there’s no point harking back to the good old days.
“Fifty years ago, I wouldn’t have lived to 87. I’ve got a new hip, new knees. I live for the future.”
