The most vile villain in EastEnders history has to be Nasty Nick Cotton.
He was responsible for the BBC soap’s first ever murder - with the body of his victim Reg Cox being discovered in the opening episode.
A late addition to the original EastEnders cast, the killer became an agent of chaos - with his evil character even trying to kill his 'old ma' Dot Cotton on numerous occasions.
Actor John Altman had a record six separate stints in the show over the years, appearing in the first episode in 1985 and continuing for another 30 years.
And the 69-year-old hasn’t been afraid to heavily criticise EastEnders since Nick’s final breath aired back in 2015, slamming the soap for boring storylines and revealing the real reason he quit.
Making his acting debut in the 1979 film The First Great Train Robbery, John also appeared in Quadrophenia and American Werewolf in London before being cast as Nasty Nick.
Nick was involved in a number of grisly storylines, including killing Eddie Royle, drug addiction, causing the death of his son Ashley and several murder attempts on his own mother.
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After his first departure in 1991, John starred in the 1994 film To Die For with Nicole Kidman and adult pantomime Pussy in Boots with EastEnders co-stars Barbara Windsor and Mike Reid.
Last year, John explained that the actual reason he first left the soap was because writers wanted to change his character’s sexuality.
“They tried to make Nick Cotton gay, it was years ago now. I went in there straight, and so did the other guy, Lofty, who was a bit of a loveable bozo in the early days,” he told BANG Showbiz in 2019.
“Anyway, they suddenly decided that he weren’t gay, they were gonna make him gay, and I didn’t think that was a good idea as it would’ve changed Nick’s character completely, really. So I went to the producer, I said, ‘I hear you’ve got this idea, but I don’t think it will work,’ and she said, ‘Well, write him out,’ and I walked away. She was really harsh.
“But, I went back. I was just written out for that period. If I’d have gone in playing a gay character, fine. But to suddenly make the character … I dunno, to me, as an actor, it would’ve been wrong. I don’t think the public would’ve wanted it either.’
When John came back in 2000, he was given his own spin-off episode, Return of Nick Cotton, then appeared as the character in comedy sketch series Bo’ Selecta! in 2004.
Nick had a major storyline in 2008 when he arrived in Albert Square with daughter Dotty, who was actually working with her evil dad to kill Dot for her life insurance policy.
Away from acting, John appeared in Daz adverts with other soap actors and joined a band called Heavy Metal Kids in 2010.
“A lot of people just think of me as Nasty Nick, but I’ve always been involved in music as well as acting,” he said in 2010. “I’ve always been in bands – played the drums, guitar, done punk.”
During his final stint on EastEnders in 2014, Nick returned several months after faking his death and tried to blackmail son Charlie and Ronnie Mitchell.
But mum Dot let him die of an overdose, with his body found in the live 30th anniversary special, then she confessed to killing her son and went to prison for four months.
John’s autobiography, named In The Nick of Time after his iconic character, was released in June 2016 and last year he appeared in The Real Marigold Hotel which was filmed in India.
In 2017, John hinted at a move into politics by stating someone was interested in putting him forward as an MP.
The actor said he was fed up with student debt, potholes and only rich people being able to afford education and told people to “watch this space”.
He is now a musician as well as an actor, releasing an album Never Too Late To Rock and Roll in November last year.
Last year, the actor admitted he had set his sights on making it big in Hollywood and wants to build on his already impressive portfolio by getting a role in a BAFTA award-winning movie.
As for his personal life, John married Bridgette Poodhun in 1986, with whom he has a daughter, but they divorced in 1997.
Daughter Rosanna now lives in Luxembourg and John looks forward to reading his six-year-old granddaughter Lily her Famous Five bedtime stories over Zoom.
John is still looking for love but fears being recognised as Nasty Nick will ruin his chances of finding the one.
“I’ve debated whether to join a dating site. What’s putting me off is, people can get confused and think they’re getting a date with Nasty Nick,” he said in July 2020.
“They take one look and don’t know if I’m going to bite their head off. So they think, ‘Maybe I won’t approach him, just to be on the safe side’.
“I’d love to find a soulmate. You get a bit more fussy as you get older and don’t want to date someone just for the sake of it. But I’m going about it the natural way rather than online at the moment.”
Clearly having no hard feelings over his death at the hands of Dot, John is still close friends with his on-screen mum, June Brown.
He said: “I popped round (her house) the other week. I took her a framed photo of the two of us that one of her daughters took. We get on well."
Since leaving EastEnders for good, John has blasted bosses for bringing in too many characters and saying it is losing viewers because it "can't break new ground".
Last year, John told The Mirror: "There’s too many episodes. People do have lives to lead. I don’t know how people keep up with it. There are other things in life, there’s a lot more. I’d rather be exploring the planet I think than watching a soap opera.
When I last went back I said to someone on the production team, ‘How many characters are in EastEnders at the moment?’ And they said there were over 50.
“If you go back to the original cast there were no more than 20 people in it.”
John also said the soap is struggling to come up with original storylines and thinks it would be a “good idea” if EastEnders became available to binge watch like Netflix shows.
In April this year, he said: “EastEnders had dramatic divorces, drugs, it opened with a murder.
"It also had different cultures, different races, I don’t know if there had been any Asians or Afro-Caribbean characters in a soap before, EastEnders may have been the first for that.
"It also had the first gay couple, played by Gary Hailes and Michael Cashman."
When asked if EastEnders will have to move to a Netflix format, John said: “That could be a good idea, I’ve never thought about it like that.
"We used to have the omnibus on a Sunday, that was a good. It was good for us too because we used to get 80 per cent of our wages, without ever getting out of bed!”
*EastEnders airs tonight on BBC One at 8pm
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