David Jason blasts ‘violent’ EastEnders

OHMYGOSSIP — ‘Only Fools and Horses’ legend Sir David Jason has criticised ‘EastEnders’ for being too “violent” to be seen by children, and insisted working class London is misrepresented on TV. The ‘Only Fools and Horses’ legend has criticised the BBC One soap because he feels even previews shown before 9pm – the cut-off for adult material on TV – are too inappropriate for children.

He told The Sun newspaper: “You have the watershed but they have trailers that come on about 5pm – adverts like the ones for ‘EastEnders’ where they’re all screaming at each other.

“They may not be swearing but there are other ways of being violent and aggressive and in ‘EastEnders’ that’s all they are capable of.”

The 73-year-old actor insisted contemporary TV shows don’t understand how to accurately portray working class London.

He explained: “You would set each other up and play some terrible tricks. Everyone would wind each other up and it was all part of the community and part of life.

“That’s the thing I can’t understand. We seem to have gone down a one-way street and now have these TV programmes that claim to represent working people in London, but they miss the best part of them.”

David suggested TV is too focused on ratings to allow comedies to properly develop a fanbase, instead being too cutthroat for new shows to grow.

He added: “Back then the BBC were capable of nursing a show. I don’t think they have that any more … They’re too nervous about having to compete.

“Faced with a new comedy, people don’t understand it immediately … Our first series of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ wasn’t a hit.

“But slowly, when it was repeated, people started to say, ‘Have you seen that thing?’ ‘What’s it called?’ ‘I don’t know, it had a silly title.’ ‘OK, I’ll have a look at it.’ “