Phil Daniels: 'Enders bosses don't have a clue'
Ex-EastEnders star Phil Daniels has hit out as the soap's bosses, saying: "They haven't a clue what viewers want." The Quadrophenia star's comments come after it was reported that six main characters - including cabbie Charlie Slater and student Libby Fox - were being axed by new producer Brian Kirkwood. Phil, who played Libby's stepdad car salesman Kevin Wicks on EastEnders until 2007, told The Sun: "It'll be sad. Minty's good, Charlie's good. I love Libby. "They are good characters. I don't see why they have to go. That's that programme for you. Hasn't got a clue, has it? Viewers don't want it to be Hollyoaks." He added: "It's a chance for me to come back from the dead if they want glamour. "There aren't enough laughs in EastEnders for me - and there weren't when I was doing it either!" Phil also revealed that he would be keen to follow the success of shows such as Over the Rainbow and turn his notorious 1977 film Scum - about life in a British borstal - into a musical and cast the roles in a TV contest. He said: "Scum the musical - that would be good. We'd have to have a mixed borstal to get girls in it too. "I'd like to pick a star. I could sit alongside Louis Walsh. Anybody interested contact me. I'd be a good judge." Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.