'Enders actor praises "slick" live ep

EastEnders star Jake Wood has revealed that he was pleased with the quality of the soap's live episode, claiming that the 25th anniversary instalment appeared "slick" on screen.

In an interview with This Morning, the actor explained that the show's producers had worked hard to ensure smooth transitions from scene-to-scene in Friday's special edition.

Wood commented: "It was very slick. I remember from watching The Bill live - they've done it twice now - there was always a half-second delay [between scenes]. It would cut to the scene and people were waiting for their cues. It looked a little bit uncomfortable and I think that was one of the things [our producers] were aware of."

The 37-year-old, who plays Max Branning, added that a series of last-minute changes to the episode's script had kept the programme's cast on their toes while preparing for Friday night.

He explained: "I think by Wednesday we'd done a run-through and it was 34 minutes. I think the most they were given was 32 so there were changes on the Thursday - scenes were changed and chopped around. I think [the BBC] didn't want it to go over a certain point."

Wood also laughed off the moment when he was seen sticking his fingers down his throat on camera to make himself retch following the death of his screen son Bradley (Charlie Clements).

The actor said: "It was in the script that Max saw Bradley lying dead and he was sick, so at some point we talked about putting the liquid into the mouth, but then we realised there was probably no time to do that. To me it felt very real, if you were going to be sick anyway you might want to get it all out!"

> Full coverage: EastEnders' 25th anniversary