'Big Brother' race row influenced Walford racism plot

EastEnders' Executive Producer Diederick Santer has revealed how the Celebrity Big Brother race fiasco inspired the forthcoming racism storyline.

In one scene due to air next week, young Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) brands Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) a "black cow", while a couple of weeks later, Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky) uses the phrase "your lot" during an argument with Minute Mart manager Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker).

The Walford boss recalled: "The Celebrity Big Brother race row kicked off as I took charge of my first scripts. I thought it was fascinating because it showed there was a real need for a debate about race in Britain."

He added: "BB didn’t do it particularly well, so I thought it could be something EastEnders should do. Our stuff won’t be overly moralistic or preachy but it will tackle this serious issue head on."