Former EastEnders actor John Partridge has opened up about a bizarre TV rule that affected scenes involving his character Christian Clarke on the BBC soap.

John appeared on the series from 2008 until 2012, briefly returning between 2015 and 2016. During his time on the show, his character found love with Marc Elliott’s Syed Masood, who was hiding his sexuality and his relationship with Christian from his strict Muslim family.

Partridge, who is an openly gay actor, spoke on Good Morning Britain about scenes between the two characters and a strict bedroom rule all soaps had to adhere to at the time.

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“Funny thing is, when I was in EastEnders, when Marc Elliot and I would do any scenes in the bedroom, only one of us was allowed to have our shirt off because we were a gay couple,” he began.

“Any other scenes, in any other soaps or any other TV dramas, heterosexual couples were allowed to show as much skin as they liked. But we were not allowed to do that, and that was recently.”

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“Needless to say, I was the one who had his top off,” he joked. “But that just goes to show that it is alive and well.”

The actor went on to talk about his role in the play The Code, in which he plays interior designer Billy Haines. An LGBTQ+ icon, Haines saw his Hollywood career end, says Partridge, “for being gay”.

“In 1930, Billy Haines was the biggest box office drawer at MGN during that golden period of Hollywood,” he said.

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“By 1933, he was the first victim of cancel culture, and that was for being gay. Other artists at the time like [Ramon] Novarro, [Rudolph] Valentino, and Cary Grant, were all posed with the same question – give up your gay lover or lose your career. They chose the former, he chose the latter.”

The actor went on to say that he can’t think of any openly gay leading men in Hollywood, questioning: “Why is that? What’s the reason for that? I hate to say it but there’s no other word for it – it’s homophobia. You cannot be a leading man in Hollywood if you are gay.

“Actors, musicians today are actively encouraged to withhold their sexuality, withhold their identity in order to be successful.”