EastEnders' Ross Kemp hits out at far-right protestors for hijacking St George's Cross flag

He is as English as rainy days, sticky pub floors and fish ’n’ chips – and Ross Kemp has no intention of letting the far-right claim his beloved St George’s Cross.

The actor and documentary maker has been dismayed to see the English flag being used as a rallying point for the right in recent weeks. At the Unite the Kingdom rally last weekend, thousands waved the flag while chanting offensive slogans directed at immigrants and Muslims.

But EastEnders legend Ross says: “If it’s hijacked by other people for their means, then that’s entirely up to them, but that’s not what it means to me.

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“It just means being English. I’m very proud of being English. It’s on the back of an English football shirt, it’s on the back of a rugby shirt. It’s what athletes, whatever their colour or whatever their religion, wear when they’re winning an Olympic medal. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s the mainstream. It’s a flag that represents the mainstream.”

Ross made his EastEnders debut as Grant Mitchell 35 years ago and has since travelled the world through his Bafta-winning documentary work.

So when it came to looking for a host to present 40 Years on the Square, a show celebrating EastEnders’ anniversary earlier this year, he was the perfect fit.

“I think it was a good look back on 40 years of British culture,” he says. "I think it really showed a changing Britain and I also think it showed how things which were considered outrageous in the 80s and 90s have become acceptable and commonplace, as they should be.

“Like gay and lesbian relationships, exposing violence in the home – people wouldn’t show domestic violence on TV in the 60s, 70s. So I think that EastEnders was quite groundbreaking – it still is, actually, as it’s still covering stories that we’d find too dry in a documentary.

“But if they’re wrapped around a storyline with interesting characters, then it’s a good way of educating people or getting them to understand what’s happening.”

During his time on the BBC soap, Ross formed a close relationship with his on-screen mother, the late Barbara Windsor, who played Peggy Mitchell.

Babs died in 2020, aged 83, but she remains ever-present in his life.

“Oh, Barbara’s never far away,” he says with fondness. “I’ve got a picture of her in my office and I speak to Scott, her widower, on a pretty frequent basis. I got on very well with Barbara, I had a very close relationship with her.

“I wrote her a eulogy and spoke it at her funeral. I was very close to her and she was a very special person.

“And it’s interesting that there’s a lot of people who often fade away. She doesn’t seem to have faded away that much, does she? That’s testament to how many years that she was in the eye of the public, and she always had time for the public.”

Like his late co-star, Ross has respect for soap fans and he will never badmouth the show that made him a star.

But he admits playing such an iconic character does rule him out of some jobs.

“I’d like to do a bit more acting, to be honest,” he confesses. “Variety is the spice of life. I’m very fortunate to be able to move between those genres and make programmes that I want to make about subjects that I find interesting.

“I don’t rule out anything. I think there are some people who do soaps and then they want to pretend they were never in them because they find themselves successful in other places. And that’s their decision, and I admire it, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, if that’s the way they want to move.

“I think it would be difficult for me because I don’t look very dissimilar from Grant Mitchell, I can’t change my hairstyle! I’ve always been very open about the fact that I don’t think I’d have got a documentary commission if it hadn’t been for Grant.”

Ross, whose Ross Kemp on Gangs won a Bafta for Best Factual Series in 2006, to add to his three British Soap Awards, says: “What happened after that was down to me as Ross Kemp, to make it as good a documentary as I possibly could.

“I’ve won a few documentary awards that I’m very proud of, and I’m proud of the team that I work with, and they’ve become close friends over the years.

“What I’ll say is this – if I’ve got the opportunity to act in something that I think is good and they want me, then I’ll take the job.”

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