'We'd make great dads,' says EastEnders' John

EastEnders star John Partridge reckons his character Christian Clarke and Syed Masood would make great fathers. Viewers will see John's character hatch a plan to get best friend Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) pregnant. John told Inside Soap magazine: "Christian and Syed [known together as Chryed to fans] would be amazing dads. They're the perfect combination - you've got Syed for the sensible, moralistic stuff, and then there's Christian for fashion and music! "They'd be the perfect yin and yang, or good cop and bad cop, But I'm sure whoever came into their lives would wrap them around his or her little finger." Syed (Marc Elliott) has reservations about the plan, but the couple fail to tell Roxy before she uses the sperm sample left in her fridge. It will mean an anxious wait to find out if the insemination has been successful. John said of his character: "I'm pleased he and Syed are involved in a plot that's going to unite them. "When two people get together in soap, inevitably they're going to be pulled apart. But if anything this latest storyline will bring the two of them closer together."

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.