James Bye "nearly broke" his ‘EastEnders’ co-star Max Bowden’s neck during their fight scene.
The 35-year-old actor’s alter-ego Martin Fowler is in for a bleak Christmas as he finds himself in a dangerous spot after he teamed up with Walford loan shark Tubbs recently.
Over Christmas, viewers will see Martin get involved in even more criminal activity with Tubbs – played by Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong – after being introduced to him by former nemesis Ben Mitchell (Max).
The pair get into a ruckus with Ben holding Martin over a bridge, but before they shot the scene, James revealed he almost caused his castmate some serious damage.
He told The Sun Online: "We did one scene, me and Max, and I nearly broke his neck, didn’t I?"
Max added: "It wasn’t in action, that’s why. Not even in rehearsals, just as we were about to go."
On how he "snapped" his neck, James said: "I pulled him up a little prematurely, and he weren’t ready and he snapped his neck, and we had a little bit of a fallout didn’t we."
He then quipped: "He got all cocky on set like, ‘I’m the new Ben, I’m gonna take you down’ just to let him know who’s been there longer, and who’s the better recast…"
The idea for the twist came from executive producer Jon Sen and senior exec producer Kate Oates, but James was left concerned about how they would pull it off.
He explained recently: "I had a meeting with Jon and Kate and they sort of floated the idea.
"I was a bit unsure of how we were going to get from the fruit and veg man until that point."
Kate added: "One of the reasons we had this idea initially was, when got together for a bit of a character chat, James mentioned this thing – it was Martin with a different head and how he dangled Ben over the railway bridge.
"I hadn’t seen that. James and Max were talking about it, and I just thought it was brilliant. It’s nice to have those conversations and work collaboratively."
After things heat up on the Christmas Eve (24.12.19) episode, Martin reaches out to Ben for help with his friend but fails miserably, igniting their feud once again.
EastEnders’ James Bye ‘nearly broke’ co-star Max Bowden’s neck
