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"John Partridge has described his exit from EastEnders as &amp;quot;overwhelming&amp;quot;. The actor recently confirmed that he will be leaving the soap as Christian Clarke, along with his on-screen lover Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott.   He explained that filming his final scenes on the BBC soap was &amp;quot;exhausting&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Leaving was incredibly emotional, and the last day was very difficult,&amp;quot; he told What&amp;#039;s on TV. &amp;quot;You have the whole anticipation of it coming and, when it finally happens, it&amp;#039;s overwhelming. I was in tears; our executive producer, Lorraine Newman, was in tears; the people in props were in tears. Afterwards, I felt exhausted.&amp;quot; Partridge stated that his decision to quit the soap was a joint one with co-star Elliott, as he felt the characters would not work well on their own. &amp;quot;Christian and Syed are a unit. I know some characters can survive having their other half leave but, for me personally, I didn&amp;#039;t see a future for Christian without Syed,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;It was very much a joint decision and it wasn&amp;#039;t an easy one for me to make but, at the same time, you have to serve the story and there has to be a professional happiness tied into that. In reality, I think I would&amp;#039;ve been slightly redundant without Marc.&amp;quot; On his overall experience on starring in EastEnders, he added: &amp;quot;I have had the most amazing time, and it&amp;#039;s one of those jobs that I will hold dear. My memories will be kept in my heart - and I mean that most sincerely.&amp;quot; Partridge and Elliott will leave EastEnders next month in a dramatic storyline. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/eastenders/news/a434516/eastenders-john-partridge-christian-couldnt-stay-without-syed/>