EastEnders star Ross Kemp has revealed the financial pressure Brexit has put on his ability to make documentaries.
The actor has established himself as a Bafta-winning investigative journalist since he left the soap, travelling around the world to report on Isis in Syria, the British Army in Afghanistan and gangs in Los Angeles.
However, he said the plummeting pound could force him to cut shoots short.
He told the Press Association: “It has cost me in my pocket. With my company we travel around the world, the pound has devalued so it has had an economic effect on how long we can stay on the ground.
“We haven’t had to cut shoots short yet but we will have to if the pound stays where it is. If money that was worth 12 dollars is now worth 11 dollars, you can work it out.”
He added: “How is (Theresa May) going to implement Article 50? Legally she can’t. All the clever brains in Europe are smirking at us, laughing at us behind our backs because implementing it isn’t that easy, It was designed so it’s virtually impossible to untangle yourself from it.
“I think it was ill-thought out, the entire referendum. From both sides they didn’t tell the truth and I think a lot of people were confused about what they are voting for and I think a lot of people saw it as a protest vote but it wasn’t. It wasn’t a by-election in Swindon, it was ‘do you leave the EU after 40 years?’”
The latest series of his show Ross Kemp: Extreme World takes him to Colombia, Kurdistan, Mozambique, the US/Mexico border and Mongolia, where he met Nazis who were celebrating Hitler’s birthday.
He said he could see parallels between their racist nationalism and the rhetoric surrounding Donald Trump’s campaign for the US presidency, as well as the rise in reports of racial abuse after the referendum in the UK.
He said: “Because of the internet there has been a big growth in the populism of people like Trump because it’s very simple, it’s ‘We don’t like you, we are going to build a wall and that is going to keep you out and solve all our problems’.
“In the past, politics was more complex than that but there has been an oversimplification of what is going on and I think Nazism is pretty simple in its basic points. There are parallels to be drawn between that.
“We were drawing comparisons in the simplistic way people can gain support now, especially through the internet, with simple, obvious statements.”
Ross, 52, is about to start filming the next series of the show, which will take him to another dangerous part of the world.
He said: “I’m scared about what I’m doing next but to not be scared breeds complacency,
“All the places I’ve said I wouldn’t go to I’ve been to. Where we are going next, some people go and come out but some don’t.”
But that won’t stop him getting close to the action. He added: “I’m not a dry reporter, we are down there saying ‘oh f**k, that was close’.
“There aren’t many current affairs documentary series at the moment so I’m thankful I’m in a rare position to have lasted this long.
“We are talking about doing something else but I am loath to leave it.”
Ross Kemp: Extreme World begins at 9pm on September 7 on Sky1.
