EASTENDERS actor Scott Maslen believes that rival Strictly Come Dancing star Matt Baker came across as a bit arrogant to viewers and that may have cost him victory in the competition.

Scott, who plays Jack Branning in the BBC1 soap, was speaking following an appearance at Hereford's Play nightclub last night.

Matt Baker came runner-up to Kara Tointon in last Saturday's final, despite being the bookies favourite.

"Matt is a really nice guy, but he did come across as a bit arrogant at times," said Scott.

The actor, who finished fourth in the competition, added that he still felt that Matt deserved his place in the final, along with Kara and Pamela Stephenson.

Scott also spoke about his relationship with dancer Natalie Lowe, saying that they got on really well and his wife never felt uncomfortable watching them dance, despite some of the dances being quite sexy.

He said that he is not a Latin dancer though and struggled with the Rumba, which is a romantic dance that requires very close proximity between dancers.

Scott acored 28 out of 40 from judges Craig Revell Horwood, Len Goodman, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli for the dance, which was his lowest mark in the competition.

Despite getting 39 the week after for his Jive, his scores again dipped, leading to former judge Arlene Phillips reportedly saying that he was the most disappointing contestant in the history of the programme because he failed to live up to his early promise.

Scott said that his heavy workload filming for Eastenders meant that he felt really tired towards the end of the competition and felt that he did well with no dancing training behind him.

His appearance at Play saw him answer some questions on stage and he posed for photographs and signed autographs.

He even jumped into a tiny electric Peel car with club owner Billy Reynolds, who has borrowed it from friend Faizal Khan.

Mr Khan bought Peel Engineering a couple of years ago and has been building electric powered replicas of the micro motor ever since.

The car was even used by Ben Williams and Nicky Davies for their wedding, as reported in the Hereford Times last week.

Scott won both actor of the year and sexiest male of the year at last year's national Soap Awards and many of his female admirers gushed after having their photo taken with him.

Scott also spoke fondly about his love of carp fishing and the strict vegetarian, who was named as PETA's sexiest vegetarian alongisde singer Leona Lewis last year, tucked into a veggie patty sandwich from Subway before going back to his hotel.