EastEnders

EastEnders
File:EastEnders CM.gif An image from the current opening title sequence of EastEnders (introduced on 5 September 1999).
Created by	Julia Smith and Tony Holland
Starring	(Present cast) James Alexandrou - John Bardon - Emma Barton - Natasha Beaumont - Joel Beckett - Tiana Benjamin - Laurie Brett - Ray Brooks - Natalie Cassidy - Kevin Curran - Charlie Clements - Phil Daniels - Matt Di Angelo - Madeline Duggan - Perry Fenwick - Lorna Fitzgerald - Mohammed George - Ricky Groves - Charlie G. Hawkins - Dave Hill - Charlie Jones - Jo Joyner - Joseph Kpobie - Stuart Laing - Petra Letang - Louisa Lytton - Derek Martin - James Martin - Steve McFadden - Laila Morse - Belinda Owusu - Diane Parish - Cliff Parisi - Wendy Richard - Lee Ross - Jade Sharif - Kellie Shirley - David Spinx - Pam St. Clement - Melissa Suffield - Joe Swash - Kara Tointon - Lacey Turner - Rudolph Walker - Barbara Windsor - Jake Wood - Adam Woodyatt - Gillian Wright - Angela Wynter
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	3196 (as of 18 July 2006)
Production
Running time	Approximately 28 minutes per episode
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	19 February 1985 – present

EastEnders is a popular BBC television soap opera, first broadcast on 19 February 1985. It has been running ever since, generating strong viewing figures for much of that time, and has at times been the UK's highest-rated programme.

Despite the strong criticism of the show by critics in 2004 and 2005, EastEnders won the prestigious National Television Award for 'Most Popular Serial Drama' (an award it has won several times in the past ten years) in October 2005, was inducted into the Rose d'Or Hall of Fame in April 2006, and in May 2006 won the BAFTA for 'Best Continuing Drama'. It also won seven British Soap Awards in May 2006, including the award for 'Best British Soap'.

Setting and characters

Setting

EastEnders is set in the fictional London Borough of Walford. However, the central focus of the show is that of the equally fictional Victorian square named Albert Square.

The show's creators were both Londoners, but when they researched Victorian squares, they found massive changes in areas they thought they knew well. However, delving further into the East End of London, they found exactly what they had been searching for: a real East End spirit — an inward looking quality, a distrust of strangers and authority figures, a sense of territory and community that the creators summed up as 'Hurt one of us and you hurt us all'.These themes that were found for the setting can still be found in a present day episode of EastEnders.

In the show's continutity, Albert Square was built around the early 20th century, indeed heavy research was done by the show's creators to support this. Firstly, the square is named Albert Square after Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, who died in 1901. Thus, central to Albert Square is The Queen Victoria Public House.

But as the set was built in the early eighties, it had to be made to look as if it had been standing for years and years. This was done by a number of means, including chipping at the buildings with pickaxes.

The EastEnders lot was built and designed by Keith Harris, who was a senior designer within the production team. Then in 1986, he added an extension to the set, building the fourth side of Albert Square, and in 1987, Turpin Road was added, which included buildings such as The Dagmar. In 1993 George Street was added, and soon after Walford East tube station was built.

In the past, fans have tried to establish the actual location of Walford within London. Walford East is a fictional tube station for Walford, and with the aid of a map that was first seen on air in 1996, it has been established that Walford East is located between Bow Road and West Ham, which realistically would replace Bromley-by-Bow.

Walford has the postal district of E20, thus fans have also tried to pinpoint the location using this. However, realistically, London East postal districts stop at E18; the show's creators opted for E20 instead of E19 as it was thought to sound better.

The strongest claim to being the 'real' Albert Square is held by Broadway Market in Hackney, a short pedestrianised road that features a weekly market and established street vendors. The postcode for the area, E8, was one of the working titles for the series.

In reality, an Albert Square does exist in the East End, in Stratford. However, the show's producers actually based the square's design on the real life Fassett Square in the East End. The name Walford is a portmanteau of Walthamstow and Stratford – the areas of London that the creators were born.

Characters

Main article: List of characters from EastEnders

EastEnders was built around the ideas of 'clans' of strong families and each character having a place in the community. Co-creator Tony Holland was himself from a large East End family, and such families have typified EastEnders. The first central family was the Beale and Fowler clan consisting of Pauline Fowler, her husband Arthur, and teenage children Mark and Michelle. Living nearby was Pauline's twin brother Pete Beale, his wife Kathy and their son Ian. Pauline and Pete's mother was the domineering Lou, who resided with Pauline and her family. Holland drew on the names of his own family for the characters.

The Watts and Mitchell families have been central to most of the notable EastEnders storylines and Peggy Mitchell, in particular, is notorious for her ceaseless repetition of such statements as "You're a Mitchell!" and "Get out of my pub!". The 2000s saw a new focus on the largely female Slater clan, before the return of an emphasis on the Watts and Mitchell families. Key people involved in the production of EastEnders have stressed how important this idea of strong families is to the programme.

Some families feature a stereotypical East End matriarch such as Lou Beale, Pauline Fowler, Mo Harris and Peggy Mitchell. These characters are seen as being loud and interfering but most importantly, responsible for the well-being of the family and usually stressing the importance of family, reflecting on the past.

EastEnders also features a number of elderly residents, who are used to show vulnerability and stalwart-like characters and sometimes for comedic purposes. The original elderly residents included Lou Beale, Ethel Skinner and Dorothy Cotton. Over the years they have been joined by the likes of Jules Tavernier, Mo Butcher, Nellie Ellis, Jim Branning, Patrick Trueman and Mo Harris.

Whilst the older characters hold an essential part of the show, EastEnders is also beginning a new era of younger characters, notably Stacey Slater, Ruby Allen, Deano Wicks, Bradley Branning and Chelsea Fox.

EastEnders has been known to have a "comedy double-act" in the show, previously demonstrated with the characters of Huw Edwards and Lenny Wallace, and Natalie Price and Bianca Jackson (and later with Bianca and Tiffany Raymond), and currently seen with Garry Hobbs and Minty Peterson.

Another recurring character type is the smartly dressed businessman, often involved in crime, who is seen as a local authority figure. Examples include Den Watts, James Wilmott-Brown, Steve Owen, Jack Dalton, Andy Hunter and Johnny Allen.

After the loss of many much-loved characters in 2005 and early 2006, such as Sam Mitchell, Chrissie Watts, Zoe Slater, Nana, Kat and Alfie Moon, Johnny Allen, Dennis Rickman and Little Mo Mitchell, the first half of 2006 has seen many new arrivals including Deano Wicks, Carly and Kevin Wicks, Bradley, Max and Tanya Branning, Dr. Oliver Cousins, Denise, Chelsea Fox and Squiggle Fox, Owen Turner, Sarah-Jane Fletcher, Rob Minter, Caroline and a short return for Grant and Courtney Mitchell. The large influx of new characters is now nearing its end, with only Sean Slater still to join.

The show has also become known for the return of characters after they have left the show. Sharon Rickman has departed seven times, and returned six times, Frank Butcher has completed six separate stints on the programme, and writers stunned viewers by bringing back Den Watts, fourteen years after he had seemingly died!

Filming

EastEnders is filmed at the BBC Television Studios at Elstree in Hertfordshire. There are four episodes filmed per week, and are usually filmed about 6–7 weeks in advance of broadcast. During the winter period, filming often takes place up to 8 or 9 weeks in advance, due to less daylight for outdoor filming sessions. Online fans have the chance to watch filming on the EastEnders webcam, which is on the Official BBC EastEnders website,[1]. It shows updated stills of Albert Square, Turpin Road and George Street. The page also displays which episode is currently being filmed, the date it will be broadcast, and a extract of the script from that episode.

Social realism

In the 1980s, EastEnders featured gritty storylines involving drugs and crime, representing the issues faced by working-class Britain much as Coronation Street did in the 1960s.

However EastEnders has, for the most part, remained a populist series and has generally avoided the arguably tougher stories of Brookside. Brookside had also launched as a social realist drama, leading the way for more conservative soaps like EastEnders to follow. Arguably the difference between them was whilst Brookside confronted issues, it was more sensationalist and EastEnders tried to maintain realism.

The programme makers emphasised that it was to be about 'everyday life' in the inner city 'today' and regard it as a 'slice of life'. Creator/producer Julia Smith declared that "We don't make life, we reflect it". She also said, "We decided to go for a realistic, fairly outspoken type of drama which could encompass stories about homosexuality, rape, unemployment, racial prejudice, etc., in a believable context. Above all, we wanted realism".

Such storylines include Sue and Ali Osman's baby's cot death, Nick Cotton's homophobia, the rape of Kathy Beale in 1988, Michelle Fowler's teenage pregnancy. The show also dealt with drug dealing, prostitution, mixed-race relationships, shoplifting, sexism, racism, divorce and muggings.

As the show progressed into the 1990s, EastEnders still featured hard-hitting issues such as Mark Fowler discovering he was HIV positive in 1991 and the death of his wife Gill from AIDS-related illness, murder, adoption, and Phil Mitchell's alcoholism and domestic violence towards wife Kathy.

In the early 2000s, EastEnders covered the issue of euthanasia with long-established characters Ethel Skinner and Dot Cotton, Kat Slater's abuse by her uncle Harry as a child, the domestic abuse of Little Mo Morgan by husband Trevor, Sonia Jackson giving birth at the age of fifteen and then putting the baby up for adoption, and Janine Butcher's prostitution, agoraphobia and drug addiction. The soap has also recently tackled the issue of mental health, and carers of people who have mental conditions. This has been illustrated with mother and daughter Jean and Stacey Slater; Jean suffers from bipolar disorder, and Stacey is her carer.

Aside from this, soap opera staples of youthful romance, jealousy, domestic rivalry, kitchen disasters, gossip, community fund-raising events and extra-marital affairs are regularly featured.

History and popularity

Background

EastEnders was launched at a critical moment in the BBC's history and was intended to demonstrate the BBC's ability to produce popular programming. It started airing on the night after a major identity change for the channel, with the show representing the "new face" of the BBC. Critics first derided the new offering, as it was clear that BBC wished to bridge the gap between the network and its competitor, ITV. One news source went as far as to accuse the channel of only having the courage to air the soap after Patricia Phoenix, arguably Britain's premier soap diva, left Coronation Street.

The BBC brass was vindicated, however, when EastEnders became wildly popular and displaced Coronation Street from the top of the ratings for the rest of the 1980s, much of the 1990s, and to some extent in the 2000s.

History

In February 1983, two years before EastEnders hit the screen, the show was nothing more than a vague idea in the mind of a handful of BBC executives, who decided that what BBC One needed was a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences ITV was getting with Coronation Street.

The first people to whom David Reid, then head of series and serials, turned were Julia Smith and Tony Holland, a well established producer/script editor team who had first worked together on Z-Cars. The outline that Reid presented was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year. Smith and Holland then went about putting ideas down on paper; they decided it would be set in the East End of London.

There was anxiety at first that the viewing public would not accept a new soap set in the south of England, though research commissioned by lead figures in the BBC had revealed southerners would accept a northern soap, northerners would accept a southern soap and those from the Midlands, as Julia Smith herself pointed out, did not mind where it was set as long as it was somewhere else. This was the beginning of a close and continuing association between EastEnders and audience research, which though commonplace today was something of a revolution in practice.

When developing EastEnders, both Julia Smith and Tony Holland looked at influential models like Coronation Street, but they found that it offered a rather outdated and nostalgic view of working-class life. Only after EastEnders began did Coronation Street start to feature black people, for example. They also identified that it has had difficulty in replacing 'big' characters such as Len Fairclough and Elsie Tanner, something which is arguably still present to this day, with the exit of Karen McDonald.

They came to the conclusion that Coronation Street had grown old with its audience, and that EastEnders would have to attract a younger, more socially extensive audience, ensuring that it had the longevity to retain it for many years thereafter.

They also looked at Brookside but found there was a lack of central meeting points for the characters, making it difficult for the writers to intertwine different storylines.

The target launch date was originally September 1984 but this was postponed due to Michael Grade — the new controller of BBC One — preferring a January start. Julia Smith and Tony Holland had just eleven months in which to write, cast and shoot the whole thing. However, in February 1984, they did not even have a title or a place to film. The project had a number of working titles — Square Dance, Round the Square, Round the Houses, London Pride, East 8. It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process.

After they decided on the filming location (BBC Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire), Smith and Holland set about creating the 24 characters needed in just 14 days. Once they decided on these, they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone was in agreement, East 8 was to be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp — and it would start with a bang.

Through the next few months, the set was growing rapidly at Elstree, and a composer and designer had been commissioned to create the title sequence. Simon May (music) and Alan Jeapes (visuals) created it, and it remains one of the strongest title clips in television.

The launch was delayed for a second time until February 1985 due to a delay in the chat show Wogan, that was to be a part of the major revamp in BBC One's schedules. Julia Smith was uneasy about the late start as EastEnders no longer had the winter months to build up a loyal following before the summer ratings lull. The press were invited to see Elstree and meet the cast and see the lot — and stories immediately started circulating about the show, about a rivalry with ITV (who were launching their own market-based soap, Albion Market) and about the private lives of the cast. Anticipation and rumour grew in equal measure until the first transmission at 7 p.m. on 19 February 1985. Both Holland and Smith could not watch; they both instead returned to the place where it all began. The next day, viewing figures were confirmed at 17 million. The reviews were largely favourable, although after three weeks on air, BBC One's early evening share had returned to the pre-EastEnders figure of 7 million, though EastEnders then climbed to highs of up to 23 million later on in the year. Following the launch, both group discussions and telephone surveys were conducted to test audience reaction to early episodes. Detailed reactions were taken after six months and since then regular monitoring has been conducted

Press coverage, already intense, went into overdrive. With public interest so high, the media began investigating the private lives of the show's popular stars. Within weeks, the scandalous headline the producers had all dreaded appeared — "EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER". This referred to Leslie Grantham, who had shot a German taxi driver during an attempted robbery in his youth and served 10 years in British prison for the crime (owing to the fact he was in the British military at the time, despite the crime occurring in Germany). This shocking tell-all style set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years. By Christmas 1985, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the show. 'Exclusives' about EastEnders storylines and the actors on the show became a staple of tabloid buyers daily reading.

A precursor in UK soaps also set in an East End market was ATV's Market in Honey Lane between 1967 and 1969.

Popularity

As mentioned, EastEnders proved highly popular and Appreciation Indexes reflected this, rising from 55–60 at the launch to 85–95 later on, a figure which was nearly ten points higher than the average for British soap opera. Research suggested that people found the characters true to life, the plots believable and, importantly in the face of criticism of the content, people watched as a family and regarded it as viewing for all the family.

On Christmas Day 1986, EastEnders attracted a massive 30.15 million viewers who tuned in to see Den Watts hand over divorce papers to wife Angie. This remains the highest rated episode of a soap in British television history.

EastEnders is one of the more popular programmes on British television and regularly attracts between 7 and 13 million viewers , beating Corrie by about a million viewers but losing in the overnights, while the show's ratings have fallen since its initial surge in popularity, the programme continues to be largely lucrative for the BBC.

Its main rival for ratings is usually Coronation Street. In order to maximise ratings, the BBC and ITV are usually careful to avoid scheduling clashes between their flagship soaps. In 2001 however, the soaps clashed for the first time. EastEnders won the battle with 8.4 million viewers (41% share) whilst Coronation Street lagged behind with 7.3 million viewers (36% share).

On 21 September 2004, Louise Berridge, the then executive producer, quit following criticism of the show. The following day the show received its lowest ever ratings at that time (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour long episode of its usually less-popular soap, Emmerdale against it. Emmerdale was watched by 8.1 million people. However, EastEnders was at a disadvantage as Emmerdale had began half an hour earlier, and the press were reporting viewers were bored with implausible and ill thought out storylines. Kathleen Hutchison, who had been the producer of hospital drama Holby City, was announced as the new executive producer. Within a few weeks, the producers announced a major shake-up of the cast with the highly-criticised Ferreira family, first seen in June 2003, set to leave at the beginning of 2005. Kathleen Hutchison went on to axe Den Watts, Andy Hunter, Juley Smith and Derek Harkinson. Whilst she was there, she set about reversing the previous executive producer's work. It indicated a fresh start for EastEnders after declining ratings in 2004.

But in January 2005, after just four months, it was the end for Kathleen Hutchison. John Yorke who led EastEnders through what Mal Young (the then head of BBC drama) said was one of its most successful periods in 2001, returned to the BBC as the head of drama, meaning his responsibilities included the running of EastEnders. He also brought back long serving script writer Tony Jordan. It is reported that the cast and crew did not get on well with Kathleen Hutchison as she had them filming up to midnight. She is also said to have torn up many of the scripts that were planned and demanded re-writes. This was one of the reasons storylines such as the 'Real Walford' football team were suddenly ignored. But through her short reign she led EastEnders to some of its most healthy viewing figures in months.

John Yorke immediately stepped into her position until a few weeks later when Kate Harwood was announced as the new executive producer.

In the autumn of 2005, EastEnders had seen its average audience share increase, with the unearthing of Den Watts' body and the marriage of Sharon and Dennis. Weeks after this, ITV again scheduled episodes of Emmerdale against EastEnders. The episode of Emmerdale, which saw the departure of one of its more popular characters, attracted 8.3 million viewers leaving EastEnders with 6.6 million for the funeral of Den Watts. However, this indirectly helped increase the audience of digital channel BBC Three as 1 million (10% share) tuned in to see the second showing.

However, the battle between EastEnders and Emmerdale saw EastEnders come out on top with 200,000 more viewers on 1 December 2005.

More recently, EastEnders was the top rated soap on Christmas Day 2005, attracting 10.6 million viewers while Coronation Street got 9.8 million, with Doctor Who beating it by 30,000. 12.6 million viewers watched as Dennis Rickman was stabbed by a mystery attacker on New Years Eve 2005.

EastEnders continued to beat Coronation Street in the ratings several times throughout May 2006. However, EastEnders ratings reached an all-time low in July 2006 with 5.2 million viewers, followed two days later by only 3.9 million.

Viewership

Based on market research by BBC commissioning in 2003, EastEnders is most watched by 16–24 year olds, closely followed by 25–34 year olds. An average EastEnders episode attracts a total audience share between 35%-45%

Aside from that, the 10 p.m. repeat showing on BBC Three attracts an average of 500,000 viewers, whilst the Sunday omnibus attracts a further 3 million.

Ever since EastEnders began on the mainstream BBC One, it has achieved some of the highest audiences in British television history.

The launch show attracted 17 million viewers in the 1980s; this was perhaps helped by the amount of press attention it received, something which continues today.

In 1986, just under two years since it had been on air, EastEnders attracted 30.15 million viewers, for the Christmas episode in which Den handed a divorce letter to wife Angie. This was its largest audience ever, the largest amount of viewers for a soap episode, the fourth largest audience for a British television channel ever and the highest television audience for a single channel of the 1980s.

Despite a decade and a half of high ratings, it was most popular in the early 2000s, attracting an average of 15 million for most episodes and peaks of upto 25 million for the climaxes of popular storylines. Sonia's shock birth in 2000 was watched by 19.3 million viewers and in 2001, Mel's marriage to Steve Owen was watched by 22.5 million viewers. EastEnders was perhaps at its least popular in 2004/2005, its lowest ever audience share is 23% in July 2006 but there are some signs it is recovering, despite still rating lower than Coronation Street.

Scheduling

For the past 20 years, EastEnders has remained at the centre of BBC One's primetime schedule.

EastEnders is currently aired at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 8 p.m. on Monday and Friday. The omnibus is aired on Sunday, though the exact time differs.

Originally, EastEnders was shown twice weekly at 7 p.m., however it soon moved to 7:30 p.m. as Michael Grade did not want the soap running in direct competition with Emmerdale Farm; the BBC had originally planned to take advantage of the 'summer break' that Emmerdale Farm usually took in order to capitalise on ratings, but ITV added extra episodes and repeats so that Emmerdale Farm was not taken off over the summer. Realising the futility of the situation, Grade decided to move the show to the later 7:30 p.m. slot, but to avoid tabloid speculation that it was a 'panic move' on the BBC's behalf, they had to "dress up the presentation of that move in such a way as to protect the show" giving "all kinds of reasons" for the move.

EastEnders output then increased to thrice after Coronation Street added an extra episode — in response to competition from EastEnders. EastEnders then added its fourth episode (shown on Fridays) on August 10 2001. This caused some controversy as it clashed with Coronation Street, which at the time was moved to 8 p.m. to make way for an hour long episode of rural soap Emmerdale at 7 p.m.. The move immediately provoked an angry response from ITV insiders, who argued that the BBC's last-minute move — only revealed at 3:30 p.m. on the day — broke an unwritten scheduling rule that the two flagship soaps would not be put directly against each other. In this first head-to-head battle, EastEnders claimed victory over its rival.

In 1998, EastEnders Revealed was launched on BBC Choice (now BBC3). The show takes a look behind the scenes of the EastEnders and investigates particular places, characters or families within EastEnders. EastEnders Revealed is the only BBC Choice programme to last the entire life of the channel and is still running on BBC3. An episode of EastEnders Revealed that was commissioned for BBC3 attracted 611,000 viewers.

In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of EastEnders on digital channel BBC3 before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped BBC3 break the one million viewers mark for the first time with 1.03 million who watched to see Mark Fowler's departure.

In February 2005, there were reports that the EastEnders schedule was threatened due to production problems. Newspaper reports indicated that the show faced being taken off air for a fortnight after a storyline shortage. However, this was denied by the BBC. In March of the same year, as Peter Fincham became the BBC One controller, rumours were sparked that EastEnders could air in a new time slot.

EastEnders is usually repeated on BBC3 at 10 p.m. and old reruns can often be seen on UKTV Gold (as of April 2006, UKTV Gold are showing episodes originally aired in February 2003. They are showing 5 episodes which means that 5 week's worth of episodes are shown every 4 weeks, which results in a catch-up rate of around 3 months per year).

As part of the BBC's digital push, EastEnders Xtra was introduced in 2005. The show was presented by Angelica Bell and was available to digital viewers at 8:30 p.m. on Monday nights. The series went behind the scenes of the show and spoke to some of the cast members. The current series has now finished, and no announcement has been made regarding a second series.

International screenings

EastEnders is aired around the world in many English-speaking countries, including New Zealand and Canada. The series aired in the United States until BBC America ceased broadcasts of the serial in 2003, amidst fan protests. It is still shown on BBC Prime in Europe, Africa and Asia, and on BBC Canada in Canada.

In June 2004, the Dish Satellite Network picked up EastEnders, airing episodes starting at the point where BBC America had ceased broadcasting them, offering the serial as a pay-per-view item. Dish first broadcast two weeks' worth of shows each week to catch up. In approximately February 2005, the programming reached the point of being one month behind the new shows being aired in the UK. At that point, Dish stopped its double-helping schedule, and now maintains the schedule of airing the new programmes consistently one month behind the UK schedule. Episodes from prior years are still shown on various PBS stations in the US.

The American PBS channel, KOCE-TV ran the show one episode per week from 1990 to 1993, and currently shows two episodes weekly on Friday nights. Houston's KUHT runs two episodes every Sunday night at 10 and 10:30. Similarly, WLIW in New York City schedules two episodes on Saturday nights. North Carolina's public television outlet, UNC-TV, runs two episodes per week, and receives generous financial support from the fundraising efforts of the North Carolina EastEnders Fan Club. Except on one occasion where public support dried up, KTEH-TV of San Jose, CA, has ran the series, between 2 to 4 episodes weekly, since the early 1990s. Most PBS stations are nearly 5 years behind in the storyline, and those showing fewer than four episodes weekly are falling further behind.

The series was screened in Australia by the ABC from 1987 until the early 1990s. Currently the series is seen in Australia only on pay-TV channel UK.TV. In New Zealand, it was shown by TVNZ on TV One, but is now on Prime. In Ireland, it is shown on RTÉ One at the same time as BBC One, which is also widely received in the country.

It is also shown on the British Forces Broadcasting Service's main TV channel, BFBS1, to members of HM Forces stationed around the world.

Critique

EastEnders has received both praise and criticism for most of its storylines, which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape and murder.

Mary Whitehouse argued at the time that EastEnders represented a violation of "family viewing time" and that it undermined the watershed policy. She regarded EastEnders as a fundamental assault on the family and morality itself. She made reference to representation of family life and emphasis on psychological and emotional violence within the show. She was also critical of language such as "bleeding", "bloody hell", "bastard" and "for Christ's sake". However Whitehouse also praised the programme, describing Michelle Fowler's decision not to have an abortion as a "very positive storyline". She also felt that EastEnders had been cleaned up as a result of her protests, though she later commented that EastEnders had returned to its old ways. Her criticisms were widely reported in the tabloid press as ammunition in its existing rivalry with the BBC. The stars of Coronation Street in particular aligned themselves with Mary Whitehouse, gaining headlines such as "STREETS AHEAD! RIVALS LASH SEEDY EASTENDERS" and "CLEAN UP SOAP! Street Star Bill Lashes 'Steamy' EastEnders".

The long-running storyline of Mark Fowler's HIV was so successful in raising awareness that in 1999 a survey by the National Aids Trust found teenagers got most of their information about HIV from the soap, though one campaigner noted that in some ways the storyline was not reflective of what was happening at the time as the condition was more common among the gay community. Still, Mark struggled with various issues connected to his HIV status, including public fears of contamination, a marriage breakdown connected to his inability to have children and the side effects of combination therapies. However, in 2003, when the makers of the series decided to write Mark out of the series, they sent him away to travel, and several months later word was received that he had died.

The child abuse storyline with Kat Slater and her uncle Harry saw calls to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) go up by 60%. The chief executive of the NSPCC praised the storyline for covering the subject in a direct and sensitive way, coming to the conclusion that people were more likely to report any issues relating to child protection because of it. In 2002, EastEnders also won an award from the Mental Health Media Awards held at BAFTA for this storyline.

EastEnders is often criticised for being too violent, most notably during a domestic violence storyline between Little Mo Morgan and her husband Trevor. As EastEnders is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that some scenes in this storyline were too graphic for its audience. Complaints against a scene in which Little Mo's face was shoved in gravy on Christmas day were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls. Erin Pizzey, who became internationally famous for having started one of the first Women's Refuges, said that EastEnders had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in twenty-five years.

In 2003, Shaun Williamson, who played Barry Evans, said that the programme had become much grittier over the past 10 to 15 years, and found it "frightening" that parents let their young children watch.

The BBC was accused of anti-religious bias by a House of Lords committee, who cited EastEnders as an example. Dr. Indarjit Singh, editor of the Sikh Messenger and patron of the World Congress of Faiths, said: "EastEnders' Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly from the Bible and it ridicules religion to some extent."

Trivia

• Between 2001 and 2002, EastEnders was the 10th most searched-for TV show on the Internet.
• EastEnders was the 2nd most popular UK search term in 2003, the 7th in 2004 and the 1st in 2005.
• EastEnders holds the record for the most watched soap episode in Britain.
• In 2001, EastEnders went head to head with Coronation Street for the first time, EastEnders won the battle with 8.4 million viewers (41%) while Coronation Street attracted 7.3 million (36%).
• There is a shop in Walford named Barratt's Bargain Corner, cleverly incorporating the BBC's initials.
• Susan Tully, who played Michelle Fowler, has directed some episodes since leaving.
• Brad Pitt is such a fan of the soap that when BBC America took EastEnders off the air in 2003, he and his then wife Jennifer Aniston joined a petition of 15,000 US fans demanding the cable channel reinstate it.
• Robbie Williams has made a cameo appearance on the telephone in the Queen Vic and is a big fan of the show.
• Martha Ross, mother of television presenters Jonathan and Paul, has been an extra in the programme, as a market stallholder, since its inception.
• Before the Spice Girls, Emma Bunton was cast as a troubled youth in the soap.
• The famous double-handers when only two actors appear in an episode was originally done for speed; while they film that, the rest of the cast can be making another episode.
• Pam St. Clement (Pat Evans) has 125 pairs of earrings from which to choose and fans still send her earrings, which she sometimes wears in the programme.
• Leslie Grantham originally auditioned for the part of Pete Beale but was thought too good looking so was instead cast as Den Watts.
• The War memorial on set features names of people involved in EastEnders along with past stars.
• Oxfam was the main outlet used for the actors costumes when the series was first made.
• A vocal version of the theme tune called "Anyone Can Fall in Love" reached number 4 in the charts in summer 1986 and was sung by Anita Dobson (Angie Watts).
• The Queen and Prince Philip visited the set in 2001 and were shown around by actresses Wendy Richard and Barbara Windsor.
• The roads around Albert Square are not built to scale; they look real but some can only take one car at a time.
• When Barbara Windsor joined the show in 1994, she was only contracted for ten episodes.
• Albert Square is built on the site last used for building works in the 1980s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
• In 1993, the show's theme tune was updated to a jazzy version, first heard on 11 May 1993. However, it proved very unpopular with the viewers and was replaced with a remix of the original theme tune only 11 months later, from 11 April 1994 (also the first Monday edition of the show).
• EastEnders was the inaugural winner of the 1999 BAFTA for best continuing drama.
• Since EastEnders began in 1985, at least one of its episodes have rated higher than any other British soap opera throughout each decade. This includes the 1980s, 1990s and so far the 2000s.
• On Friday 11 November 2005, EastEnders was the first British drama to feature a two minute silence.
• Originally there was a storyline written that the whole Ferreira clan killed their pushy father Dan, but after Dalip Tahil could not get a visa for working in the UK the storyline was scrapped and instead Ronny Ferreira got stabbed.
• Den, Angie and Sharon Watts were originally to be called Jack, Pearl and Tracey.
• Big Brother 7's Nikki Grahame once had a background role in the show.
• A specially filmed clip of EastEnders features in the 2006 episode of Doctor Who entitled Army of Ghosts. In the scene, Peggy Mitchell confronts what she calls the ghost of Den Watts, ordering it to get out of her pub.

Further reading

Main article: Further reading on EastEnders

• EastEnders: The First 10 Years: A Celebration, Colin Brake (1994, BBC Books, ISBN 0563370572 (hardback); 1995, Penguin, ISBN 0140253394 (updated paperback)) — Official guide to the soap’s first decade.
• Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience, David Buckingham (1987, BFI, ISBN 0851702104)
• The EastEnders Programme Guide, Josephine Munro (1994, Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0863698255)
• EastEnders: The Inside Story, Julia Smith and Tony Holland (1987, BBC Books, ISBN 0563206012)
• EastEnders by Rupert Smith (May 2005)
• EastEnders Who's Who by Kate Lock (September 2002)
• Essential EastEnders Scripts by Mike Gould (March 2003)
• Bianca's Secret Diary by Kate Lock (September 2002)
• EastEnders: Tiffany's Secret Diary by Kate Lock (July 1999)
• Bloodties: The Life and Loves of Grant Mitchell by Kate Lock

See also

• EastEnders Revealed
• EastEnders Xtra
• EastEnders theme tune
• EastEnders merchandise
• EastEnders off set episodes
• List of characters from EastEnders
• List of past EastEnders characters by year of exit
• List of pets in EastEnders
• List of residences in EastEnders
• List of buildings in EastEnders
  • Walford East, The Queen Vic, The Dagmar, Scarlet (EastEnders)
• List of birthdays in EastEnders
• Storylines of EastEnders
  • Sharongate, Shannis, Molfie
  • Christmas in EastEnders
• Walford, London E20
  • Albert Square

External links

• BBC - EastEnders Official site
• EastEnders at IMDb
• The EastEnders fanlisting
• Walford Web EastEnders on the Net
• The Walford Gazette
• North Carolina EastEnders Fan Club
• Walford.net Archive of EastEnders Updates
• rec.arts.tv.uk.eastenders
• PopMatters EastEnders review
• Encyclopedia of Television
• Save EastEnders Originally set up when the show was taken off air in America
• BBC writers room Face2Face with EastEnders
• EastEnders soundboard
• Walford Underground EastEnders Community
• Talk Walford Talk about the show with fans