EastEnders
is a British soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since 1985. Set in Albert Square in the East End of London in the fictional Borough of Walford, the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Initially there were two 30-minute episodes per week, later increasing to three, but since 2001, episodes have been broadcast on every weekday except Wednesday (outside of special occasions). This was reduced again to two episodes a week in March 2020, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, which caused production to halt.
Within eight months of the show's launch, it reached the number one spot in BARB's TV ratings and has consistently remained among the top rated series in Britain. In 2013, the average audience share for an episode was around 30 per cent.[3] Today, EastEnders remains a significant programme in terms of the BBC's success and audience share, and also in the history of British television drama, tackling many dilemmas that are considered to be controversial and taboo issues in British culture and social life previously unseen on UK mainstream television.[4]
As of September 2019, EastEnders has won ten BAFTA Awards and the Inside Soap Award for Best Soap for 14 years running (from 1997 to 2012),[5] as well as twelve National Television Awards for Most Popular Serial Drama[6] and 11 awards for Best British Soap at the British Soap Awards. It has also won 13 TV Quick and TV Choice Awards for Best Soap, six TRIC Awards for Soap of The Year, four Royal Television Society Awards for Best Continuing Drama and has been inducted into the Rose d'Or Hall of Fame
History
Conception and preparations for broadcast
In March 1983, under two years before EastEnders' first episode was broadcast, the show was a vague idea in the mind of a handful of BBC executives, who decided that what BBC1 needed was a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences that ITV was getting with Coronation Street.[8] 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.[8] The outline that Reid presented was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year.[9] After the concept was put to them on 14 March 1983, Smith and Holland then went about putting their ideas down on paper; they decided it would be set in the East End of London.[8] Granada Television gave Smith unrestricted access to the Coronation Street production for a month so that she could get a sense how a continuing drama was produced.[10]
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 revealed that 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.[9] 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.[9]
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".[9]
When developing EastEnders, both Smith and 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, and featured the characters of Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter, did Coronation Street start to feature black characters, for example.[11] 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.[12] 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, so EastEnders was set in Albert Square.[13]
A previous UK soap set in an East End market was ATV's Market in Honey Lane between 1967 and 1969. However this show, which graduated from one showing a week to two in three separate series (the latter series being shown in different time slots across the ITV network) was very different in style and approach to EastEnders. The British Film Institute described Market In Honey Lane thus: "It was not an earth-shaking programme, and certainly not pioneering in any revolutionary ideas in technique and production, but simply proposed itself to the casual viewer as a mildly pleasant affair."[14] EastEnders, while also featuring an East End street market, would be very different in its approach and impact.
The target launch date was originally January 1985.[15] Smith and Holland had 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. Both Smith and Holland were unhappy about the January 1985 launch date, favouring November or even September 1984 when seasonal audiences would be higher, but the BBC stayed firm, and Smith and Holland had to concede that, with the massive task of getting the Elstree Studios operational, January was the most realistic date. However, this was later to be changed to February.[15]
The project had a number of working titles—Square Dance, Round the Square, Round the Houses, London Pride and East 8.[16] It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process.[17] However, the show was renamed after many casting agents mistakenly thought the show was to be called Estate, and the fictional postcode E20 was created, instead of using E8.[17] Julia Smith came up with the name Eastenders after she and Holland had spent months telephoning theatrical agents and asking "Do you have any real East Enders on your books?"[17] However, Smith thought "Eastenders" "looked ugly written down" and was "hard to say", so decided to capitalise the second 'e'.[17]
Initial character creation and casting
After they decided on the filming location of BBC Elstree Centre in Hertfordshire, Smith and Holland set about creating the 23 characters needed, in just 14 days.[18] They took a holiday in Playa de los Pocillos, Lanzarote, and started to create the characters.[19] Holland created the Beale and Fowler family, drawing on his own background. His mother, Ethel Holland, was one of four sisters raised in Walthamstow. Her eldest sister, Lou, had married a man named Albert Beale and had two children, named Peter and Pauline.[20] These family members were the basis for Lou Beale, Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler. Holland also created Pauline's unemployed husband Arthur Fowler, their children Mark Fowler and Michelle Fowler, Pete's wife Kathy Beale and their son Ian Beale.[21] Smith used her personal memories of East End residents she met when researching Victorian squares.[22] Ethel Skinner was based on an old woman she met in a pub, with ill-fitting false teeth, and a "face to rival a neon sign", holding a Yorkshire Terrier in one hand and a pint of Guinness in the other.[23] Other characters created included Jewish doctor Harold Legg, the Anglo-Cypriot Osman family, Ali Osman, Sue Osman and baby Hassan Osman, black father and son, Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter, single mother Mary Smith and Bangladeshi couple Saeed Jeffery and Naima Jeffery. Jack, Pearl and Tracey Watts were created to bring "flash, trash, and melodrama" to the Square (they were later renamed Den, Angie and Sharon Watts). The characters of Andy O'Brien and Debbie Wilkins were created to show a modern couple with outwardly mobile pretensions, and Lofty Holloway to show an outsider; someone who did not fit in with other residents. It was decided that he would be a former soldier, as Holland's personal experiences of ex-soldiers were that they had trouble fitting into society after being in the army. When they compared the characters they had created, Smith and Holland realised they had created a cross-section of East End residents. The Beale and Fowler family represented the old families of the East End, who had always been there. The Osmans, Jefferys and Carpenters represented the more modern diverse ethnic community of the East End. Debbie, Andy and Mary represented more modern-day individuals.[12]
Once they had decided on their 23 characters, they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone agreed that EastEnders would be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp—set in Margaret Thatcher's Britain—and it would start with a bang (namely the death of Reg Cox). They decided that none of their existing characters were wicked enough to have killed Reg, so a 24th character, Nick Cotton was added to the line-up. He was a racist thug, who often tried to lead other young characters astray.[24] When all the characters had been created, Smith and Holland set about casting the actors for the show.
Final preparations
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 wrote the theme music[25] and Alan Jeapes created the visuals.[26] The visual images were taken from an aircraft flying over the East End of London at 1000 feet. Approximately 800 photographs were taken and pieced together to create one big image.[27] The credits were later updated when the Millennium Dome was built.[27]
The launch was delayed until February 1985[28] due to a delay in the chat show Wogan, that was to be a part of the major revamp in BBC1's schedules. 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 Elstree to 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.[29] Anticipation and rumour grew in equal measure until the first transmission at 7 p.m. on 19 February 1985.[29] Both Holland and Smith could not watch; they both instead returned to the place where it all began, Albertine's Wine Bar on Wood Lane.[29] The next day, viewing figures were confirmed at 17 million.[29] The reviews were largely favourable,[29] although, after three weeks on air, BBC1's early evening share had returned to the pre-EastEnders figure of seven million, though EastEnders then climbed to highs of up to 23 million later on in the year.[30] 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 was conducted
1980s broadcast history
Press coverage of EastEnders, which was already intense, went into overdrive once the show was broadcast. With public interest so high, the media began investigating the private lives of the show's popular stars. Within days, a scandalous headline appeared – "EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER". This referred to Leslie Grantham, and his prison sentence for the murder of a taxi driver in an attempted robbery nearly 20 years earlier. This shocking tell-all style set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years.
The show's first episode attracted some 17 million viewers, and it continued to attract high viewing figures from then on.[31] By Christmas 1985, the tabloids could not get enough of the soap. 'Exclusives' about EastEnders storylines and the actors on the show became a staple of tabloid buyers’ daily reading.[citation needed]
Writer Colin Brake suggested that 1989 was a year of big change for EastEnders, both behind the cameras and in front of them. Original production designer, Keith Harris, left the show, and Holland and Smith both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coinciding with the exit of one of EastEnders' most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham).[32] Producer Mike Gibbon was given the task of running the show and he enlisted the most experienced writers to take over the storylining of the programme, including Charlie Humphreys, Jane Hollowood and Tony McHale.[33]
According to Brake, the departure of two of the soap's most popular characters, Den and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), left a void in the programme, which needed to be filled.[32] In addition, several other long-running characters left the show that year including Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih) and their family; Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler); Carmel Jackson (Judith Jacob) and Colin Russell (Michael Cashman). Brake indicated that the production team decided that 1989 was to be a year of change in Walford, commenting, "it was almost as if Walford itself was making a fresh start".[34]
By the end of 1989 EastEnders had acquired a new executive producer, Michael Ferguson, who had previously been a successful producer on ITV's The Bill. Brake suggested that Ferguson was responsible for bringing in a new sense of vitality and creating a programme that was more in touch with the real world than it had been over the previous year.[33]
Changes in the 1990s
A new era began in 1990 with the introduction of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp)—the Mitchell brothers—successful characters who would go on to dominate the soap thereafter.[35] As the new production team cleared the way for new characters and a new direction, all of the characters introduced under Gibbon were axed from the show at the start of the year.[36] Ferguson introduced other characters and was responsible for storylines including HIV, Alzheimer's disease and murder. After a successful revamp of the soap, Ferguson decided to leave EastEnders in July 1991.[37] Ferguson was succeeded by both Leonard Lewis and Helen Greaves who initially shared the role as Executive Producer for EastEnders.[38] Lewis and Greaves formulated a new regime for EastEnders, giving the writers of the serial more authority in storyline progression, with the script department providing "guidance rather than prescriptive episode storylines".[32] By the end of 1992, Greaves left and Lewis became executive and series producer.[39] He left EastEnders in 1994 after the BBC controllers demanded an extra episode a week, taking its weekly airtime from 60 to 90 minutes.[40] Lewis felt that producing an hour of "reasonable quality drama" a week was the maximum that any broadcasting system could generate without loss of integrity.[40] Having set up the transition to the new schedule, the first trio of episodes—dubbed The Vic siege—marked Lewis's departure from the programme.[41] Barbara Emile then became the Executive Producer of EastEnders,[42][43] remaining with EastEnders until early 1995. She was succeeded by Corinne Hollingworth.
Hollingworth's contributions to the soap were awarded in 1997 when EastEnders won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. Hollingworth shared the award with the next Executive Producer, Jane Harris.[44] Harris was responsible for the critically panned Ireland episodes and Cindy Beale's attempted assassination of Ian Beale, which brought in an audience of 23 million in 1996, roughly four million more than Coronation Street.[45][46] In 1998 Matthew Robinson was appointed as the Executive Producer of EastEnders. During his reign, EastEnders won the BAFTA for "Best Soap" in consecutive years 1999 and 2000 and many other awards. Robinson also earned tabloid soubriquet "Axeman of Albert Square" after sacking a large number of characters in one hit, and several more thereafter. In their place, Robinson introduced new long-running characters including Melanie Healy, Jamie Mitchell, Lisa Shaw, Steve Owen and Billy Mitchell.
2000s
John Yorke became the Executive Producer of EastEnders in 2000. Yorke was given the task of introducing the soap's fourth weekly episode. He axed the majority of the Di Marco family and helped introduce popular characters such as the Slater family. As what Mal Young described as "two of EastEnders' most successful years", Yorke was responsible for highly rated storylines such as "Who Shot Phil?", Ethel Skinner's death, Jim Branning and Dot Cotton's marriage, Trevor Morgan's domestic abuse of his wife Little Mo Morgan, and Kat Slater's revelation to her daughter Zoe Slater that she was her mother.
In 2002, Louise Berridge succeeded Yorke as the Executive Producer. During her time at EastEnders, Berridge introduced popular characters such as Alfie Moon, Dennis Rickman,[47] Chrissie Watts, Jane Beale, Stacey Slater[48] and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family.[49]
Berridge was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as Alfie and Kat Slater's relationship, Janine Butcher getting her comeuppance, Trevor Morgan and Jamie Mitchell's death storylines and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, Den Watts, who had been presumed dead for 14 years. His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the Coronation Street.[50] However, other storylines, such as one about a kidney transplant involving the Ferreiras, were not well received,[49] and although Den Watts's return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility.[51] A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham, was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings.[49] The scandal led to Grantham's departure from the soap, but the occasion was used to mark the 20th anniversary of EastEnders, with an episode showing Den's murder at the Queen Vic pub.
On 21 September 2004, Berridge quit as executive producer of EastEnders following continued criticism of the show. Kathleen Hutchison was swiftly appointed as the Executive Producer of EastEnders, and was tasked with quickly turning the fortunes of the soap. During her time at the soap Hutchison axed multiple characters, and reportedly ordered the rewriting of numerous scripts. Newspapers reported on employee dissatisfaction with Hutchison's tenure at EastEnders.[52] In January 2005, Hutchison left the soap and John Yorke (who by this time, was the BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series) took total control of the show himself and became acting Executive Producer for a short period, before appointing Kate Harwood to the role.[53] Harwood stayed at EastEnders for 20 months before being promoted by the BBC. The highly anticipated return of Ross Kemp as Grant Mitchell in October 2005 proved to be a sudden major ratings success, with the first two episodes consolidating to ratings of 13.21 to 13.34 million viewers.[54][55] On Friday 11 November 2005, EastEnders was the first British drama to feature a two-minute silence.[56] This episode later went on to win the British Soap Award for 'Best Single Episode'.[57] In October 2006, Diederick Santer took over as Executive Producer of EastEnders. He introduced several characters to the show, including ethnic minority and homosexual characters to make the show 'feel more 21st Century'. Santer also reintroduced past and popular characters to the programme.
On 2 March 2007, BBC signed a deal with Google to put videos on YouTube. A behind the scenes video of EastEnders, hosted by Matt Di Angelo, who played Deano Wicks on the show, was put on the site the same day,[58] and was followed by another on 6 March 2007.[59] In April 2007, EastEnders became available to view on mobile phones, via 3G technology, for 3, Vodafone and Orange customers.[60] On 21 April 2007, the BBC launched a new advertising campaign using the slogan "There's more to EastEnders".[61] The first television advert showed Dot Branning with a refugee baby, Tomas, whom she took in under the pretence of being her grandson.[62] The second and third featured Stacey Slater and Dawn Swann, respectively.[63][64] There have also been adverts in magazines and on radio.
In 2009, producers introduced a limit on the number of speaking parts in each episode due to budget cuts, with an average of 16 characters per episode. The decision was criticised by Martin McGrath of Equity, who said: "Trying to produce quality TV on the cheap is doomed to fail." The BBC responded by saying they had been working that way for some time and it had not affected the quality of the show.[65]
2010s
From 4 February 2010, CGI was used in the show for the first time, with the addition of computer-generated trains.[66]
EastEnders celebrated its 25th anniversary on 19 February 2010. Santer came up with several plans to mark the occasion, including the show's first episode to be broadcast live, the second wedding between Ricky Butcher and Bianca Jackson and the return of Bianca's relatives, mother Carol Jackson, and siblings Robbie Jackson, Sonia Fowler and Billie Jackson. He told entertainment website Digital Spy, "It's really important that the feel of the week is active and exciting and not too reflective. There'll be those moments for some of our longer-serving characters that briefly reflect on themselves and how they've changed. The characters don't know that it's the 25th anniversary of anything, so it'd be absurd to contrive too many situations in which they're reflective on the past. The main engine of that week is great stories that'll get people talking."[67] The live episode featured the death of Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements) at the conclusion of the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline, which saw Bradley's wife Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) reveal that she was the murderer. Viewing figures peaked at 16.6 million, which was the highest viewed episode in seven years.[68] Other events to mark the anniversary were a spin-off DVD, EastEnders: Last Tango in Walford, and an Internet spin-off, EastEnders: E20.
Santer officially left EastEnders in March 2010, and was replaced by Bryan Kirkwood. Kirkwood's first signing was the reintroduction of characters Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace),[69] and his first new character was Vanessa Gold, played by Zöe Lucker.[70] In April and May 2010, Kirkwood axed eight characters from the show,[71][72] Barbara Windsor left her role of Peggy Mitchell, which left a hole in the show, which Kirkwood decided to fill by bringing back Kat and Alfie, which he said would "herald the new era of EastEnders."[73][74] EastEnders started broadcasting in high definition on 25 December 2010.[75] Old sets had to be rebuilt, so The Queen Victoria set was burnt down in a storyline (and in reality) to facilitate this.
In November 2011, a storyline showed character Billy Mitchell, played by Perry Fenwick, selected to be a torch bearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics. In reality, Fenwick carried the torch through the setting of Albert Square, with live footage shown in the episode on 23 July 2012. This was the second live broadcast of EastEnders.[citation needed] In 2012, Kirkwood chose to leave his role as executive producer and was replaced by Lorraine Newman. The show lost many of its significant characters during this period. Newman stepped down as executive producer after 16 months in the job in 2013 after the soap was criticised for its boring storylines and its lowest-ever figures pointing at around 4.8 million.[76] Dominic Treadwell-Collins was appointed as the new executive producer on 19 August 2013[77][78] and was credited on 9 December.[79] He axed multiple characters from the show[80] and introduced the extended Carter family.[81] He also introduced a long-running storyline, "Who Killed Lucy Beale?", which peaked during the show's 30th anniversary in 2015 with a week of live episodes.[82] Treadwell-Collins announced his departure from EastEnders on 18 February 2016.[83]
Sean O'Connor, former EastEnders series story producer and then-editor on radio soap opera The Archers, was announced to be taking over the role.[84] Treadwell-Collins left on 6 May[85] and O'Connor's first credited episode was broadcast on 11 July[86] Although O'Connor's first credited episode aired in July, his own creative work was not seen onscreen until late September.[87] Additionally, Oliver Kent was brought in as the Head of Continuing Drama Series for BBC Scripted Studios, meaning that Kent would oversee EastEnders along with O'Connor.[88] O'Connor's approach to the show was to have a firmer focus on realism, which he said was being "true to EastEnders' DNA and [finding] a way of capturing what it would be like if Julia Smith and Tony Holland were making the show now." He said that "EastEnders has always had a distinctly different tone from the other soaps but over time we've diluted our unique selling point. I think we need to be ourselves and go back to the origins of the show and what made it successful in the first place. It should be entertaining but it should also be informative—that's part of our unique BBC compact with the audience. It shouldn't just be a distraction from your own life, it should be an exploration of the life shared by the audience and the characters."[89] O'Connor planned to stay with EastEnders until the end of 2017, but announced his departure on 23 June 2017 with immediate effect,[90] saying he wanted to concentrate on a career in film. John Yorke returned as a temporary executive consultant. Kent said, "John Yorke is a Walford legend and I am thrilled that he will be joining us for a short period to oversee the show and to help us build on Sean's legacy while we recruit a long-term successor."[91] Yorke initially returned for three months but his contract was later extended.[92] In July 2018, a special episode was aired as part of a knife crime storyline. This episode, which showed the funeral of Shakil Kazemi (Shaheen Jafargholi) interspersed with real people talking about their true-life experiences of knife crime. [93]
On 8 August 2018, it was announced that Kate Oates, who has previously been a producer on the ITV soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street, would become Senior Executive Producer of EastEnders, as well of Holby City and Casualty. Oates began her role in October, and continued to work with Yorke until the end of the year to "ensure a smooth handover".[94] It was also announced that Oates was looking for an Executive Producer to work under her.[95] Jon Sen was announced on 10 December 2018 to be taking on the role of executive producer.[96]
In late 2016, popularity and viewership of EastEnders began to decline, with viewers criticising the storylines during the O'Connor reign, such as the killing of the Mitchell sisters and a storyline centred around the local bin collection.[97] Although, since Yorke and Oates' reigns, opinions towards the storylines have become more favourable, with storylines such as Ruby Allen’s (Louisa Lytton) sexual consent, which featured a special episode which "broke new ground"[98] and knife crime, both of which have created "vital" discussions. The soap won the award for Best Continuing Drama at the 2019 British Academy Television Awards; its first high-profile award since 2016. However, in June 2019, EastEnders suffered its lowest ever ratings of 2.4 million due to its airing at 7pm because of the BBC's coverage of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[99] As of 2019, the soap is one of the most watched series on BBC iPlayer and averages around 5 million viewers per episode.[100][101] The soap enjoyed a record-breaking year on the streaming platform in 2019, with viewers requesting to stream or download the show 234 million times, up 10% on 2018.[citation needed] The Christmas Day episode in 2019 became EastEnders biggest ever episode on BBC iPlayer, with 2.14 million viewer requests.
2020s
In February 2020, EastEnders celebrated its 35th anniversary with a stunt on the River Thames leading to the death of Dennis Rickman Jnr (Bleu Landau).[102][103] On 18 March 2020, it was announced that filming for EastEnders would be suspended "In light of the spread of COVID-19" and that the number of episodes being broadcast would be reduced to two a week "so that we can ensure the audience can continue to enjoy EastEnders in their homes for as long as possible." The episodes would be shown on Mondays and Tuesdays in the usual time slot.[104]
Setting
The central focus of EastEnders is the fictional Victorian square Albert Square in the fictional London Borough of Walford. In the show's narrative, Albert Square is a 19th-century street, named after Prince Albert (1819–1861), the husband of Queen Victoria (1819–1901, reigned 1837–1901). Thus, central to Albert Square is The Queen Victoria Public House (also known as The Queen Vic or The Vic).[105] The show's producers based the square's design on Fassett Square in Dalston.[106] There is also a market close to Fassett Square at Ridley Road. The postcode for the area, E8, was one of the working titles for the series.[17] The name Walford is both a street in Dalston where Tony Holland lived and a blend of Walthamstow and Stratford—the areas of Greater London where the creators were born.[17][107] Other parts of the Square and set interiors are based on other locations. The bridge is based upon one near BBC Television Centre which carries the Hammersmith & City tube line over Wood Lane W12, the Queen Vic on the former College Park Hotel pub in Willesden at the end of Scrubs Lane at the junction with Harrow Road NW10 just a couple of miles from BBC Television Centre,[108] and the interior to the Fowlers' is based on a house in Manor Road, Colchester, close to where the supervising art director lived.[citation needed] The fictional local newspaper, the Walford Gazette, in which local news events such as the arrests or murders of characters appear, mirrors the real Hackney Gazette.[citation needed]
Walford East is a fictional tube station for Walford, and a tube map that was first seen on air in 1996 showed Walford East between Bow Road and West Ham, in the actual location of Bromley-by-Bow on the District and Hammersmith & City lines.[109]
Walford has the postal district of E20. It was named as if Walford were part of the actual E postcode area which covers much of east London,[110] the E standing for Eastern.[111] E20 was entirely fictional when it was created, as London East postal districts stopped at E18 at the time. The show's creators opted for E20 instead of E19 as it was thought to sound better.[107] The numbering system in real life comes from the alphabetised names of the main sorting office for each district.[112] If part of this real-life classification, Walford would have been assigned E17, which is the actual postcode district for Walthamstow.
In March 2011, Royal Mail allocated the E20 postal district to the 2012 Olympic Park.[113] In September 2011, the postcode for Albert Square was revealed in an episode as E20 6PQ.
Characters
EastEnders is built around the idea of relationships and strong families, with each character having a place in the community. This theme encompasses the whole Square, making the entire community a family of sorts, prey to upsets and conflict, but pulling together in times of trouble. Co-creator Tony Holland was from a large East End family, and such families have typified EastEnders.[20] The first central family was the combination of the Fowler family, consisting of Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard), her husband Arthur (Bill Treacher), and teenage children Mark (David Scarboro/Todd Carty) and Michelle (Susan Tully). Pauline's family, the Beales, consisted of Pauline's twin brother Pete Beale (Peter Dean), his wife Kathy (Gillian Taylforth) and their teenage son Ian (Adam Woodyatt). Pauline and Pete's domineering mother Lou Beale (Anna Wing) lived with Pauline and her family. Holland drew on the names of his own family for the characters.[21]
The Watts and Mitchell families have been central to many notable EastEnders storylines, the show having been dominated by the Watts in the 1980s, with the 1990s focusing on the Mitchells. The early 2000s saw a shift in attention towards the newly introduced female Slater clan, before a renewal of emphasis upon the restored Watts family beginning in 2003. Since 2006, EastEnders has largely been dominated by the Mitchell, Ahmed and Branning families, though the early 2010s also saw a renewed focus on the Moon family, and from 2013 onwards, on the Carters. In 2014, the Fowlers were revived and merged with the Slaters, with Martin Fowler (James Bye) marrying Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner). The Taylor family were introduced in 2017 and have been central to the show's main storylines. Key people involved in the production of EastEnders have stressed how important the idea of strong families is to the programme.[20]
EastEnders has an emphasis on strong family matriarchs, with examples including Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) and Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor), helping to attract a female audience. John Yorke, then the BBC's head of drama production, put this down to Tony Holland's "gay sensibility, which showed a love for strong women".[114] The matriarchal role is one that has been seen in various reincarnations since the programme's inception, often depicted as the centre of the family unit.[115] The original matriarch was Lou Beale (Anna Wing), though later examples include Mo Harris (Laila Morse),[116] Pat Butcher (Pam St Clement),[117] Zainab Masood (Nina Wadia),[118] Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell),[119] Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth),[120] Jean Slater (Gillian Wright),[121] and Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal).[122] These characters are often seen as being loud and interfering but most importantly, responsible for the well-being of the family[123] and usually stressing the importance of family.
The show often includes strong, brassy, long-suffering women who exhibit diva-like behaviour and stoically battle through an array of tragedy and misfortune.[123] Such characters include Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Pat Butcher (Pam St Clement), Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and Linda Carter (Kellie Bright). Conversely there are female characters who handle tragedy less well, depicted as eternal victims and endless sufferers, who include Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack), Little Mo Slater (Kacey Ainsworth), Laura Beale (Hannah Waterman), Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff), Lisa Fowler (Lucy Benjamin) and Mel Owen (Tamzin Outhwaite). The 'tart with a heart' is another recurring character, often popular with viewers. Often their promiscuity masks a hidden vulnerability and a desire to be loved. Such characters have included Pat Butcher (Pam St Clement) (though in her latter years, this changed), Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon), Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace),[124] Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon), Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons), Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) and Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa).
A gender balance in the show is maintained via the inclusion of various "macho" male personalities such as Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) and Max Branning (Jake Wood), "bad boys" such as Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky), Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) and Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood), and "heartthrobs" such as Simon Wicks (Nick Berry), Jamie Mitchell (Jack Ryder), Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), Joey Branning (David Witts), Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) and Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters). Another recurring male character type is the smartly dressed businessman, often involved in gang culture and crime and seen as a local authority figure. Examples include Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett), Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs),[125] Johnny Allen (Billy Murray) and Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman). Following criticism aimed at the show's over-emphasis on "gangsters" in 2005, such characters have been significantly reduced.[125] Another recurring male character seen in EastEnders is the 'loser' or 'soft touch', males often comically under the thumb of their female counterparts, which have included Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher),[123] Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen), Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves), Lofty Holloway (Tom Watt) and Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick).[126] Other recurring character types that have appeared throughout the serial are "cheeky-chappies" Pete Beale (Peter Dean), Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) and Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami), "lost girls" such as Mary Smith (Linda Davidson), Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler), Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton) and Hayley Slater (Katie Jarvis), delinquents such as Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick), Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold), Bobby Beale (Eliot Carrington/Clay Milner Russell) and Keegan Baker (Zack Morris), "villains" such as Nick Cotton (John Altman), Trevor Morgan (Alex Ferns), May Wright (Amanda Drew), Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti), Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb), Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) and Stuart Highway (Ricky Champ), "bitches" such as Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), Sam Mitchell (Danniella Westbrook),[127] Lucy Beale (Melissa Suffield/Hetti Bywater), Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald), Babe Smith (Annette Badland) and Louise Mitchell (Tilly Keeper), "brawlers" or "fighters" such as Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), Chelsea Fox (Tiana Benjamin), Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley), and cockney "wide boys" or "wheeler dealers"[12] such as Frank Butcher (Mike Reid), Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), Kevin Wicks (Phil Daniels), Darren Miller (Charlie G. Hawkins), Fatboy (Ricky Norwood) and Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick).
Over the years EastEnders has typically featured a number of elderly residents, who are used to show vulnerability, nostalgia, stalwart-like attributes and are sometimes used for comedic purposes. The original elderly residents included Lou Beale (Anna Wing), Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) and Dot Cotton (June Brown). Over the years they have been joined by the likes of Mo Butcher (Edna Doré), Jules Tavernier (Tommy Eytle), Marge Green (Pat Coombs), Nellie Ellis (Elizabeth Kelly), Jim Branning (John Bardon), Charlie Slater (Derek Martin), Mo Harris (Laila Morse), Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker), Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell), Les Coker (Roger Sloman), Rose Cotton (Polly Perkins), Pam Coker (Lin Blakley), Stan Carter (Timothy West), Babe Smith (Annette Badland), Claudette Hubbard (Ellen Thomas), Sylvie Carter (Linda Marlowe), Ted Murray (Christopher Timothy), Joyce Murray (Maggie Steed), Arshad Ahmed (Madhav Sharma) and Mariam Ahmed (Indira Joshi). The programme has more recently included a higher number of teenagers and successful young adults in a bid to capture the younger television audience.[128][129] This has spurred criticism, most notably from the actress Anna Wing, who portrayed Lou Beale in the show. She commented, "I don't want to be disloyal, but I think you need a few mature people in a soap because they give it backbone and body... if all the main people are young it gets a bit thin and inexperienced. It gets too lightweight."[130]
EastEnders has been known to feature a 'comedy double-act', originally demonstrated with the characters of Dot and Ethel, whose friendship was one of the serial's most enduring.[131] Other examples include Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton) and Trevor Short (Phil McDermott),[132] In 1989 especially, characters were brought in who were deliberately conceived as comic or light-hearted.[33] Such characters included Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright)—a brassy maneater; Marge Green—a batty older lady played by veteran comedy actress Pat Coombs; Trevor Short (Phil McDermott)—the "village idiot"; his friend, northern heartbreaker Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton); wheeler-dealer Vince Johnson (Hepburn Graham) and Laurie Bates (Gary Powell), who became Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) sparring partner.[36] The majority of EastEnders' characters are working-class.[133] Middle-class characters do occasionally become regulars, but have been less successful and rarely become long-term characters. In the main, middle-class characters exist as villains, such as James Wilmott-Brown (William Boyde), May Wright (Amanda Drew), Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson) and Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti) or are used to promote positive liberal influences, such as Colin Russell (Michael Cashman) or Rachel Kominski (Jacquetta May).[123]
EastEnders has always featured a culturally diverse cast which has included black, Asian, Turkish, Polish and Latvian characters. "The expansion of minority representation signals a move away from the traditional soap opera format, providing more opportunities for audience identification with the characters and hence a wider appeal".[134][135] Despite this, the programme has been criticised by the Commission for Racial Equality, who argued in 2002 that EastEnders was not giving a realistic representation of the East End's "ethnic make-up". They suggested that the average proportion of visible minority faces on EastEnders was substantially lower than the actual ethnic minority population in East London boroughs, and it therefore reflected the East End in the 1960s, not the East End of the 2000s. The programme has since attempted to address these issues. A sari shop was opened and various characters of different ethnicities were introduced throughout 2006 and 2007, including the Fox family, the Ahmeds, and various background artists.[136] This was part of producer Diederick Santer's plan to "diversify", to make EastEnders "feel more 21st century". EastEnders has had varying success with ethnic minority characters. Possibly the least successful were the Indian Ferreira family, who were not well received by critics or viewers and were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK.[137]
EastEnders has been praised for its portrayal of characters with disabilities, including Adam Best (David Proud) (spina bifida), Noah Chambers (Micah Thomas) (deaf), Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) and her daughter Stacey (Lacey Turner) (bipolar disorder), Janet Mitchell (Grace) (Down syndrome), Jim Branning (John Bardon) (stroke) [138] and Dinah Wilson (Anjela Lauren Smith) (multiple sclerosis). The show also features a large number of gay, lesbian and bisexual characters (see list of soap operas with LGBT characters), including Colin Russell (Michael Cashman), Barry Clark (Gary Hailes),[139] Simon Raymond (Andrew Lynford), Tony Hills (Mark Homer),[140] Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), Naomi Julien (Petra Letang),[141] Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White), Tosh Mackintosh (Rebecca Scroggs),[142] Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid/Max Bowden), Paul Coker (Jonny Labey),[143] Iqra Ahmed (Priya Davdra), and Ash Kaur (Gurlaine Kaur Garcha). Kyle Slater (Riley Carter Millington), a transgender character, was introduced in 2015.[144]
EastEnders has a high cast turnover and characters are regularly changed to facilitate storylines or refresh the format.[145] The show has also become known for the return of characters after they have left the show. Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) returned in August 2012 for her third stint on the show. Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) returned 14 years after he was believed to have died, a feat repeated by Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) in 2015.[146] Speaking extras, including Tracey the barmaid (Jane Slaughter) (who has been in the show since the first episode in 1985), have made appearances throughout the show's duration, without being the focus of any major storylines. The character of Nick Cotton (John Altman) gained a reputation for making constant exits and returns since the programme's first year, until the character's death in 2015.[147]
As of October 2019, Adam Woodyatt, Gillian Taylforth and Letitia Dean are the only members of the original cast remaining in the show, in their roles of Ian Beale, Kathy Beale and Sharon Watts respectively. Ian Beale is the only character to have appeared continuously from the first episode without formally leaving, and is the longest-serving character in EastEnders. [148] Dot Cotton and Tracey are the longest-serving female character in the show having served since 1985
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