Misplaced Pages

#153846

162-452: EastEnders is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London , the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Within eight months of the show's original launch, it had reached

324-584: A "face to rival a neon sign", holding a Yorkshire Terrier in one hand and a pint of Guinness in the other. Other characters created included Jewish doctor Harold Legg , the Anglo-Cypriot Osman family ( Ali , Sue and baby Hassan ), black father and son Tony and Kelvin Carpenter , single mother Mary Smith and Bangladeshi couple Saeed and Naima Jeffery . Jack, Pearl and Tracey Watts were created to bring "flash, trash, and melodrama" to

486-611: A 40-year-plus run, were cancelled in 2011. All My Children aired its network finale in September 2011, with One Life to Live following suit in January 2012. Both All My Children and One Life to Live were briefly revived online in 2013, before being cancelled again that same year. In 2019, production of Days of Our Lives was put on "indefinite hiatus" and all of the cast's contracts were terminated, raising concerns within soap publications that cancellation would ensue, though

648-652: A 72-year run (including radio). As the World Turns aired its final episode on September 17, 2010, after a 54-year run. As the World Turns was the last of 20 soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble, the soap and consumer goods company from which the genre got its name. As the World Turns and Guiding Light were also among the last of the soaps that originated from New York City. All My Children , another New York–based soap, moved its production out to Los Angeles in an effort to reduce costs and raise sagging ratings; however, both it and One Life to Live , each with

810-580: A climax when Tony hits Mehmet Osman ( Haluk Bilginer ) the following year for making a pass at Hannah. Hannah is furious and cannot condone Tony's violent actions. Hannah subsequently decides that the marriage is over and she leaves Walford to live with her sister. Tony spends the rest of the year doing odd-jobs and driving a car for Ali Osman 's ( Nejdet Salih ) cab firm. He gets himself into trouble when he buys some stolen silverware from Nick, who later tries to blackmail him. Tony tires of life in Walford and

972-469: A close and continuing association between EastEnders and audience research, which, though commonplace today, was something of a revolution in practice. 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:

1134-400: A dead body, but hey, even if you do, he or she can always come back to play the evil identical twin. Marlena Laird in 1992, during her time as a line producer and director for General Hospital . Romance , secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines. In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and

1296-454: A distraction from your own life, it should be an exploration of the life shared by the audience and the characters." O'Connor planned to stay with EastEnders until the end of 2017, but announced his departure on 23 June 2017 with immediate effect, 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

1458-635: A few months later he departs Albert Square for Trinidad, leaving Kelvin in charge of his property. Tony Carpenter was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of EastEnders , Tony Holland and Julia Smith . Tony was originally intended to be named Alan, and his son Kelvin Carpenter was originally named Kevin. They were the first black characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before EastEnders aired. Holland and Smith knew that for

1620-463: A fixture of American daytime television in the early 1950s, joined by game shows , sitcom reruns and talk shows. In 1988, H. Wesley Kenney , who at the time served as the executive producer of General Hospital , said to The New York Times : I think people like stories that continue so they can relate to these people. They become like a family, and the viewer becomes emotionally involved. There seem to be two attitudes by viewers. One, that

1782-511: A funeral. Once Tylo reprised her character in 2005, a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma. Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off-screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict without complex movements, multiple takes, and post-production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post-production work

SECTION 10

#1732800734154

1944-485: A luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed, the economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of

2106-432: A married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large. The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime serial by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams , which premiered on WGN radio Chicago, on October 20, 1930. It was regularly broadcast in a daytime time slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus,

2268-565: 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. When all

2430-530: A member of an ethnic minority? How often do you see Paul J. Medford being publicised?...It's as though the BBC are playing us down. I can't believe the white majority of the public are against blacks being stars. They don't give a damn. Tony Carpenter lasted in the show for two years and was the fourth of the original twenty three characters to leave the show after Saeed Jeffery , Andy O'Brien and Debbie Wilkins . Tony returned to Trinidad to search for his roots. In 2022, Luke Weir from Surrey Live noted how

2592-485: 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". By the end of 1992, Greaves had left, and Lewis became executive and series producer. He left EastEnders in 1994 after the BBC controllers demanded an extra episode a week, taking its weekly airtime from 60 to 90 minutes. Lewis felt that producing an hour of "reasonable quality drama"

2754-583: A number of soap actors were also accomplished stage actors who performed live theater during breaks from their soap roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, new serials such as General Hospital , Days of our Lives , and The Young and the Restless were produced in Los Angeles . Their success made the West Coast a viable alternative to New York-produced soap operas, which were becoming more costly to perform. By

2916-479: 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

3078-425: A particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found across

3240-456: A programme that was more in touch with the real world than it had been over the previous year. 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. As the new production team cleared the way for new characters and a new direction, all of

3402-525: A radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble , Guiding Light was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 to 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium. Originally serials were broadcast as 15-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, As

SECTION 20

#1732800734154

3564-446: 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". 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

3726-510: A series of daily prime time soaps from 2006 to 2007, which aired on newly created sister network MyNetworkTV , but the experiment was largely a failure after disappointing ratings). Due to the masses of episodes produced for a series, release of soap operas to DVD (a popular venue for distribution of current and vintage television series) is considered impractical. With the exception of occasional specials, daytime soap operas are notable by their absence from DVD release schedules (an exception being

3888-464: A short period to oversee the show and to help us build on Sean's legacy while we recruit a long-term successor." Yorke initially returned for three months but his contract was later extended. 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. On 8 August 2018, it

4050-525: A short time from 1979 to 1980). More than half of the serials had expanded to one-hour episodes by 1980. As of 2012, three of the four U.S. serials air one-hour episodes each weekday; only The Bold and the Beautiful airs 30-minute episodes. Soap operas were originally broadcast live from the studio, creating what many at the time regarded as a feeling similar to that of a stage play. As nearly all soap operas were originated at that time from New York City ,

4212-484: A single missing episode) was rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s. After The Edge of Night 's 1984 cancellation, reruns of the show's final five years were shown late nights on USA Network from 1985 to 1989. On January 20, 2000, a digital cable and satellite network dedicated to the genre, Soapnet , began re-airing soaps that originally aired on ABC, NBC and CBS. Newer broadcast networks since

4374-462: A soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of

4536-577: A social life previously unseen on UK mainstream television. Since co-creator Holland was from a large family in the East End, a theme heavily featured in EastEnders is strong families, and each character is supposed to have their own place in the fictional community. The Watts , Beales , Mitchells , Brannings and the Slaters are some of the families that have been central to the soap's notable and dramatic storylines. EastEnders has been filmed at

4698-400: A special episode which "broke new ground" 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 7 pm because of the BBC's coverage of

4860-568: A stunt on the River Thames leading to the death of Dennis Rickman Jr ( Bleu Landau ). It was announced on 18 March 2020 that production had been suspended on EastEnders and other BBC Studios continuing dramas in light of new government guidelines following the COVID-19 pandemic , and that broadcast of the show would be reduced to two 30-minute episodes per week, broadcast on Mondays and Tuesdays, respectively. A spokesperson confirmed that

5022-503: A successful business and steady home for his family, but nothing he does is ever good enough for his nagging wife. Trinidadian born Tony is married to his second wife, Hannah Carpenter ( Sally Sagoe ), with whom he has two children, Kelvin Carpenter ( Paul J. Medford ) and Cassie Carpenter ( Delanie Forbes ). However, Tony and Hannah are separated and Hannah is in a relationship with another man. Kelvin lives with Tony, while Cassie stays with Hannah. Tony has various altercations with

EastEnders - Misplaced Pages Continue

5184-500: A week was the maximum that any broadcasting system could generate without loss of integrity. 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. Barbara Emile then became the Executive Producer of EastEnders , remaining with EastEnders until early 1995. She was succeeded by Corinne Hollingworth . Hollingworth's contributions to

5346-401: A week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely conclude all their storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development . Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger , and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for

5508-492: Is Coronation Street , which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960. According to Albert Moran, one of the defining features that make a television program a soap opera is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas: Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have

5670-457: 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). The show's producers based the square's design on Fassett Square in Dalston . There is also a market close to Fassett Square at Ridley Road . The postcode for

5832-403: Is furious and promptly confronts Neville, returning later with Hannah and Cassie's belongings and a cut lip. Tony and Hannah reunite and she and Cassie move in, however, Tony is confused when Hannah wants to live in the flat above Tony's instead of with him. Problems still persist, however, and Hannah regularly nags Tony and makes it clear to him that Walford is not good enough for her. Things reach

5994-533: Is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor with the longest uninterrupted performance in a single role. A number of performers played roles for 20 years or longer, occasionally on more than one show. Rachel Ames played Audrey Hardy on both General Hospital and Port Charles from 1964 until 2007, and returned in 2009. Susan Lucci played Erica Kane in All My Children from

6156-555: Is not scheduled or because of last-minute deferrals of scheduled episodes to the following day because of breaking news coverage. ( Temporary production stoppages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic similarly resulted in CBS and ABC airing older reruns of The Young and the Restless , The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital during the Spring and Summer of 2020 in order to ration first-run episodes and, eventually, to fill airtime after

6318-473: Is not uncommon for a single character to be played by multiple actors. The key character of Mike Karr on The Edge of Night was played by three actors. Conversely, several actors have remained playing the same character for many years, or decades even. Helen Wagner played Hughes family matriarch Nancy Hughes on American soap As the World Turns from its April 2, 1956, debut through her death in May 2010. She

6480-594: Is only using him to get back at Den and make him jealous. The affair is conducted in secret, but after Angie initiates a kiss in The Queen Vic with Tony, she is caught by her adoptive daughter, Sharon Watts ( Letitia Dean ). Angie is forced to use bribery to keep her daughter from informing her husband. Upon Den's return, Angie calls off the affair but it is not long before Sharon tells her father that Angie has been unfaithful. However, Den cares more about his reputation than her and tells her that he does not care about

6642-454: The 2010 baby swap storyline , which attracted over 6,000 complaints, as well as complaints of showing too much violence and allegations of national and racial stereotypes. However, EastEnders has also been commended for representing real-life issues and spreading awareness on social topics. The cast and crew of the show have received and been nominated for various awards . In March 1983, under two years before EastEnders ' first episode

EastEnders - Misplaced Pages Continue

6804-523: The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup . As of 2019, the soap is one of the most watched series on BBC iPlayer and averages around 5 million viewers per episode. 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. The Christmas Day episode in 2019 became EastEnders biggest ever episode on BBC iPlayer, with 2.14 million viewer requests. In February 2020, EastEnders celebrated its 35th anniversary with

6966-482: The 28th National Television Awards under his leadership. On 26 September 2024, it was announced Clenshaw would step down as series executive producer in February 2025, following the soap's 40th anniversary; Ben Wadey was announced as his successor. 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

7128-705: The BBC Elstree Centre since its inception, with a set that is outdoors and open to weather. In 2014, the BBC announced plans to rebuild the set entirely. Filming commenced on the new set in January 2022, and it was first used on-screen in March 2022. Demolition on the old set commenced in November 2022. EastEnders has received both praise and criticism for many of its storylines, which have dealt with difficult themes including violence, rape, murder and abuse. It has been criticised for various storylines, including

7290-516: The District and Hammersmith & City lines. 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, the E standing for Eastern . 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. In March 2011, Royal Mail allocated

7452-471: The theme music and Alan Jeapes created the visuals. 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. The credits were later updated when the Millennium Dome was built. The launch was delayed until February 1985 due to a delay in the chat show Wogan , that was to be

7614-547: The 1970s, became one of the first older women on the American serials to enter the workforce. Guiding Light dealt with Bert Bauer ( Charita Bauer ) and her alcoholic husband Bill, and their endless marital troubles. When Bert's status shifted to caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were showcased. Search for Tomorrow mostly told its story through the eyes of Joanne Gardner ( Mary Stuart ). Even when stories revolved around other characters, Joanne

7776-455: The 1990s and 2000s incorporated supernatural and science fiction elements into their storylines in an attempt to boost their ratings. One of the main characters on the earlier soap opera Dark Shadows was Barnabas Collins , a vampire, and One Life to Live featured an angel named Virgil. Both shows featured characters who traveled to and from the past. In 1995, Days of our Lives featured a storyline in which fan favorite character Marlena Evans

7938-588: The 23 characters needed, in just 14 days. They took a holiday in Playa de los Pocillos, Lanzarote , and started to create the characters. 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. These family members were

8100-402: The BBC launched a new advertising campaign using the slogan "There's more to EastEnders ". The first television advert showed Dot Branning with a refugee baby, Tomas , whom she took in under the pretence of being her grandson. The second and third featured Stacey Slater and Dawn Swann, respectively. There have also been adverts in magazines and on radio. In 2009, producers introduced a limit on

8262-504: The E20 postal district to the 2012 Olympic Park . In September 2011, the postcode for Albert Square was revealed in an episode as E20 6PQ. 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

SECTION 50

#1732800734154

8424-870: 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, except Beppe di Marco ( Michael Greco ), 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 ( Gretchen Franklin ) death, Jim Branning ( John Bardon ) and Dot Cotton 's ( June Brown ) marriage, Trevor Morgan 's ( Alex Ferns ) domestic abuse of his wife Little Mo Morgan ( Kacey Ainsworth ), and Kat Slater 's ( Jessie Wallace ) revelation to her daughter Zoe Slater ( Michelle Ryan ) that she

8586-579: The ITV network) was very different in style and approach from 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." The target launch date was originally January 1985. Smith and Holland had eleven months in which to write, cast and shoot

8748-513: 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. Walford East is a fictional London Underground 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

8910-497: The Square (they were later renamed Den , Angie and Sharon ). 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

9072-399: The U.S. since the 2000s. As of September 2022, only four daytime soap operas – General Hospital , Days of Our Lives , The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful – are still in production with three airing on two broadcast networks and one on streaming, down from a total of 12 soaps broadcast during the 1990–91 season and a high of 19 in the 1969–70 season. This marks

9234-528: The UK, prohibiting the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities , by the first on-the-mouth gay kiss in a British soap when Colin kissed a new character, Guido Smith (Nicholas Donovan), an episode that was watched by 17 million people. 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

9396-455: The World Turns and The Edge of Night , both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions , debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS television network. All soap operas broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s, most soap operas had expanded to an hour in length by the end of the decade ( Another World even expanded to 90 minutes for

9558-439: The affair, so long as it is done discreetly. Tony is very hurt by the whole ordeal, but he is even more concerned for his own safety, should Den find out that it was him his wife was seeing. Tony's identity is never disclosed to Den, though Den later works it out. Later, Hannah arrives at Tony's house with the disturbing news that her new lover, Neville Agard (Gordon Case), had been beating both her and their daughter Cassie. Tony

9720-561: The area, E8 , was one of the working titles for the series. 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. Other parts of the Square and set interiors are based on other locations. The railway bridge is based upon one near BBC Television Centre which carries the Hammersmith & City line over Wood Lane W12, and

9882-490: 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. Once they had decided on their 23 characters, they returned to London for

SECTION 60

#1732800734154

10044-400: The basis for Lou Beale , Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler . Holland also created Pauline's unemployed husband Arthur Fowler , their children Mark and Michelle , Pete's wife Kathy and their son Ian . Smith used her personal memories of East End residents she met when researching Victorian squares. Ethel Skinner was based on an old woman she met in a pub, with ill-fitting false teeth, and

10206-401: The cast and crew ventured to Jamaica to tape a love consummation storyline between the characters of Garth and Kathy. During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorporate action and adventure storylines, more big-business intrigue, and an increased emphasis on youthful romance. One of the most popular couples

10368-433: The cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard. American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows: Soap opera ratings have significantly fallen in

10530-417: The challenges in production and filming of the show has led to the show's reduced output, but also stated that the crew had been "trialing techniques, filming methods and new ways of working" to prepare the show for its return. Filming recommenced on 29 June, with episodes airing from 7 September 2020. On 9 April 2021, following the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , the episode of EastEnders that

10692-416: The characters had been created, Smith and Holland set about casting the actors, which also involved the input of lead director Matthew Robinson , who supervised auditions with the other directors at the outset, Vivienne Cozens and Peter Edwards. 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

10854-517: The characters introduced under Gibbon were axed from the show at the start of the year. 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. Ferguson was succeeded by both Leonard Lewis and Helen Greaves , who initially shared the role as Executive Producer for EastEnders . Lewis and Greaves formulated

11016-431: The characters of Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter , did Coronation Street start to feature black characters, for example. 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

11178-454: The daily episode format of its daytime counterparts) and Another Life (a soap that combined standard serial drama with religious overtones), during the 1980s. Fox, the fourth "major network" , carried a short-lived daytime soap Tribes in 1990. Yet, other than this and a couple of pilot attempts, Fox mainly stayed away from daytime soaps, and has not attempted them since their ascension to major-network status in 1994 (it did later attempt

11340-500: 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. 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

11502-471: The decision was made to reduce transmission so that EastEnders could remain on-screen for longer. Two months later, Charlotte Moore , the director of content at the BBC, announced plans for a return to production. She confirmed that EastEnders would return to filming during June 2020 and that there would be a transmission break between episodes filmed before and after production paused. When production recommenced, social distancing measures were utilised and

11664-508: The demographic group for which soap opera advertisers pay the most. Those who might watch in workplace breakrooms are not counted, as Nielsen does not track television viewing outside the home. The rise of cable and the Internet has also provided new sources of entertainment during the day. The genre's decline has additionally been attributed to reality television displacing soap operas as TV's dominant form of melodrama. An early term for

11826-501: 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. 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

11988-442: The early 1970s, nearly all soap operas had transitioned to being taped. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night were the last to make the switch, in 1975. Port Charles used the practice of running 13-week " story arcs ," in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc. According to the 2006 Preview issue of Soap Opera Digest , it

12150-414: The exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location. As examples, EastEnders focuses on the tough and grim life in the East End of London; Coronation Street and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "northern straight talking". If we want to blend an actor back into a show, there's always a way. You can generally find a way to twist and manipulate something. You rarely see

12312-457: 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." The live episode featured

12474-428: The first network daytime serial. The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations". Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in

12636-429: The first new daytime soap opera to premiere on a major broadcast network since Passions in 1999. As women increasingly worked outside of the home, daytime television viewing declined. New generations of potential viewers were not raised watching soap operas with their mothers, leaving the shows' long and complex storylines foreign to younger audiences. As viewers age, ratings continue to drop among young adult women,

12798-520: The first soap opera since Generations to feature an African American cast. On April 12, 2024, CBS renewed The Talk for a 15th and final season, with the show concluding in December 2024. Three days later, on April 15, The Gates (now titled " Beyond the Gates ") was greenlit by CBS and is slated to premiere on February 24, 2025, likely to take the time slot of The Talk , meaning it will be

12960-530: The first time since 1953 that there have been only four soap operas airing on broadcast television . The Young and the Restless , the highest-rated soap opera from 1988 to the present, had fewer than 5 million daily viewers as of February 2012, a number exceeded by several non-scripted programs such as Judge Judy . Circulations of soap opera magazines have decreased and some have even ceased publication. Soapnet, which largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations

13122-529: The first two episodes consolidating to ratings of 13.21 to 13.34 million viewers. On Friday 11 November 2005, EastEnders was the first British drama to feature a two-minute silence. This episode later went on to win British Soap Award for "Best Single Episode". 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

13284-495: The following year. The Daytime Emmy Awards , which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from prime time network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Several of the U.S.'s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, Guiding Light , barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after

13446-608: The forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically. Tony's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story (In this passage, Tony will be referred to as Alan). Alan's name

13608-734: The gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas . In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy. Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working-class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as

13770-413: The gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare. UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on

13932-435: The late 1960s and into the 1970s. Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series The Edge of Night and Dark Shadows . Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, The Best of Everything and Ryan's Hope were set in a real-world location, New York City. The first exotic location shoot was made by All My Children , to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soap operas planned lavish storylines after

14094-484: The late 1980s, such as Fox and cable television networks, have largely eschewed soap operas in their daytime schedules, instead running syndicated programming and reruns. No cable television outlet has produced its own daytime serial, although DirecTV 's The 101 Network took over existing serial Passions , continuing production for one season; while TBS and CBN Cable Network respectively aired their own soap operas, The Catlins (a primetime soap that utilized

14256-469: The local villain Nick Cotton ( John Altman ), and is understandably furious when he discovers that Nick has joined a racist organisation. After Nick taunts Kelvin about the colour of his skin, Tony teaches him a lesson, which at least manages to scare him out of spreading his racial hatred for a while. In February 1985, Tony secures himself a job renovating The Queen Victoria public house and gives

14418-449: The loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximise advertising revenues. The article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives ,

14580-532: The matriarch of The Guiding Light , Bert Bauer, developed uterine cancer (as the actress, Charita Bauer , had been diagnosed with the same illness in real life). The storyline encouraged many women to get pap smears and the CBS mailroom in New York City received a then-record amount of fan mail wishing Bauer (both Bert and Charita) well. Nixon would go on to tell many socially relevant storylines on her soaps One Life to Live and All My Children in

14742-562: 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. By Christmas 1985,

14904-439: The most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels . Soap opera storylines weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, assault (sometimes sexual), and even murder may go unpunished if

15066-482: The names of his own family for the characters. Soap opera According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as a "soap opera", it doesn't need to be long-running. , but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition of "soap opera". BBC Radio 's The Archers , first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running existing television soap

15228-414: The new era of EastEnders ." EastEnders started broadcasting in high definition on 25 December 2010. 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

15390-459: 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. From 4 February 2010, CGI was used in

15552-658: The number one spot in BARB 's television ratings, and has consistently remained among the top-rated series in Britain. Four EastEnders episodes are listed in the all-time top 10 most-watched programmes in the UK, including the number one spot, when over 30 million watched the 1986 Christmas Day episode. EastEnders has been important in the history of British television drama, tackling many subjects that are considered to be controversial or taboo in British culture , and portraying

15714-421: The perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story. Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life. In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins (including the evil variety ) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate

15876-403: The pre- EastEnders figure of seven 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. Press coverage of EastEnders , which was already intense, went into overdrive once the show was broadcast. With public interest so high,

16038-460: 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. Neither Holland nor Smith could watch; they both instead returned to the place where it all began, Albertine's Wine Bar on Wood Lane. The next day, viewing figures were confirmed at 17   million. The reviews were largely favourable, although, after three weeks on air, BBC1's early evening share had returned to

16200-415: 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". 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

16362-411: The programs ran out of new episodes to broadcast; Days of Our Lives , which produces its episodes roughly eight months ahead of their initial broadcast, did not resort to airing older episodes during this time as it had a larger first-run episode backlog.) Early episodes of Dark Shadows were rerun on PBS member stations in the early 1970s after the show's cancellation, and the entire series (except for

16524-601: The prosperous Brooks family with four daughters, and the working-class Foster family of a single working mother with three children. Its storylines explored realistic problems including cancer, mental illness, poverty, and infidelity. In contrast, Dark Shadows (1966–1971), Port Charles (1997–2003) and Passions (1999–2008) featured supernatural characters and dealt with fantasy and horror storylines. Their characters included vampires, witches, ghosts, goblins, and angels. The American soap opera Guiding Light (originally titled The Guiding Light until 1975) started as

16686-557: The reality TV genre was docu-soap . A precursor to reality TV, the televised 1994–95 O. J. Simpson murder case , both preempted and competed with an entire season of soaps, transforming viewing habits and leaving soap operas with 10 percent fewer viewers after the trial ended. Tony Carpenter Tony Carpenter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders , played by Oscar James , from 28 February 1985 until 28 May 1987. Happy-go-lucky Tony tries to carve himself

16848-416: The recast of Amy Mitchell ( Ellie Dadd ), as well as the reintroduction of Cindy Beale ( Michelle Collins ), who returned from the dead after 25 years. Public opinion on Clenshaw then changed and he has been credited for improving ratings and garnering critical acclaim for the soap, with EastEnders winning the award for Best British Soap at the 2023 British Soap Awards and the award for Serial Drama at

17010-490: The sake of the family - but not stay around too long because the neighbourhood would appal her. This was eventually recreated on-screen. James had initially been full of praise for the way the team had chosen to depict a black family. However, shortly before he left the series in 1987, he controversially criticised EastEnders and the BBC for not promoting their black or other ethnic minority characters: The powers that be do not think I am interesting enough. Is it because I am

17172-426: The set of relationships examined by the series. Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency. As in comic books – another popular form of linear storytelling pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent . On The Bold and the Beautiful , Taylor Hayes ( Hunter Tylo ) was shown to flatline and have

17334-524: 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, and was followed by another on 6 March 2007. In April 2007, EastEnders became available to view on mobile phones , via 3G technology, for 3 , Vodafone and Orange customers. On 21 April 2007,

17496-633: The show for the first time, with the addition of computer-generated trains. 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 ( Sid Owen ) and Bianca Jackson ( Patsy Palmer ) and the return of Bianca's relatives, mother Carol Jackson ( Lindsey Coulson ), and siblings Robbie Jackson ( Dean Gaffney ), Sonia Fowler ( Natalie Cassidy ) and Billie Jackson ( Devon Anderson ). He told entertainment website Digital Spy , "It's really important that

17658-565: The show has been broadcast every weekday from Monday to Thursday in a 7:30 pm slot, making it the first time in the show's history that the programme began airing permanently on Wednesdays. On 2 June 2022, EastEnders aired an episode celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II . Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall guest starred in the episode; it also marked the first executive producer credit for Clenshaw. Clenshaw's first major decision as executive producer

17820-416: 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

17982-425: The show was later renewed through September 2021. In 2022, NBC announced that Days of Our Lives would be moved exclusively to its streaming service, Peacock , making NBC the first of the big three networks not to air any daytime soap operas. In March 2024, CBS Studios , NAACP Venture , in partnership with P&G Studios announced that a new soap opera for CBS titled The Gates is in development and will be

18144-504: The show" in the absence of the show. Jon Sen , the show's executive producer , expressed his excitement at the new series, dubbing it "a unique opportunity to see from the cast themselves just what it is like to be part of EastEnders ". Plans for the show's return to transmission were announced on 12 June 2020. It was confirmed that after the transmission break, the show would temporarily broadcast four 20-minute episodes per week, until it could return to its normal output. Sen explained that

18306-479: The show's 30th anniversary in 2015 with a week of live episodes . Treadwell-Collins announced his departure from EastEnders on 18 February 2016. 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. Treadwell-Collins left on 6 May and O'Connor's first credited episode was broadcast on 11 July Although O'Connor's first credited episode aired in July, his own creative work

18468-448: The show's cast were required to do their own hair and make-up, which is normally done by a make-up artist. It was announced on 3 June 2020 that EastEnders would go on a transmission break following the broadcast of episode 6124 on 16 June. A behind-the-scenes show, EastEnders: Secrets From The Square , will air in the show's place during the transmission break and is hosted by television personality Stacey Dooley . The first episode of

18630-1535: The show's debut in January 1970 until it ended its network television run on ABC on September 23, 2011. Erika Slezak played Victoria Lord #3 on One Life to Live from 1971 until the show ended its network television run on ABC on January 13, 2012, and resumed the role in its short-lived online revival on April 29, 2013. Other actors have played several characters on different shows. Millette Alexander , Bernard Barrow , Doris Belack , David Canary , Judith Chapman , Keith Charles , Jordan Charney , Joan Copeland , Nicolas Coster , Jacqueline Courtney , Augusta Dabney , Louis Edmonds , Don Hastings , Larry Haines , Vincent Irizarry , Lenore Kasdorf , Teri Keane , Lois Kibbee , John Loprieno , Lori March , Maeve McGuire , Robert Mili , James Mitchell , Lee Patterson , Christopher Pennock , Antony Ponzini , William Prince , Rosemary Prinz , Louise Shaffer , Mary Stuart , Richard Thomas , Diana van der Vlis , Mary K. Wells , Lesley Woods and Michael Zaslow , among many others, have all played multiple soap roles. For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns. Social issue storylines were typically verboten when soaps were starting, due to heavy network-imposed censorship at that time, but writer and producer Agnes Nixon introduced these storylines slowly but surely, first in 1962 when

18792-456: 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 ). 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 . According to Brake,

18954-501: The shows were aimed at – and consumed by – a predominantly female audience. Clara, Lu, 'n Em would become the first network radio serial of the type when it aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, Clara, Lu 'n Em would become the first network serial of the type to move to a weekday daily timeslot, and so also became

19116-452: The soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at

19278-414: The soap was criticised for its boring storylines and its lowest-ever figures pointing at around 4.8 million. Dominic Treadwell-Collins was appointed as the new executive producer on 19 August 2013 and was credited on 9 December. He axed multiple characters from the show and introduced the extended Carter family. He also introduced a long-running storyline, " Who Killed Lucy Beale? ", which peaked during

19440-513: 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 . Harris was responsible for the critically panned Ireland episodes and Cindy Beale 's ( Michelle Collins ) attempted assassination of Ian Beale ( Adam Woodyatt ), which brought in an audience of 23 million in 1996, roughly four million more than Coronation Street . In 1998 Matthew Robinson

19602-429: The start of a new yearly broadcast. Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and present all storylines. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger. In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market", noting

19764-471: The stories are similar to what happened to them in real life, or two, thank goodness that isn't me. Many long-running US soap operas established particular environments for their stories. The Doctors and General Hospital , in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. As the World Turns dealt heavily with Chris Hughes' law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, tired of being "the loyal housewife" in

19926-473: The streaming service would be beneficial for fans of the show who want to watch at their own chosen pace. Sen also confirmed that the episodes will still air on BBC One throughout the week. The release of these boxsets was extended for a further five weeks, due to similar impacts caused by the 2020 Summer Olympics . On 12 October 2021, it was announced that EastEnders would partake in a special week-long crossover event involving multiple British soaps to promote

20088-538: The success of the All My Children shoot. Soap operas Another World and Guiding Light both went to St. Croix in 1980, the former show culminating a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice, and the latter to serve as an exotic setting for Alan Spaulding and Rita Bauer 's torrid affair. Search for Tomorrow taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. Later that year, some of

20250-685: The supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows , which did receive an essentially complete release on both VHS and DVD; the single lost episode #1219 is reconstructed by means of an off-the-air audio recording, still images, and recap material from adjacent episodes). Soap opera performers in the United States are typically divided into two main groups: primary characters (sometimes referred to as "contract players" – as their portrayers signed contracts of employment – or leading characters) and secondary characters (sometimes referred to as recurring characters). These two groups of characters make up

20412-434: 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. In 1987, the show featured the first same-sex kiss on a British soap, when Colin Russell ( Michael Cashman ) kissed boyfriend Barry Clark ( Gary Hailes ) on the forehead. This was followed in January 1989, less than a year after legislation came into effect in

20574-584: The time. With the resultant budget cuts, soap operas were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots overseas as they were able to do in the 1980s. During that decade, soap operas increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues , such as Erica Kane 's drug addiction on All My Children , the re-emergence of Viki Lord 's dissociative identity disorder on One Life to Live , and Stuart Chandler dealing with his wife Cindy dying of AIDS on All My Children . Other social issues included cancer , rape , abortion and racism . Several shows during

20736-517: The topic of climate change ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference . During the week, beginning from 1 November, a social media clip featuring Maria Connor ( Samia Longchambon ) from Coronation Street was featured on the programme while Cindy Cunningham ( Stephanie Waring ) from Hollyoaks was also referenced. Similar clips featuring the show's own characters, Bailey Baker (Kara-Leah Fernandes) and Peter Beale (Dayle Hudson), were featured on Doctors and Emmerdale during

20898-412: 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 . 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

21060-471: The unemployed Arthur Fowler ( Bill Treacher ) a job as his aid. It is whilst he is working here that Tony gains the interest of the married landlady Angie Watts ( Anita Dobson ). Angie has grown tired of her cheating husband, Den Watts ( Leslie Grantham ), and whilst he is on a holiday in Spain with his mistress, Angie seduces Tony and they embark on an affair. Tony takes the relationship seriously, but Angie

21222-420: The vast majority of the people who appear on any given soap. There are also characters who appear only for a short time as dictated by a specific storyline, and even characters who may only get a first name and no fleshed-out character history with little dialogue (these are sometimes referred to as "under-5s" since they receive under five lines of dialogue in each episode). Due to the longevity of these shows, it

21384-434: The week features exclusive interviews with the show's cast, while the second episode will be a repeat of "iconic" episodes of the show. Beginning on 22 June 2020, Dooley interviews two cast members together in the show's restaurant set while observing social distancing measures. Kate Phillips, the controller of BBC Entertainment , explained that EastEnders: Secrets From The Square would be the "perfect opportunity to celebrate

21546-411: The week. In November 2021, it was announced that Sen would step down from his role as executive producer, and would be succeeded by former story producer Chris Clenshaw . Sen's final credited episode as executive producer was broadcast on 10 March 2022 and coincided in a week of episodes that saw the arrest of serial killer Gray Atkins ( Toby-Alexander Smith ). From the week commencing on 7 March 2022,

21708-499: 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

21870-502: The world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a left-handed boy statue, and helped a princess find her Aztec treasure in Mexico . Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales. During the 1990s, the mob, action and adventure stories fell out of favor with producers, due to generally declining ratings for daytime soap operas at

22032-524: Was Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on General Hospital . Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even actress Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own. With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved

22194-496: 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 . A previous UK soap set in an East End market was ATV 's Market in Honey Lane ; however, between 1967 and 1969, 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

22356-447: Was a nice idea for father and son to be not only different in ages, but different physical types as well. Storywise it was felt it would be possible to build on this and also give them different attitudes. Tony's storylines mainly centred on his developing relationship with his son, and marital issues with his wife. Before the series began it was decided that Hannah (Tony's wife) plus their other child, would come back into Tony's life for

22518-512: Was announced on 10 December 2018 to be taking on the role of executive producer. 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 on the local bin collection. Since Yorke's and Oates' reigns, however, opinions towards the storylines have become more favourable, with storylines such as Ruby Allen 's ( Louisa Lytton ) sexual consent, which featured

22680-506: 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". It was also announced that Oates was looking for an Executive Producer to work under her. Jon Sen

22842-468: 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. This was the beginning of

23004-704: 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 ( Tamzin Outhwaite ), Jamie Mitchell ( Jack Ryder ), Lisa Shaw ( Lucy Benjamin ), Steve Owen ( Martin Kemp ) and Billy Mitchell ( Perry Fenwick ). John Yorke became

23166-408: Was briefly discussed that all ABC shows might do telenovela arcs, but this was rejected. Though U.S. daytime soap operas are not generally rerun by their networks, occasionally they are rebroadcast elsewhere; CBS and ABC have made exceptions to this, airing older episodes (either those aired earlier in the current season or those aired years prior) on major holidays when special event programming

23328-496: Was broadcast, the show was 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 that ITV were 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

23490-464: Was created, instead of using E8. 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?" Smith thought " Eastenders " "looked ugly written down" and was "hard to say", so decided to capitalise the second "e". After they decided on the filming location of BBC Elstree Centre in south Hertfordshire , Smith and Holland set about creating

23652-547: Was due to be aired that night was postponed along with the final of Masterchef . In May 2021, it was announced that from 14 June 2021, boxsets of episodes would be uploaded to BBC iPlayer each Monday for three weeks. Executive producer Sen explained that the bi-annual scheduling conflicts that the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup cause to the soap, premiering four episodes on

23814-411: Was frequently a key player in their storylines. Days of Our Lives initially focused on Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. The show later branched out to focus more on their five children. The Edge of Night featured as its central character Mike Karr, a police detective (later an attorney), and largely dealt with organized crime. The Young and the Restless first focused on two families,

23976-732: Was from a large East End family, and such families have typified EastEnders . 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

24138-400: 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 ( Shane Richie ), Dennis Rickman ( Nigel Harman ), Chrissie Watts ( Tracy-Ann Oberman ), Jane Beale ( Laurie Brett ), Stacey Slater ( Lacey Turner ) and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family . Berridge

24300-468: Was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post-production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets. The first daytime TV soap opera in the United States was These Are My Children in 1949, though earlier melodramas had aired in the evenings as once-a-week programs. Soap operas quickly became

24462-454: Was later changed to Tony following the development of the character of Ali Osman and Holland and Smith decided they couldn't have two male characters with such similar-sounding names. Oscar James , an experienced television and theatre actor, was chosen to play the role. James was physically much bigger than they'd originally had in mind, however they felt that his interpretation of Tony would be expansive and get noticed. They also thought it

24624-465: Was later to be changed to February. The project had a number of working titles: Square Dance , Round the Square , Round the Houses , London Pride and East 8 . It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process; however, the show was renamed after many casting agents mistakenly thought the show was to be called Estate , and the fictional postcode E20

24786-495: Was not seen onscreen until late September. 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. 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

24948-418: Was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings. 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

25110-645: Was possessed by the devil, and in 1998, Guiding Light featured a cloning storyline involving legacy character Reva Shayne . Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and

25272-476: Was replaced by Bryan Kirkwood . Kirkwood's first signing was the reintroduction of characters Alfie Moon ( Shane Richie ) and Kat Moon ( Jessie Wallace ), and his first new character was Vanessa Gold , played by Zöe Lucker . In April and May 2010, Kirkwood axed eight characters from the show, 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

25434-410: Was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as Alfie and Kat Slater 's ( Jessie Wallace ) relationship, Janine Butcher ( Charlie Brooks ) getting her comeuppance, Trevor Morgan ( Alex Ferns ) and Jamie Mitchell 's ( Jack Ryder ) death storylines and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, Den Watts ( Leslie Grantham ), who had been presumed dead for 14 years. His return in late 2003

25596-412: 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 . In January 2005, Hutchison left the soap and John Yorke (who by this time,

25758-466: 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. 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

25920-430: Was the axing of five series regulars: Peter Beale ( Dayle Hudson ), Stuart Highway ( Ricky Champ ), Jada Lennox (Kelsey Calladine-Smith), Dana Monroe (Barbara Smith) and Lola Pearce ( Danielle Harold ). Viewers criticised the decision, feeling that some of the characters had potential to add to the soap. Clenshaw has since overseen the returns of Alfie Moon ( Shane Richie ) and Yolande Trueman ( Angela Wynter ),

26082-472: Was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year. 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. Granada Television gave Smith unrestricted access to the Coronation Street production for a month so that she could get a sense of how a continuing drama was produced. There

26244-526: Was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the Coronation Street ; however, other storylines, such as one about a kidney transplant involving the Ferreiras, were not well received, and although Den's return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility. A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham ,

#153846