Eastenders

This week I am writing about a long running British soap, Eastenders. As most people have heard, seen and spoken of this programme I will look at what the series has been like between January and now. When I was younger I watched Eastenders but stopped following it while I was at university, but on New Year’s Day I decided to watch it on a whim and have been watching it since then.

EastEnders was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985; with a constantly changing cast this programme follows the lives of the inhabitants of Albert Square, a fictional location in London. The current writers are Simon Ashdown and Tony Jordan.

Characters

If I went through all the current characters of this programme, I would be here all day and that’s just the current characters. The families of Eastenders are extremely interlinked, but there are a few main families that have been in the programme for most of its existence. Different times in this soaps history has concentrated on different families. At the beginning the programme centralised on the Beale and Fowler family. In the 1980’s the focus was on the Watts family, moving into the Mitchell family in the 1990’s. Currently the programme is trying to establish the Branning family, with Derek Branning constantly making references to himself, Max and Jack as the Branning brothers and always mentioning the need to protect one’s family.

There is also a sense of bringing back old characters. With some of the most consistent characters now having left the show, such as Pat Butcher and Peggy Mitchell, there has now been a void left in the soap for the viewers that have watched this show for years. Lately the show’s writers have brought back characters such as Sharon Watts, Janine Butcher and there are even rumours of Grant Mitchell making a return. With dropping ratings, I believe this is a method to bring back viewers that loved these characters before and will want to find out how their story has progressed.

Storylines

Eastenders has a history of huge story lines, whether it’s a who-done-it murder plot, affairs or pregnancies, there is always something major going on in Albert Square. Lately there has been some interesting story lines such as the murder of Heath Trott by Ben Mitchell, but I felt that this was dragged out and was then wrapped up all in one episode.

Another story line that is still currently running is the Kat Moon affair mystery. Over the last three months we’ve seen her having an affair but we don’t know who it’s with. The BBC announced that there were five suspects: Ray, Michael Moon and the three Branning brothers. Then over the weeks we have found out that it isn’t Ray, and then this Friday we found out that it isn’t Michael Moon, leaving it to be one of the three Branning brothers. Although this has been going on for three months I feel it has been dragged out and with many things being far too obvious to Alfie for him to ignore. I suspect that this story line will be dragged out for a few more months before we find out, but I personally have lost a lot of interest in this.

Summary

Although I find myself watching this week after week, I believe it is more the fact it is a programme you can just turn on whether it’s on TV or available on iPlayer and not have to pay too much attention. Normally you can miss an episode and it isn’t too difficult to catch up on what is going on, which makes it easier for new viewers. Personally I think that they need to come up with some big plots that will bring back the viewers that seem to be dropping off over the last few months. With Christmas approaching I am sure we will have some interesting developments appear over the coming weeks, like every year.