EastEnders at 40: how a ‘public service soap’ became a national institution
Thirteen million people across the UK sat down to watch a brand new soap opera that burst onto their screens on February 19 1985. The first character to speak on EastEnders was Dirty Den, as he came to be known, played by Leslie Grantham. Breaking into a dingy flat with fellow characters Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) and Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Den uttered the words “Stinks in ‘ere, dunnit?”, before discovering the elderly Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton) close to death.
Up until this point, the BBC had not had much luck with the continuing serial drama, or soap opera, format. Its first serial, The Grove Family, ran for only three years between 1954 and 1957, for instance. Although The Archers had been running since 1951 on Radio 4, and the Welsh-language soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, began in 1974 (and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary), the BBC lacked anything comparable to ITV’s Coronation Street.
Launched in 1960, Coronation Street demonstrated that there was a public appetite for drama which focused on the everyday lives of ordinary people. ITV’s second soap success, Crossroads which ran between 1964 and 1988, and later between 2001 and 2003, underlined that point, as did Emmerdale Farm, which was launched in 1972, becoming just Emmerdale in 1989.
When Channel 4 launched with a gritty, realist soap opera, Brookside, in November 1982, the BBC had to respond. With that channel’s extra competition, and cable and satellite television being discussed as the next big thing, the BBC’s audience share was in danger of decreasing to the point where people may have questioned the justification for the licence fee.
EastEnders is set on the fictional Albert Square in the east end of London, and centres around the Queen Vic pub.
BBC Pictures/Kieron McCarron/Jack Barnes
And so EastEnders was born and became an immediate success. Over the years it’s had its ups and downs in terms of viewing figures, but has still endured. So, in a broadcasting landscape where there is now so much competition from streaming services and a variety of platforms from which we can now engage with “content” (“programme” can feel like an old-fashioned word now), how has the serial retained it popularity?
Realism meets melodrama
Part of the answer lies in the ways in which soap operas are constructed. They focus on people and peoples’ relationships with each other. This gives us the audience an immediate connection. We can all relate to one or more characters. We are given an insight into their family lives, their work, their feelings and emotions.
Drama can entertain and provide escapism. At the same time, it can prick the conscience and stir the soul. It can deal with complex ideas and flights of fancy, gritty social issues and controversial topics. It has the ability to both engage and alienate audiences and provoke wider public debate. EastEnders has done all of these things.
Soap operas can also run multiple storylines that overlap. This means that if one story ends – such as a character leaving, or a conflict being resolved – there are other stories to carry the audience along, while new storylines are developed.
Another characteristic of soap operas is that they aim to balance realism with just the right amount of melodrama. Those of us who remember the early years of EastEnders will recall Christmas day 1986 when more than 30 million viewers tuned in to see Dirty Den hand divorce papers to wife Angie (Anita Dobson) after discovering she had been faking a terminal illness.
Dirty Den hands Angie divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986.
And, of course, any successful soap opera like EastEnders requires a team of skilled writers and believable characters. Such was the popularity of characters like Dirty Den that the BBC brought him back from the dead in 2003 after an absence of 14 years in a bid to halt declining viewing figures. Den did eventually die “properly” to mark the 20th anniversary on February 18 2005. And 13 million people watched as his wife, Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman), dealt the fatal blow.
Grit, grime and real life
EastEnders has not shied away from gritty or social-realist storylines.
Communications scholar Anthony McNicholas has described EastEnders as a “public service soap opera”, by which he means that the stories featured often reflect values and issues in contemporary society.
Some of the early storylines revolved around teenage pregnancy, rape and drug-taking. There were characters who had HIV/Aids at the time the subject was being widely discussed in the UK.
Baddie Janine pushes husband Barry off a cliff in a famous scene from New Year’s Day 2004.
The soap has also dealt with domestic abuse. It worked closely with the charity Women’s Aid on a domestic abuse story in 2020. This prompted the domestic abuse charity, Refuge, to praise the soap for drawing the issue to peoples’ attention. It noted that EastEnders had done a great job reflecting on screen what is a horrific reality for so many families.
Dealing with controversial yet realistic storylines has sometimes led to the programme coming into conflict with the regulator, Ofcom, for broadcasting certain harrowing scenes before the 9.00pm watershed.
As EastEnders reaches middle age, there’s no sign of it slowing down. The anniversary promises to be eventful and engaging, featuring a live episode. And there will always be a place for relatable storylines, drama, passion and characters that we can love and hate. Happy Birthday EastEnders and here’s to the next 40 years. Läs mer…