In Praise of EastEnders
The Lilian and Benjamin Levy Award
Awarded to the best review by an undergraduate student of a current play, film, music release, book, or performance
Winner: Matt Shadbolt, “In Praise of EastEnders”
Contest judge Anthony DeCurtis writes: In “In Praise of EastEnders,” Matt Shadbolt takes a loving look at the soap opera that is one of the longest running dramas on British television. His writing is spirited, incisive and sweet, perfectly expressive of how a favorite show can instruct our hearts as well as our minds, can offer life lessons as well as a welcome break from the pressures of everyday. EastEnders has run for thirty-seven years, and this rich discussion of it demonstrates why it's unlikely to end anytime soon.
For almost as far back as I can remember, I always loved EastEnders.
Weighing in at over 6,000 episodes so far, the BBC soap opera set in Albert Square, Walford, a fictional neighborhood in East London, is one of the longest-running dramas on British television, with a fanatical, devoted fanbase. I’m proud to count myself as one of the Walford faithful.
The first ever episode aired on February 19, 1985, and I was there when it happened. Since then, the subsequent 36 years have seen many of the standard tropes of soap opera fare. Births, deaths, marriages, affairs, murders, betrayals, drug abuse, arrivals, departures, and an ever-expanding cast of characters. Families, just like real communities, have come and gone. The 30-minute episodes air three, sometimes four times a week, and after a long time in the ‘you can’t watch this because you live in America now’ soap wilderness, I picked the show back up last year via BritBox, who now carries the show at the same cadence it airs in the UK. Now I can watch the latest episodes on demand at exactly the same time as I used to.
Which I do. Every day. At 5pm.
Over the years I’ve been fiercely protective of my EastEnders’ viewing habits. Refusing to take phone calls, declining invitations to hang out, and on several occasions, giving friends the ‘it’s not you it’s me’ speech as we broke up over it. Spending time with the residents of Albert Square each night not only allows me an often necessary release from the work day, but it’s also a contributor to my mental wellbeing. I simply feel better after watching EastEnders, and feel worse when I’m ‘behind’. It leaves a gap in my day. No-one else I know watches it, so there’s no FOMO or spoilers in the works, I’m just competing alone on this one, and watching the show simply makes me feel more like me. It’s very often the best part of my day.
Over the years there’s been some incredible storylines, many of which take years to sufficiently percolate and explode into dramatic confrontations and conclusions. As I picked the show back up again last year after around fifteen years away, I found the stories are just as good, although it’s a little depressing that many of the characters I used to watch are, like me, now fathers, and in some instances given the accelerated sense of time that seems to happen inside of soaps, grandfathers. There are even a handful of the original actors left from 1985. There was enough familiarity with who remained for me to be able to piece together the melodramatic puzzle of what I’d missed, and jump back in to tremendous effect. I’ve also retained some of my protectiveness around watching every day too - I refuse to accept work meetings after 5pm for example. That is when ‘I’m watching my stories’.
Some of my favorite storylines have included inter-family feuding between brothers, murder and subsequent (failed, of course) cover-ups, affairs, and many of the social justice issues the show has been fearless in tackling. EastEnders was one of the first shows to open speak about HIV and what it meant to live with the diagnosis in the eighties. It was one of the first to show a gay kiss on British television. And currently it continues to push against the social stigmas of mental illness, eating disorders, poverty, the inability to conceive, disability, sexuality and the role of race, religion and gender in the workplace. Every year the holidays guarantee a heightened seasonal dramatic tension within the show, with the Christmas Day episode, which airs right after the Queen’s speech, often attracting some of the BBC’s biggest viewing figures of the year.
The current batch of storylines involves police corruption, mental illness, unwanted pregnancy, epilepsy, gang violence and the pressures of social media and body image on the young. Each episode expertly moves between and across the intricately interwoven storylines, sometimes converging, sometimes diverging. And through it all is a strong sense of community, family, and trying to do the right thing. It holds a mirror up to ourselves, and isn’t afraid to ask the difficult, uncomfortable questions. There’s all the elements you’d expect from a soap opera. The characters you love to hate, the ones you root for, despite their weaknesses, and the ones that just can’t seem to help themselves. It’s not all bad though. It consciously lightens the dramatic mood with comedic levity, and is often the funniest thing you’ll watch all day. EastEnders ebbs and flows in story quality, and there’s certainly been some lean years, but as a routine for millions of Brits across the world, it brings a familiar sense of home and grounding into our lives with every episode.
The central character is, and always has been, the Queen Victoria pub. Its landlords and landladies have seen fights, showdowns, shocking reveals and thousands of pints downed. It’s the axis around which the world of EastEnders rotates, and there is rarely an episode without a scene set there. It’s the archetypal London pub. A little rough round the edges, wise-cracking but often troubled bar staff, a solid jukebox, everything served with potato chips, and a rich ‘upstairs’ life from the family that lives above. The Queen Vic has seen murder, arson, adultery and some of the most famous characters ever to feature in the show pass through its doors. The Queen Vic is, after all is said, home.
Equally iconic is the opening drumbeat (or ‘doofs’ as they are called locally in the UK) of the title sequence, which is also repeated to incredible effect at the end of every episode. It signals ‘this is starting’, but also ‘there’s a lot more to come in the next episode’. It’s often accompanied by something awful happening. It heightens the cliffhangers, elevates the sense of drama, and tells us ‘don’t forget to tune in next time’, all in eight deliberate beats. Exactly how many doofs there are at the end of an episode is a common pub conversation.
I’ve tried several times to get others into EastEnders. Most are fiercely resistant. The most common answer being ‘why would I start watching something I know nothing about, and that never ends?’ It’s a fair point. The language can often be impenetrable, the references incredibly culturally-specific, and of course there’s also the legacy of the show’s history itself to contend with. Some of the grievances go back decades, some of the language even further. But through it all there’s a universality to the show in weaving drama around what’s important in life. Love, family, community, a sense of belonging, the need to protect, and a desire to have what’s best in life for you and those around you.
Interested in the ultimate binge? Here’s the math. At the time of writing, there’s been 6,312 episodes. If you were to watch from the beginning for 8 hours a day, you’d be able to get through 16 episodes. So from the beginning it’d take you 394 days, without any breaks, just to reach the point at which I’m writing this. Then of course you’d still be behind because there would have been another 168 episodes (or another 10 days) that would have aired while you were catching up.
Consistently one of the most popular shows in the UK, and definitely the most popular show in my head, for me EastEnders acts as a fulcrum around which the stresses of the day melt away, and the downtime of the evenings begin. It signals the transition from professional to personal, from work to play, and perhaps most importantly, from elsewhere to home. I look forward to many more years together.
EastEnders streams new episodes three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on BritBox.
