History Series / EastEnders

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In January 2020, abusive husband Gray Atkins reminds his wife to put the cutlery in the dishwasher pointy-side up, as it won't be cleaned otherwise. In September 2020, as Chantelle plans to finally leave him, Gray pushes her... into the open dishwasher, [[HumanPincushion loaded with cutlery that's pointy-side up]], resulting in her death.

*** Zainab ''herself'' nearly fell victim to this at the ''same time'': her son Tamwar (Afia's husband) didn't realize Afia was safe, and ran in after her as well. Unlike Yusef, he ''did'' make it out, but was burned quite badly.
** Trevor doused his and Little Mo's house in petrol and threatened to set it alight. When it did catch fire, Little Mo escaped but Trevor perished.
** In September 2017 Steven Beale traps Jane inside the Beale's restaurant and sets it alight as part of Max Branning's {{Revenge}} plot. When Abi rushes in looking for Lauren and is knocked unconscious by falling debris, Steven goes in and rescues her and then goes back in to look for Lauren (who isn't actually in there). Abi and Jane survive, but Steven succumbs to smoke inhalation. [[RunningGag You'd think people would realize by now that]] KillItWithFire doesn't work in Walford...

** Done deliberately straight with Danielle and Ronnie.
** And before that, Sharon and Dennis.

** Louise believing known trouble makers Alex and Madison over Bex and Travis after the former frame Travis for spiking her drinks.

* IncestSubtext: It's implied that Den had a little too much affection for his "Princess" Sharon. As one of the writers put it, "The love of his life was Sharon. You just had this feeling that he thought he was the only person good enough for her, but she was his daughter. It was a weird relationship."

** Despite being an overweight, bald, red-faced alcoholic thug, Phil Mitchell has wracked up five wives and an improbable number of glamorous girlfriends and short-term partners.

** The 25th Anniversary episode.

* LondonGangster: "The Firm". ''Truth in Television'' in that Barbara Windsor was, at one time, married to Ronnie Knight, an associate of the Kray Twins. Jaime Foreman (Derek Branning) is the son of another Kray associate.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Spencer Moon was hastily written out after actor Chris Parker attempted suicide. Similarly, the actor playing Gavin Sharp was abruptly axed so Gavin's storyline was wrapped up with a throwaway line of dialogue.

* RecursiveCanon: In 2010, Dot Branning mentions being a fan of the soap opera Coronation Street. But in 2021 it is revealed that Coronation Street (along with other soap operas) share the same universe with EastEnders, so Coronation Street is both a real and fictional location in EastEnders.

** Yusef Khan's entire tenure on the show can be considered this as almost all of his actions (especially those that directly and indirectly effected Zainab, Masood and their family) are to get back together with Zainab and (if December 2011 is any evidence) attempt to remain with her utilising fear and violence. Ultimately his intimidation tactics proved to be his undoing but briefly it looked as if his money left to Zainab would tear apart the family yet again. However, despite all this, not only have the Masood family reunited but they appear to be stronger then ever.
** Matthew Rose had an absolutely ''epic'' one after Steve Owen successfully framed him for the murder of Saskia Duncan. After Matthew was exonerated and freed, he began stalking Steve, trashing his flat and graffitiing "Dead Man Walking" on his front door. Finally, he confronted Steve in his club, demanding money, and when Steve refused, Matthew showed him a tape of him planting lightbulb bombs in Steve's flat, which would explode when Steve's sister turned the lights on. Steve then pulled a gun on Matthew, but [[CrazyPrepared Matthew had already emptied the gun beforehand]] and knocked Steve unconscious with a glass bottle. When Steve woke up, he was tied to a chair and Matthew was pouring what seemed to be petrol all over the club, threatening to set it alight. Steve was quickly reduced to a gibbering wreck, helplessly begging for mercy, at which point Matthew revealed that the "petrol" was actually water, the tape of him planting the lightbulb bombs was fake, and that all he really wanted was to see Steve grovel. Having accomplished that, Matthew left the Square for good. ''[[Awesome/EastEnders Wow]]''.
** [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted with Max Branning's hyped return to the Square on Christmas Day 2016. Initially he seemed uninterested in getting revenge on those behind his false imprisonment, but it turns out he's working with a developer named Weyland & Co who are looking to redevelop the Square (which includes buying out many of its iconic buildings and tearing them down). He also corrupts Steven into trying to kill Jane; she survives, but Steven dies.]]

** ''[=EastEnders=] E20'', a YoungerAndHipper spin-off that aired online between 2010 and 2011. Several characters from the main show made cameos in ''E20'' and vice versa, with Fatboy proving popular enough to [[CanonImmigrant to be promoted to the main show permamently]].

* TangledFamilyTree: The huge Branning-Jackson clan and the Mitchells as well. The fact that Jack Branning has managed to impregnate sisters Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell AND their cousin Sam Mitchell, must make things even worse! Through blood, marriage, and adoption, Big Mo and Little Tiffany are related to about 70% of the other characters.

*** There are only three place names in England; Walford, Up West and Manchester (from where no-one ever returns).
*** No-one ever talks about sport, least of all football; ''Big Impression'' had a long sketch in which someone actually tried this in the Queen Vic and was met with blank incomprehension.[[note]]This isn't ''entirely'' true; a few characters are shown to be [[UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague West Ham]] fans, and on one occasion when they were promoted to the Premier League, an episode shortly afterwards had a hastily-inserted scene in which a character celebrated said promotion.[[/note]]
*** They did once have a football team (the rather imaginatively named Walford F.C), but once the writers had finished putting one of the players through the TraumaCongaLine, it quietly disappeared and has never been seen or heard of since.

* TemptingFate: Someone swearing on another person's life that they're not lying when they actually are usually results that person dying sooner or later.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Subverted at times, when they insert fake spoilers into their trailers to throw fans off the scent.

* TroubledAbuser: Most characters involved in a DomesticAbuse story line were likely the victim of one somewhere down the line too. The Mitchells in particular have a long history of parental abuse.

** 1985: 16 year old Michelle Fowler falls pregnant and refuses to reveal the father's identity. One day she asks to meet him by the canal, and the audience discovers it's [[spoiler:Den Watts, father of Sharon; Michelle's best friend. He earns the nickame Dirty Den to the public.]]
** 2001: Notorious hardman Phil Mitchell gets shot on his doorstep in a drunken stupor. He recovers however, and months later confronts his shooter, [[spoiler:his ex-girlfriend Lisa Shaw.]]
** 2009: Heather Trott falls pregnant to a mystery man. At the baby's birth, the father is revealed to be [[spoiler:Darren Miller - more than 20 years her senior.]]
** 2009-10: Villainous Archie Mitchell has the Queen Vic bust dropped on him and dies. On the first-ever live episode, Bradley Branning falls off the Queen Vic roof and in response [[spoiler:Stacey Branning tearfully confesses.]]

** 2020: Ian Beale was attacked at the Queen Vic, but survived. The attacker turns out to be [[spoiler:Phil Mitchell, who conspired with Sharon Watts, to avenge the death of Sharon's son Dennis.]]

''[=EastEnders=]'' is a popular SoapOpera on Creator/TheBBC, created as a competitor to Creator/{{ITV}}'s ''Series/CoronationStreet''. Since 1985, it has followed the lives of the inhabitants of Walford, a fictional district in the East End of London. Renowned for the absolute misery it inflicts on the characters. Their TwistedChristmas [[ChristmasEpisode episodes are particularly depressing]] and it is not unknown for characters to die alone in the snow on Christmas. Which is why it's a jinx to say "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet This is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had]]."

* {{Flashforward}}: In February 2023, an episode ended with a flashforward to Christmas that year with Stacey, Suki, Linda, Sharon, Denise and Kathy in the Queen Vic standing over the body of a then unidentified man that one or more of them had just killed.

* {{Flashforward}}: In February 2023, an episode ended with a flashforward to Christmas that year with Stacey, Suki, Linda, Sharon, Denise and Kathy standing over the body of a then unidentified man that one or more of them had just killed.

* DomesticAbuse: Several storylines have focused on this. The early 2000s saw a notable one between "Little Mo" Mitchell and her husband Trevor, which resulted with Mo being sent to jail when she finally tried to defend herself by hitting Trevor over the head with an iron. She's sent to prison for eight years and Trevor begins a new life with another woman, who he also beats, to the point where she's taken to hospital. Eventually he agrees to take back his statement about Mo attempting to kill him if said woman agrees not to take the abuse to the police. In November 2002, Trevor tried to get Little Mo back after she began dating another man where she stood up to him again, berated him and demanded he hit her because she wasn't going to cower to him anymore. He threatens to burn down the house but Mo lights the match instead because "he doesn't have the guts". They struggle, the match is dropped and Trevor burns to death (Little Mo escapes).

* FootballHooligans: A gang of them, run by vicious gangster Terry Bates, appeared as recurring villains between 2007 and 2009. In a heated discussion with Jase, who used to be a member of the gang, Minty reminds him of the real-life Heysel and Hillsborough disasters[[note]]this courted controversy as the line was misinterpreted as suggesting that Hillsborough was ''caused'' by hooliganism, a long-debunked theory and a ''gigantic'' BerserkButton for the entire city of Liverpool. What Minty was actually referring to was that the catch fencing at Hillsborough, against which 97 Liverpool fans were fatally crushed, had been erected as an anti-hooliganism measure in the wake of the Heysel disaster[[note]].

** After saving Janine and Linda from drowning, Mick Carter supposedly drowned himself, but with no body found it's left open whether he's really dead or could return later.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: "Walford" is a fictional district in inner East London, although the name appears to be a portmanteau of Walthamstow and Ilford, both of which are a bit further out than that. On in-universe Tube maps, Walford East station is placed on the District Line, replacing Bromley-by-Bow, which is the right kind of area. The postal code for Walford is depicted as "E20", which was non-existent when the show first began but has since been brought into use for the redevelopment area in Stratford where the 2012 Olympic Games were held.

** Mark Fowler. Justified and invoked: he was HIV-positive, and didn't want his family and friends to watch him slowly die of AIDS.
** Kathy and her death to bring in Ben Mitchell. [[spoiler: Subverted as of February 2015.]]
** After being sentenced to life in prison for the violent murder of Jase Dyer, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Terry Bates would never appear on the show again. But in 2019, he did... [[BackForTheDead as a corpse]] being brought to the Coker & Mitchell Funeral Directors. The kicker? The parlour's manager was none other than ''Jase's son Jay'', who understandable refused to bury his father's murderer. He only relented after realising that Terry's wife Viv no longer recognised him, and therefore didn't understand what he was so upset about.

** Steve Owen, trapped in a burning car, shouted for "PHIL!!" to save him just before the car blew up and killed him.

* SmokingIsCool: It's pretty amazing that Dot Cotton hasn't keeled over yet considering how much she smokes.

* PositiveDiscrimination: Averted with Donna Yates. She's disabled, but she can be just as much of a JerkAss as her rivals Bianca and Kat.

* DumbBlonde: Jodie Gold takes this UpToEleven.

* TeenPregnancy: Loads. Sonia Jackson, Kat Slater, Lucy Beale, Lisa O'Brien, and Demi Miller to name but a few. Demi took it UpToEleven by being just ''thirteen'' when the child was conceived. Michelle Fowler was the UrExample. The resultant child, Vicki, ended up in the same situation herself, but opted for an abortion.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Obviously.

->''"[=EastEnders=] is so unlike the actual East End that it may as well be set in [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. The real East End has got Hawksmoor churches and fashionable nightclubs and a thriving Bangladeshi community; Walford's just got Keith Miller swabbing windows with a rag on a stick."''

->''[=EastEnders=] is so unlike the actual East End that it may as well be set in [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. The real East End has got Hawksmoor churches and fashionable nightclubs and a thriving Bangladeshi community; Walford's just got Keith Miller swabbing windows with a rag on a stick.''
-->--'''Creator/CharlieBrooker'''