History Trivia / Eastenders

** The Jeffrey/Karim extended family are Bangladeshi Muslims. Saeed Jeffrey [[note]] stated to a quarter English ethnically [[/note]] is portrayed by Anglo-Indian Andrew Johnson. Naima Jeffrey is portayed by Hindu Indian Bengali Shreela Ghosh. Ashraf Karim is portrayed by Afghan Muslim Aftab Sachak whilst his wife and daughter Sufia and Shireen are played by Rani Singh and Nisha Kapur who are Indians of Punjabi descent. His son Sohail is portrayed by Anglo-Indian Ronnie Jhutti

** Most of the British Pakistani Masood/Ahmed family are played by British Indians with Marc Elliott (Syed) being of Anglo-Indian descent, Himesh Patel (Tamwar) and Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed) being of Gujarati Indian descent and Nina Wadia (Zainab) being of Parsi Indian descent.
** Zig Zagged with Kush and his family. Davood Ghadami is Half Iranian half English like Kush. His fathrr Umar Kazemi is

* FakeNationality: Most of the British Pakistani Masood/Ahmed family are played by British Indians with Marc Elliott (Syed) being of Anglo-Indian descent, Himesh Patel (Tamwar) and Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed) being of Gujarati Indian descent and Nina Wadia (Zainab) being of Parsi Indian descent.

** Subverted with Wendy Richard, who by the time the show began was over 40 and had been acting for over 25 years, and took the role of Pauling Fowler specifically because she was tired of playing younger, "glamorous" characters.

** During Wendy Richard's early years, she was given a script in which Pauline Fowler launched into a tirade against UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher. Being a staunch supporter of the Conservatives, she refused to perform it.

** Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) left the show when his contract was due to terminate - as he had not appreciated the director and script writers wanting his character to become a drug dealer. He therefore departed from the show and his exit featured the character getting killed off by his gangland boss Andy Hunter.
** Tiffany Mitchell was killed off when Martine [=McCutheon=] left the show in order to embark on a pop career. Since leaving the show, she has publicly slammed the BBC's "Controller of Continuing Drama Series", Mal Young, who made the decision to kill her character, accusing him of treating her unfairly and bringing her role in the soap to an end so irrevocably, merely as punishment for leaving. In turn, Young has hit back at [=McCutcheon=], saying her anger only arose because she wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a "safety net", in case her pop career failed, and he was not prepared to do this.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: When Mike Reid died in 2007, it was revealed that Frank Butcher died at Diane's home in France of throat cancer. His body is brought to Walford to be cremated. Following the funeral, Frank's ashes are scattered in Albert Square's flowerbeds. A heartbroken Pat orders a commemorative plaque dedicated to Frank and has it mounted in Albert Square, it reads "Frank Butcher 1940-2008, Husband, Father, Pilchard".

** Averted with Michelle Ryan, who was 16 when she was cast as the 16-year-old Zoe Slater.
** Subverted with Wendy Richard, who by the time of this series was over 40 and had been acting for over 25 years, took the role specifically because she was tired of playing younger, "glamorous" characters.

* GayPanic: ''The Sun'' ran a headline ''It's East Benders!'' after two males kissed on the show.
* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: Tony Jordan claimed that Mike Reid was the only castmember he ever allowed to change their dialogue, as his cockney sland was more authentic.

* HostilityOnTheSet: Maggie O'Neill was removed from the show only months into her contract due to reported extensive conflict with costars namely Samantha Womack who plays Ronnie Mitchell and Robert Kazinsky who played Sean Slater. Some of the stories meant to be including her character, Suzy Branning, had to be re-written such as the storyline in which Ronnie Mitchell finally finds out that her daughter Danielle Jones is still alive only to be killed by a car accident in which Suzy was originally meant to be driving the car until it was later changed to Janine Butcher being the driver.

* TheOtherDarrin: Mark, Martin, Sam, Peggy, Steven, Peter, Lucy, Janine, [[spoiler: Lauren, Ben, Lucy again]])

** Kim Medcalf replaced Danniella Westbrook as Sam Mitchell, after the latter was involved in a number of drug incidents. In 2009 when Sam was reintroduced again after 4 years away, she was portrayed by Westbrook, who had finally kicked her addictions.

** Other comedic actors who appeared on the show were Bradley Walsh, Shane Richie, Bobby Davro and Les Dennis.

* ToughActToFollow: This is the reason Joe Absolom, who played Matthew Rose, left the show: he thought the storyline surrounding the murder of Saskia Duncan was so good that he wouldn't be able to top it.

** June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton is every bit as much a devout Christian in real-life as Dot is on the show. For this reason, she refuses to say anything that might be considered blasphemous, or have Dot do anything un-Christian. Additionally, she forced the writers to add scenes showing Dot celebrating lesser-known Christian holidays such as Maundy Thursday, which she collected charity money for -- though this being ''[=EastEnders=]'', she was promptly mugged and the money stolen.

** Originally it had been planned for Chrissie Watts' trial for the murder of her husband Den to be screened. However the idea was scrapped because the actresses Tracy Ann Oberman (Chrissie Watts), Kim Medcalf (Sam Mitchell) and Michelle Ryan (Zoe Slater) had all moved on to other projects.
** Following the decision of Natalie Cassidy to leave the character of Sonia Fowler in 2007, it was originally planned for her on-screen former husband, Martin Fowler to murder her after failing to come to terms with her new lesbian relationship. In the end scriptwriters decided to reconcile the couple and have them leave together.
** Originally there was a storyline written that the whole Ferreira clan killed their pushy father Dan, but actor Dalip Tahil could not get a visa for working in the UK, so the storyline was scrapped and instead Ronny Ferreira got stabbed.

--> I was invited to be Dot Cotton's other son, a mysterious son no one had ever spoken about, who returns to the Square, doesn't get involved with anybody and doesn't immediately have sex with anybody as most characters who come into the Square do.
** Nick was originally going to have an affair with Lofty Holloway but Nick's actor John Altman objected to it, feeling it was OutOfCharacter for him, hence co-creator Julia Smith wrote him out as a result. June Brown, who played Nick's mother Dot said this in a 2011 interview with ''The Guardian'':
--> In the early days, we actors had no input. Julia was quite a taskmaster. When Nick was supposed to start a gay relationship with Lofty, John Altman told her he didn't feel it was in character. When he left the room, Julia said: 'Write him out!' They did.

--> We settled on Peggy, but then we found out that Barbara Windsor had decided to leave. Like most of these ideas it just appeared as a notion. We settled on Stacey. It gave us loads of story afterwards.
** Grant was originally going to rape his wife Tiffany during a Christmas related storyline in 1997 but Ross Kemp feared it would cause a major backlash and was livid about it to the point that he threatened to quit the show if it went through. Fortunately, it didn't go through and Kemp stayed on the show for two more years.
** Tiffany wasn't originally going to be killed off in her departing storyline as Martine [=McCutcheon=] planned to return to the soap in a future storyline but execs decided to kill her off as part of a RatingsStunt. Needless to say, [=McCutcheon=] was not happy about this decision.
** Aidan Brosnan was originally meant to kill himself in one [[TwistedChristmas Christmas]] episode, by throwing himself off a building, until someone released that even that was too ''depressing'' for [=EastEnders=]. The story was changed so that he attempted it instead, but was [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal talked out of it]], and character left the Square in slightly happier circumstances soon afterwards.

** Julia 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 a "face to rival a neon sign", holding a Yorkshire Terrier in one hand and a pint of Guinness in the other.
* WrittenInInfirmity: Sal is seen walking with a frame during Peggy's funeral, as Anna Karen had a bad fall.

** Martine [=McCutcheon=] was not happy with the [[ExecutiveMeddling decision]] to kill off her character Tiffany Mitchell after deciding to leave the soap to focus on her music career, as she planned to return to the soap in the near future. See [=McLeaned=] below for more details.

* McLeaned:
** Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) left the show when his contract was due to terminate - as he had not appreciated the director and script writers wanting his character to become a drug dealer. He therefore departed from the show and his exit featured the character getting killed off by his gangland boss Andy Hunter.
** Tiffany Mitchell was killed off when Martine [=McCutheon=] left the show in order to embark on a pop career. Since leaving the show, she has publicly slammed the BBC's "Controller of Continuing Drama Series", Mal Young, who made the decision to kill her character, accusing him of treating her unfairly and bringing her role in the soap to an end so irrevocably, merely as punishment for leaving. In turn, Young has hit back at [=McCutcheon=], saying her anger only arose because she wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a "safety net", in case her pop career failed, and he was not prepared to do this.
** [[spoiler:Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell were both killed off when Samantha Womack and Rita Simons left the series]].

* FanNickname:
** ''Easties'' - Shortened form of the show's title.
** With characters including 'Dirty' Den Watts, 'Nasty' Nick Cotton, Big and Little Mo Harris and Slater, Squeal Beale and 'Mad' May Wright.

** Tiffany wasn't originally going to be killed off in her departing storyline as Martine [=McCutcheon=] planned to return to the soap in a future storyline but execs decided to [[StuffedIntoTheFridge kill her off]] as part of a RatingsStunt. Needless to say, [=McCutcheon=] was not happy about this decision.

** Before it was decided [[spoiler: Bobby Beale]] was Lucy's killer, other culprits considered were [[spoiler: Jane]] and [[spoiler: Cindy]].

** For the special live episode in 2010 where Stacey Slater was revealed to be Archie Mitchell's murderer, none of the rest of the cast knew and Stacey's actress Lacey Turner was only told half an hour before broadcast. There's footage of the rest of the cast watching TheReveal live and reacting with shock.

* FakeAmerican: When the character of Vicki Fowler was first introduced she spoke with an American accent, having been brought up there since she was a baby, having moved over there with mother Michelle. The actress playing her was not American, and had put on an awful accent. At some point, someone decided to give it up as a bad job, and Vicki then spoke with her actress' normal London accent for the rest of her run.

* Ben Mitchell is currently on his ''fourth'' incarnation...

** Aidan Brosnan was originally meant to kill himself in one [[Twisted Christmas Christmas]] episode, by throwing himself off a building, until someone released that even that was too ''depressing'' for EastEnders. The story was changed so that he attempted it instead, but was [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal talked out of it]], and character left the Square in slightly happier circumstances soon afterwards.

* WagTheDirector: June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton is every bit as much a devout Christian in real-life as Dot is on the show. For this reason, she refuses to say anything that might be considered blasphemous, or have Dot do anything un-Christian. Additionally, she forced the writers to add scenes showing Dot celebrating lesser-known Christian holidays such as Maundy Thursday, which she collected charity money for -- though this being ''[=EastEnders=]'', she was promptly mugged and the money stolen.

** There have been two characters named Aidan (Brosnan and Maguire), who both appeared at different times. However once you consider that the former was played by [[Series/OnceUponATime Sean Maguire]], it makes the latter's name either completely unintentional or some kind of weird ShoutOut.

** Martine [=McCutcheon=] was not happy with the [[ExecutiveMeddlin decision]] to kill off her character Tiffany Mitchell after deciding to leave the soap to focus on her music career, as she planned to return to the soap in the near future. See [=McLeaned=] below for more details.

* McLeaned: Martine [=McCutcheon=] who played Tiffany Mitchell.
** [[spoiler: Samantha Womack and Rita Simons.]]

-->I got the most appalling hate mail because of it. I had a very dear friend of mine who was dying of AIDS so it was very personal to me. The last scene I did I went straight out and got terribly drunk.

* TooSoon:
** In May 2007 a storyline involving the kidnapping of the newborn baby of Dawn Swann was scrapped because of similarities to the much-publicised abduction of 4-year-old Madeleine [=McCann=] in the Algarve, Portugal on 3 May 2007.
** When the air date for a planned storyline about Lucas Johnson murdering a prostitute coincided with the high-profile murders of sex workers in Ipswich, the episodes were rewritten to have him kidnapping a random woman who survives.