Trivia / EastEnders

• Acting in the Dark:
  • During the affair storyline between Stacey Slater and Max Branning, Jo Joyner (who plays Max's wife Tanya) did not read any parts of the EastEnders scripts other than her own, as she felt her acting was improved by not knowing what Max did behind Tanya's back, and because she felt that she could better justify to herself why Tanya would not suspect Max of cheating if she in reality did not know what he was getting up to.
  • For the special live episode in 2010 where Stacey Slater was revealed to be Archie Mitchell's murderer, none of the cast knew who the killer was and Stacey's actress Lacey Turner was only told half an hour before broadcast (they had rehearsed ten different endings — you can see the dummy ones here — and everyone required to shoot the real ending was informed at the same time). There's footage of the rest of the cast watching The Reveal live and reacting with shock.
• Actor Leaves, Character Dies:
  • Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) left the show when his contract was due to expire, 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 McCutcheon 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.
  • Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell were both killed off when Samantha Womack and Rita Simons left the series.
• Alan Smithee: 54 episodes of the show between 1998 and 2018 have "Julia Honour" credited as the writer. This is a pseudonym used whenever a script is deemed so poor as to be unusable, and a member of the editorial team has to take over and rewrite it from scratch. The name is taken from series co-creator Julia Smith, the idea being that they were protecting "Julia's honour" by rewriting the unsalvageable script.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • The character of Stacey Slater was created especially for Lacey Turner after she auditioned to play Demi Miller.
  • Michelle Collins, who portrayed Cindy Beale, previously auditioned for the role of Mary Smith.
  • Derek Martin, who played Charlie Slater, had got down to the last five for Den Watts when the series started but Julia Smith told him he wasn't "a ladies' man". He was also in the running to play Frank Butcher but was committed to another series, King & Castle, instead.
  • Nigel Harman revealed in a 2003 interview that he actually auditioned for a character called "Tim", and had no idea that he was set to join the Watts family as Dennis Rickman, the unknown son of the soap's most "iconic" figure, Den Watts.
  • Leslie Grantham auditioned for the role of market trader Pete Beale, but he was offered the part of Den Watts.
• The Character Died with Him:
  • 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".
  • Long-serving actress June Brown left the show in early 2020, and after she passed away in April 2022, it was swiftly confirmed that her character Dot Cotton would also be killed off and given a grand funeral in her honour.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Barbara Windsor was opposed to the storyline which saw her character Peggy mount a hate campaign against Mark Fowler for being HIV positive. She later claimed:
    [Peggy] was vicious to [Mark]. She was so naïve about the whole thing. When I got the script and it said some awful things, I couldn't believe it. It's the only time I've questioned the writers and said "I can't believe it, people aren't like that today". Then they sent me a survey and proved that people are actually like that. When it came to doing the scenes, I just got hold of Todd [Carty] and said, "sorry this is Peggy!" 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.
  • Martine McCutcheon was not happy with the 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.
• Costume Backlash: Wendy Richard wasn't happy about having to cut her hair short to play Pauline Fowler; she had been growing her hair out for the last nineteen years. She claimed that she cried her eyes out for the rest of the day after it was cut.
• Dawson Casting: The E20 Gang. Sam Attwater who plays Leon is 24. Poppy, who at a guess is 21/22 is played by Rachel Bright, who is 29 as of June 2013 and Shivani Ghai, who played the 23-24 year old Ayesha was according to reports born in 1975, making her 37/38. Wikipedia however now has her age as a slightly younger 31/32.
  • 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.
• Distanced from Current Events:
  • 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.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Jill Halfpenny really did have her own hair chopped off for the scene where Chrissie cuts Kate's hair in revenge.
• Fake American: 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 been moved over there with mother Michelle. The actress playing her was not American, and had put on an awful accent. At some point, somebody realised this, and 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.
• Fake Nationality: More like Fake ethnicity. But this happens frequently with most of the British Asian cast.
  • The Jeffrey/Karim extended family are Bangladeshi Muslims. Saeed Jeffrey ^note  stated to be a quarter English three quarter Bangladeshi ethnically 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
  • Averted with the Osman family. Ali, Mehmet and Ayse are portrayed by Turkish Cypriot actors.
  • The unpopular Ferreira family are stated to be irreligous Indian Christians of Goan ethnicity. Majority of them are portrayed by Indians from a Hindu background but none with Goan heritage. Dalip Tahil (Dan Derreira) is a Sindhi Hindu, Madhur Jaffrey (Pushpa) is Madhur Kayasthar Hindu, Pooja Shah (Kareena) is an Indian Hindu of Gujurati ethnicity, Ray Panthaki (Ronny) is a Indian Zoroaatrian of Parsi ethnicity. Ameet Chana (Adi) and Raji James (Ash) are both Indians but not specifically Goan. Nabil Elouahabi falls under fake mixed raced after its revealed Tariq is their half brother making him half Indian Goan half Moroccon. Elouahabi is only Moroccan.
  • Most of the British Pakistani Masood/Ahmed family are played by British Indians with Marc Elliott (Syed) being of Anglo-Indian and Scottish descent, Himesh Patel (Tamwar) and Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed) being of Gujarati Indian descent and Nina Wadia (Zainab) being of Parsi Indian descent. Shabnam's actress Zahra Ahmadi is Iranian and Muslim. Her second actress Rakhee Thakrah is an Indian Hindu.
  • Zig Zagged with Kush and his family. Davood Ghadami is Half Iranian half English like Kush. His brother Shaki is portrayed by Shaheen Jafargholi who is half Welsh half Iranian. His other brother Darius is portrayed by Ash Kizi who is half Irish half Iranian. Their father plays it straight as fully Iranian Umar is portrayed by Anglo-Sri-Lankan Selva Rasinglam.
  • Averted for the majority of the Punjabi Sikh family the Panesars. Nearly all of their actors are from a Punjabi family. With Davinder "Nugget" Gulati's actor being the sole exception. Juhaim Rasul Choudhury is Indian of Assamese ethnicity.
• Gay Panic: The Sun ran a headline "It's East Benders!" after two males kissed on the show.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Tony Jordan claimed that Mike Reid was the only cast member he ever allowed to change their dialogue, as his Cockney slang was more authentic.
• Hey, It's That Place!: While still under construction, the Albert Square set doubled as the Dusseldorf construction site employing the main characters in the first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
• Hostility on the Set: Maggie O'Neill was removed from the show only months into her contract due to reported extensive conflict with co-stars, namely Samantha Womack (who played Ronnie Mitchell) and Robert Kazinsky (who played Sean Slater). Some of the stories meant to have included 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 for Danielle to be killed by a car: Suzy was originally meant to be driving the car, but after Maggie's sacking, it was changed to Janine Butcher.
• The Other Darrin: Mark, Martin, Sam, Peggy, Steven, Peter, Lucy, Janine, Lauren, Ben, Lucy again...
  • Todd Carty took over the role of Mark Fowler after the original actor, David Scarboro, committed suicide.
  • 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 four years away, she was portrayed by Westbrook, who had finally kicked her addictions and would reprise her role in 2016 following her mother's death but wouldn't return to reprise her role when the character returned in 2022 with Medcalf once again returning to the role.
  • In one of the most bizarre examples of this trope, the producers wanted more ethnic characters in the soap... and so replaced Janine Butcher's original actress, Rebecca Michaels (who was White British) with Alexa Demetriou (who was Southern European). She was restored to her former ethnicity when Demetriou was in turn replaced by Charlie Brooks.
  • Ben Mitchell is currently on his fourth incarnation...
• The Other Marty: Barbara Windsor was fourth choice for Peggy Mitchell. The first choice was booked but never filmed any material. The second choice taped eight episodes that were never broadcast.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Mike Reid (Frank Butcher) was best known in the UK as a stand-up comedian.
  • Barbara Windsor was best known for her comedic roles, most notably the Carry On series.
  • Other comedic actors who appeared on the show include Bradley Walsh, Shane Richie, Bobby Davro, and Les Dennis.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: John Partridge, like his character Christian, is openly gay in real life.
  • Ditto for Michael Cashman, who played Colin Russell, one of the soap's first gay characters.
• Reality Subtext: One reason Frank Butcher was Put on a Bus was that Mike Reid was unhappy with the depressing storylines he was given. The depression one really hit him, as he had gone through some hardship in his personal life.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
  • Melissa Suffield (Lucy Beale) got sacked after being caught going into London nightclubs while underage and getting unruly drunk. Her rather colorful social network sites might also have had something to do with it. The character was eventually reinstated with a new actress.
  • Rob Kazinsky (Sean Slater) got a temporary ban for sending photos of his nude self around.
  • Leslie Grantham ("Dirty" Den Watts) narrowly evaded this at the start when it was revealed that the actor had served a "life" sentence (paroled after ten years) for murder. The BBC stood by him, arguing that he'd learnt his lesson and every former criminal deserves rehabilitation, and he lasted several years on the show before leaving of his own volition. (The fact that he was playing a villainous, semi-criminal character rather than any kind of role model also may have helped.) However, he did suffer this at the end of his second stint as a regular character on the show, forced to quit after Internet footage was released of him performing indecent acts in front of a webcam for what he thought was a single-person audience.
  • Zigzagged by Danniella Westbrook (Sam Mitchell). In 1996 her character was axed from the show due to the controversy surrounding Westbrook's cocaine addiction. However, she returned to the role in 1999... only to be axed again the following year after her continued addiction completely eroded her septum. Sam was brought back again in 2002, with Kim Medcalf in the role, then written out in 2005. When the character returned briefly in 2009-10 and 2016, Westbrook, who had by now cleaned up her act and had reconstructive surgery on her nose, was handed the role back.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: The Mitchell brothers.
• Tough Act to Follow: This is the reason Joe Absolom, who played Matthew Rose, left the show: he thought the storyline surrounding the murder of Saskia Duncan, for which Matthew was framed, was so good that he wouldn't be able to top it.
• Uncredited Role: At one point circa 1988, some of the cast of 'Allo 'Allo! snuck onto the Queen Vic set and tried to pass themselves off as extras. Kim Hartman ended up getting them caught when she asked for her extra's motivation, however, John D. Collins managed to stick around and remained in the final episode, leading to him being pointed out in the tabloids for his sneaky cameo.
• Wag the Director:
  • June Brown, who played Dot Cotton, was every bit as much a devout Christian in real-life as Dot was on the show. For this reason, she refused 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.
  • During Wendy Richard's early years, she was given a script in which Pauline Fowler launched into a tirade against Margaret Thatcher. Being a staunch supporter of the Conservatives, she refused to perform it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before it was decided Bobby Beale was Lucy's killer, other culprits considered were Jane and Cindy. The Cokers were also a possibility; a remnant of this was that they remained on the official list of suspects despite not really doing enough to warrant it.
  • Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden were interested in a Spin-Off about the Mitchell brothers.
  • Emma Bunton auditioned for Bianca Jackson.
  • Joanna Lumley was considered for Chrissie Watts.
  • 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 in which 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.
  • Den, Angie and Sharon were originally going to be called Jack, Pearl and Tracy.
  • Morrissey was once offered a guest role, but turned it down.
    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 Out of Character 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.
  • Before Stacey was ultimately revealed to be Archie's killer, the writers originally planned for his wife Peggy to be the one who committed the crime, but it was changed when Barbara Windsor decided to leave, as confirmed by scriptwriter Simon Ashdown.
    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 Ratings Stunt. Needless to say, McCutcheon was not happy about this decision.
  • Aidan Brosnan was originally meant to kill himself in one 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 talked out of it, and Aidan left the Square in slightly happier circumstances soon afterwards.
• Working Title: Square Dance, Round the Square, Round the Houses, London Pride and East 8.
• Write Who You Know:
  • Tony Holland created the Beale and Fowler family, drawing on his own background. His mother, Ethel Holland, was one of four sisters raised in Walthamstow. Her eldest sister, Lou, had married a man named Albert Beale and had two children, named Peter and Pauline. These family members were the basis for Lou Beale, Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler.
  • 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.
• Written-In Infirmity:
  • When Jim Branning's actor John Bardon suffered a stroke in 2007, he was written out of the show while Bardon recovered, with it being established that Jim had also suffered a stroke. The effects of the stroke (on both Bardon and Branning) were quite evident in Jim's subsequent storylines.
  • After June Brown started to lose her eyesight in 2015, a storyline was written in 2016 involving her character Dot Cotton beginning to lose her eyesight as well.
  • Sal is seen walking with a frame during Peggy's funeral, as Anna Karen had a bad fall.

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