In the year of 1985, one of today’s nations
favourite shows Eastenders hit the screens. It’s first episode, which aired on
Christmas day in 1986, attracted 17 million viewers. The popular show has had
countless landlord owners of The Queen Vic, many changing and familiar faces.
One character who is still a present actress in the show today is June Brown,
also known as Dot Cotton who joined the show in 1985. It follows 6 main
families and their daily occurances. Known for it’s cockney accents and
over-the-dop acting, the show has captured the nations hearts.
The storylines of Eastenders revolve around
many controversial subjects such as murders, sexual diseases, single teenage
mums, rape victims, homosexuals and abusive relationships. Another reason the
show is so popular is that the topics Eastenders base their stories on are
relatable situations for audiences watching at home.
Over the years the target audience has
changed vitally, particularly due to storylines matching relatable situations
for younger people such as teenagers. This is known as Personal Identity. An
example of this are the stories Eastenders have about ‘affairs’ and
relationship complications, which middle, working class and almost everyone can
relate too as they may have experienced similar events. A more positive example
is that they have storylines about marriages, births and birthdays; all happy
events that appeal to the older generation as they can relate to these happy
life events and it makes them feel happy in themselves. We become so connected
to characters on the show, that when one of them dies the audience becomes very
emotional and treat it like a real life loss. Eastenders becomes a diversion
for people.
Another
aspect of the show that has attracted a younger audience are the actors, the
‘bad boys’ of the show.
Young girls and boys create on-screen
relationships with the characters in the show, as well as when they are off
screen which creates a fan base for the actors. Eastenders appeals to those
aged 13 to 60. It appeals to the elderly, working and middle class, teenagers
etc. Another aspect that has allowed for a large target audience is the huge
amount of different social classes and cultures. This allows a wide range of
different people to connect with different characters in the programme.
The language that is used also allows for a
large audience. For example, the younger characters use ‘slang’ which then goes
on to appeal to the younger audience as they use the language themselves. There
is also a mix of more formal and literal language that is used which middle
class, elderly and working class viewers are able to understand the characters
better.
Many locations that are shown in the
programme are nightclubs, pubs, work environments, homes, restaurants, cafes,
high streets, churches, town halls etc. By having such a wide range of
different locations within the programme it allows a large range of different
people to associate with such places. This also makes the programme more realistic.
By having cafes and high streets as well as pubs it will allow people to relate
as the majority of viewers will be in the same environments often.
Some aspects of the show may serve as
gratification for the audience as they use the programme for their on reasons,
for example; eastenders always has and always will have a strong sense of
family which some viewers may be lacking or in other cases its possible that
they are more stay at home content individuals that are not around people all
the time.
To conclude, the soaps realistic characters
and urban identity create a background for the narrative, which is important to
be creative yet still capable of happening in real life; even though they
exaggerate storylines for entertainment values. Eastenders are known for their
dramatic cliff hangers, and build stories that will have no closure on the end
of episodes, as it intrigues the audience and makes us come back for more. The
need for information becomes obsessive to the audience. Eastenders include a
range of narrative themes, these being Love, Conflict, Sickness and Injury,
Skeletons in the closet, and Murders.
The codes and conventions have all fallen
together to form the perfect soap.
Christmas Day Special: The Review
Rounding off its 30th Birthday, a
record breaking 20-million viewers were gripped to their television screens in
Eastenders Live Week; an un-missable week of Albert Square drama. These figures
were the highest hitting figures in over four years and the most watched show
of 2015. The live week consisted of many different reveals and storylines, not
including the murder, we were exposed with the return of Kathy, Dot revealing
the truth about Nick Cotton, Kim going into labour and giving birth to her baby
girl Pearl live, and Dean Wick’s arson drama.
The most popular reveal being Lucy Beale’s murderer, a storyline that
has gripped the nation for months.
Eastenders included so many characters within
the investigation of Lucy Beales murder that it was driving viewers crazy as it
could have been anybody. Eastenders
filmed their episodes in such a way that it left you suspiciously addicted to
the storyline. Viewers gained an emotional attachment to the storyline. When we
went another night with no new information, we would be left frustrated and
impatient. When we finally started getting slight insights to new revealed
secrets, we would keep coming back for more.
The week of the murder reveal was based
around Ian and Janes wedding. Lucy beales murder story ran for almost a year.
This was not the first time Eastenders had used a similar plot.
The story was first bought to our screens
from one of Eastenders oldest family, The Beales. The last episode before Lucy
was murdered ended with an argument between her and Ian. The news soon arrives
and Ian’s door step that they’ve found a body and the likelihood of it being
his daughters is very high. The investigation of her murder begins. Characters
such as Lauren Branning, Peter Beale,
and Lola are faced with suspicion and the issue of introducing new
characters that plated a part in molding the story.
Eastenders filled these episodes with tricks
and surprises, lack of revealing information and emotional moments for the
characters who were all effected by Lucy’s death. Each episode showed the day of the murder in a different
perspective through flashbacks as major events happen in the square. These
flashback slowly unveiled the mystery ending in the final reveal on the last
two episodes done in the most dramatic way possible. This started with
Jane, ians newly wed wife, revealing that she played a helping hand in covering
up the murderer. The scene that left us gasping on our sofa’s and shocked to
the core was when Ian made a phonecall in the middle of the square to somebody
saying ‘I know you did it. I know you killed Lucy. Meet me back at the house’,
and then the episode ended. That scene was the ultimiate cliff hanger because
it became so real to the audience that we were finally, after all these months,
about the find out who killed Lucy Beale.
In the next episode it
went straight back to the same night Ian had made that phonecall and he was
shown in his home, facing and talking to somebody. The way it was filmed made
us frustrated yet excited, as we could see Ian talking to the murderer right before
our very eyes but we still had no idea who it was. After a 30 second silent
pause the camera’s finally cut to who Ian was talking too which turned out to
be Jane, Ians wife. The audience were astounded by this.
Whenever there is a
storyline like this, individuals from the audience whether they say it to
themselves or discuss it with family, always make a decision on who they think
the culprit was. Those that had been sat at home saying ‘I think it was Jane’
etc will feel a sense of relief and closure as they will know they were right
all along, after being present at every episode putting the pieces together and
making a decision for themselves.
Jane played a helping
hand in hiding who the true murderer was. The episode continued in flashback
mode with Jane telling her story from her perspective and the audience got to
see what truly happened on the night Lucy Beale was murdered. The flashback
revealed all kinds of shocking moments such as Jay following Lucy on the bus,
Lucy having a dangerous romance with _____, Denise beating up Lucy, Peter
selling her cocaine, and lastly, the biggest reveal ever was that it was
actually Bobby Beale, Lucy’s 9 year old brother who had killed her. It was
explained that in the midst of an arugment Bobby had hit Lucy with a large
object, and Jane then hid the body to help shelter Bobby.
The audience showed an
emotional response as thousands took to twitter to give their opinions on the
big reveal. Some of these comments were reflected upon afterwards in a live
after show. The show gathered an audience of 11.9 million viewers during the
night of the big reveal, with 1 million tuning into BBC iPlayer the next day.
Technology has taken over and episodes can now be seen online at any given
time. This plot was extremely clever and the storyline was very well created.
Eastenders will continue to celebrate its yearly anniversary because it truly has
become the nations favourite soap.
