EastEnders was launched at a critical moment in the BBC's history and was intended to demonstrate the BBC's ability to produce popular programming. It started airing on the night after a major identity change for the channel, with the show representing the "new face" of the BBC. Critics first derided the new offering, as it was clear that the BBC wished to bridge the gap between the network and its competitor, ITV. One news source went as far as to accuse the channel of only having the courage to air the soap after Patricia Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) left Coronation Street.
The BBC brass was vindicated, however, when EastEnders became wildly popular and displaced Coronation Street from the top of the ratings for the rest of the 1980s, much of the 1990s, and to some extent in the 2000s.
In February 1983, two years before EastEnders hit the screen, the show was nothing more than a vague idea in the mind of a handful of BBC executives, who decided that what BBC One needed was a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences ITV was getting with Coronation Street.
There was anxiety at first that the viewing public would not accept a new soap set in the south of England, though research commissioned by lead figures in the BBC had revealed southerners would accept a northern soap, northerners would accept a southern soap and those from the Midlands, as Julia Smith herself pointed out, did not mind where it was set as long as it was somewhere else. This was the beginning of a close and continuing association between EastEnders and audience research, which, though commonplace today, was something of a revolution in practice.
The show's creators were both Londoners, but when they researched Victorian squares, they found massive changes in areas they thought they knew well. However, delving further into the East End of London, they found exactly what they had been searching for: a real East End spirit — an inward looking quality, a distrust of strangers and authority figures, a sense of territory and community that the creators summed up as "Hurt one of us and you hurt us all". These themes that were found for the setting can still be found in a present day episode of EastEnders.
When developing EastEnders, both Smith and Holland looked at influential models like Coronation Street, but they found that it offered a rather outdated and nostalgic view of working-class life. Only after EastEnders began, and featured the characters of Tony and Kelvin Carpenter, did Coronation Street start to feature black people, for example.
So EastEnders was set in Albert Square. The set was built new, and had to be made to look as if it had been standing for years. This was done by a number of means, including chipping at the buildings with pickaxes. The EastEnders lot was built and designed by Keith Harris, who was a senior designer within the production team.[1] Then in 1986, he added an extension to the set, building the fourth side of Albert Square, and in 1987, Turpin Road was added, which included buildings such as The Dagmar. In 1993, George Street was added, and soon after Walford East tube station was built.
After they decided on the filming location (BBC Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire), Smith and Holland set about creating the twenty-three characters needed, in just fourteen days. They took a holiday in Playa de los Pocillos, Lanzarote, and started to create the characters. 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 and Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler. Holland also created Pauline's unemployed husband Arthur, their children Mark and Michelle, Pete's wife Kathy and their son Ian. Julia Smith used her personal memories of East End residents she had met when researching Victorian squares. Ethel Skinner was based on an old woman she had 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.[4] Other characters created included Jewish doctor Harold Legg, the Anglo-Cypriot Osman family, Ali, Sue and baby Hassan, black father and son, Tony and Kelvin Carpenter, single mother Mary Smith and Bangladeshi couple Saeed and Naima Jeffery. Jack, Pearl and Tracey Watts were created to bring "flash, trash, and melodrama" to the Square (they were later re-named Den, Angie and Sharon). The characters of Andy O'Brien and Debbie Wilkins were created to show a modern couple with outwardly mobile pretensions, and Lofty Holloway to show an outsider; someone who didn't fit in with other residents. It was decided that he would be an ex-soldier, as Tony Holland's personal experiences of ex-soldiers were that they had trouble fitting into society after being in the army. When they compared the characters they had created, Smith and Holland realised they had created a cross-section of East End residents. The Beale and Fowler family represented the old families of the East End, who had always been there. The Osmans, Jefferys and Carpenters represented the more modern diverse ethnic community of the East End. Debbie, Andy and Mary represented more modern day individuals.
Once they had decided on their twenty-three characters, they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone was in agreement, EastEnders was to be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp — set in Thatcher's Britain — and it would start with a bang (namely the death of Reg Cox). They decided that none of their existing characters were wicked enough to have killed Reg, so a twenty-fourth character, Nick Cotton was added to the line-up. He was a racist thug, who often tried to lead other young characters astray.
When all the characters had been created, Smith and Holland set about casting the actors for the show. The first actor to be cast was Bill Treacher, a Z-Cars veteran who had been considered for the role of Arthur from the conception of the show. Anna Wing was then cast as Lou Beale, due to her upbringing in Hackney, and having the face and voice that Tony Holland had imagined. Peter Dean was cast as Pete Beale after doing a stand-up cockney routine in his rehearsal. Gillian Taylforth was originally considered to play Sue Osman, but the creators of the show envisioned Sue as a brunette, and Taylforth was blonde. She was considered too young and pretty to play Kathy Beale, until Holland and Smith heard her voice, which was rough and gritty like a market trader's. Susan Tully, already famous for starring in Grange Hill, was cast as Michelle Fowler due to her enthusiasm about the teenage pregnancy storyline she would be taking part in. Her enthusiasm for the show lived on, and since leaving as an actor in 1995 she has directed some episodes.[5] Matthew Robinson had Wendy Richard in mind to play Pauline Fowler. However, she was famous for playing the glamorous Miss Shirley Brahms in Are You Being Served?, and it was expected that she would be too glamorous for the role of a forty-something downtrodden housewife. When Richard met Matthew Robinson, she told him she was bored of glamour and wanted to play a character her own age.
Paul J. Medford was recommended by four separate agencies, and was subsequently cast as Kelvin Carpenter. Likewise, 16-year-old Adam Woodyatt was recommended by his previous agency, and cast as Ian Beale. Oscar James was then cast as Tony Carpenter. He was pleased with the portrayal of a black family in a soap opera, and Smith and Holland liked the idea of James being physically larger than Medford. Leonard Fenton and Sandy Ratcliff were recommended by writer Bill Lyons, and were cast as Dr. Legg and Sue Osman, respectively. Tom Watt was recommended for the role of Lofty Holloway, and cast because Holland and Smith liked his gauche, childlike appearance. Ross Davidson, a sporty working-class Scot was eventually given the role of Andy O'Brien, despite Holland and Smith feeling that he came across as a male chauvinist. Letitia Dean was cast as Sharon Watts due to her dirty laugh. Linda Davidson was cast as Mary Smith as she was born and raised in northern England, and her background and accent would fit in with the character's. Smith and Holland had both worked with the actress Shirley Cheriton on their previous television series about nurses, entitled Angels. Cheriton had proved an extremely popular addition to the cast of Angels and had secured herself a large number of fans. Both Holland and Smith perceived Cheriton to be a "rung or two up from her working-class origins", but she was not posh either, which was perfect for the part of Debbie Wilkins. They initially worried that Cheriton would have reservations about playing a person who was not immediately liked by everyone, but Cheriton liked the role so she was instantly hired. Holland and Smith were at war as to who to cast in the role of Ali Osman; Holland wanted Turkish Haluk Bilginer to play the role, as he had the physical appearance and he believed Sandy Ratcliff would "make mincemeat" out of the other actor, Nejdet Salih. Smith disagreed; Salih was an actual Turkish Cypriot, and lived in the East End with his large family. To resolve the dispute, both actors were given a reading session with Sandy Ratcliff. Salih secured the role after making a sexist remark about her bad time-keeping. Bilginer later went on to play Ali Osman's brother Mehmet. Shreela Ghosh was a late casting. She was cast as she liked what the creators were doing with an Asian couple, and was right for the part.
Leslie Grantham was considered too sexy when he auditioned for Pete Beale, and was cast as Den Watts instead. Julia Smith stood by this decision when she found out that as a young soldier in Germany, he had shot and killed a German taxi driver during an attempted robbery and had served time in prison. Actress Jean Fennell was cast as Angie Watts, but as rehearsals began, it became clear she was not right for the role that Holland had conceived. Four days before filming began, Julia Smith had to tell Fennell that she had been axed from the show, and cast Anita Dobson instead. Dobson read the part well with Grantham, and "spat like a tigress and purred like a kitten".
Through the next few months, the set was growing rapidly at Elstree, and a composer and designer had been commissioned to create the title sequence. Simon May (music)[6] and Alan Jeapes (visuals) created it, and it remains one of the most recognisable title clips in television. The visual images were taken from an aircraft flying over the East End of London at 1000 feet. Approximately 800 photographs were taken, and pieced together to create one big image. The credits were later updated when the Millennium Dome was built.
The launch was delayed for a second time until February 1985 due to a delay in the chat show Wogan, that was to be a part of the major revamp in BBC One's schedules. Julia Smith was uneasy about the late start as EastEnders no longer had the winter months to build up a loyal following before the summer ratings lull. The press were invited to see Elstree and meet the cast and see the lot — and stories immediately started circulating about the show, about a rivalry with ITV (who were launching their own market-based soap, Albion Market) and about the private lives of the cast. Anticipation and rumour grew in equal measure until the first transmission at 7 p.m. on 19 February 1985. Both Holland and Smith could not watch; they both instead returned to the place where it all began, Albertine's Wine Bar on Wood Lane. The next day, viewing figures were confirmed at 17 million. The reviews were largely favourable, although after three weeks on air, BBC One's early evening share had returned to the pre-EastEnders figure of 7 million, though EastEnders then climbed to highs of up to 23 million later on in the year. Following the launch, both group discussions and telephone surveys were conducted to test audience reaction to early episodes. Detailed reactions were taken after six months and since then regular monitoring has been conducted.
Press coverage, already intense, went into overdrive. With public interest so high, the media began investigating the private lives of the show's popular stars. Within weeks, the scandalous headline the producers had all dreaded appeared — "EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER". This referred to Leslie Grantham, and his prison sentence for the murder of a taxi driver in an attempted robbery. This shocking tell-all style set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years. By Christmas 1985, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the show. 'Exclusives' about EastEnders storylines and the actors on the show became a staple of tabloid buyers daily reading.