EastEnders deaths - search and destroy

Ethel's was HORRIFIC. Me and Pete had nightmares for weeks. But again, poor old Dot.

Eastenders deaths are almost always terrible e.g. Tiff, or you dont see them happen e.g. Pete Beale, Cindy...Grant Mitchell's carcrash into the Thames in front of the Millennium Dome wouldve been great but then he turned up at the airport a week or two later and ponced off to South AMerica with Courtney - we got jipped

Probably Ethel for me as well, although the Eddie Royle murder mystery storyline was a good'un.

Steve Owen's was the worst, although Tiff was pretty dodgy as well.

Reg Cox, Eddie Royle, Tom and Trevor, Steve Owen, Tiffany Mitchell, Den Watts, Angie Watts, Arthur Fowler, Pete Beale and girlfriend, Ashley Cotton, Charlie Cotton, Ethel, Frank Butcher's mum, Nigel's wife, Cindy, the Trueman's mum, Roly the Poodle and Ethel's Little Willie.

I'm sure there are more than this, but its not half a dangerous place to live, isn't it?

Reg Cox
Charlie Cotton
Den Watts
Eddie Royle
Mo Butcher
Jill (Mark's 1st wife)
Pete Beale & Rose
Debbie (Nigel's wife)
unknown relative of the Fowlers
Arthur Fowler
Willie
Roly
Tiffany Mitchell
Cindy Beale
Ethel
Ashley Cotton
Steve Owen
Angie Watts
the Trueman's mum
Tom & Trevor

and i'm SURE there's more - all further proof that Albert Square is the most dangerous, as well as depressing, place on Earth, unless you play for Harchester Dragons in Dream Team

and insert Big Ron (if you can) between the two mutts

I love how the "(i think)" suggests that stevem's just having a wild guess at a chronological list of Eastenders' deaths. There is NO WAY he's keeping a cross-referenced database of this stuff. That list's off the top of his head.

Fnarr.

And then there was Kathy Beale's long-lost daughter Donna, who descended into drug addiction (circa 1988, when EE started to get *really* depressing) and eventually choked on her own vomit. Nice.

Nana Moon's death made me laugh. I am a bad womang.

I don't think he actually died though. The bloke who played him did, but they had his character win the lottery and move off somewhere.

That cot death episode was the first one I watched. I seem to remember Eastenders being relentlessly depressing in those days. Arthur Fowler's descent into depression was particularly harsh, and there was Nick Cotton blackmailing Kathy about the fact she'd been raped and had a baby [Donna in the quote above], and Lofty getting jilted at the altar, and the original Mark Fowler committing suicide in real life. I gave up on it for a couple of years around about the time Lofty found out Michelle had had an abortion (paid for by Den).

I saw the re-run of the Christmas 1986 episode on UK Gold and the whole thing was just one big glut of depression... Pat hated by everyone... Mary disowned and lonely with her baby.... Arthur looking at the bones of the Xmas turkey and saying "It looks how I feel" (Wow that must have been the zenith of joyful TV that Christmas!!)

Reg Cox
Hassan Osman
Andy O'Brien
Lou Beale
Tom Clements
Benny Bloom
Den Watts
Donna Ludlow
Eddie Royle
Charlie Cotton
Mo Butcher
Gill Fowler
Stephanie Watson
Pete Beale
Joe Wallace
Debbie Bates
Arthur Fowler
Willy
Roly
Tiffany Mitchell
Cindy Beale
Saskia Duncan
Audrey Trueman
Ethel Skinner
Ashley Cotton
Steve Owen
Harry Slater
Angie Watts
Trevor & Tom
Jamie Mitchell
Roy Evans
Jack Dalton
Barry Evans
Mark Fowler
Laura Beale
Paul Trueman
David Collins
Andy Hunter
Den Watts again
Leo Taylor
Nana Moon
Dennis Rickman
Kathy Beale
Danny Moon

I've looked on Wikipedia and can't see anyone else, unless someone died offscreen.

(Also, I'm sure some of these names are just made up. Who the fuck was David Collins?)

yes, but at least half have been part of this chain of gangster stuff (jack, Paul, Andy, etc.) Hopefully we're out of that cycle now.

One of these may not be true.

Seven months later, I have remembered the answer to this! He was Jane's husband, the one in the hospice, the one she was still married to and was still alive when she started with Ian, which he knew about so cannot be surprised that she is still a cheat. Or something.

Further info re. Pauline's demise: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/tm_headline=fowl-play-&method=full&objectid=18065891&siteid=94762-name_page.html

No wait, it was actually shit.

That Ian and Dawn thing was appalling. But teh Stenders has got quite good again recently. Comparatively speaking anyway. It's no Corrie.

She will, yes! According to whatever paper I was reading in the pub yesterday, anyway. And Janine! And Diane!

Kevin Wicks being impaled on a stick in his car = lolololol. Worst. Actor. Ever.

instead of driving he should have walked so that he could GET SOME EXERCISE! know what i mean.

Wow, there will be two people in EE with the same name for once!

xpost lolololol

There were two people called Mo for ages.

Quality self-referential camp bollocks from all concerned for Frank's funeral last night. Revolving bowtie, "you bitch/you cow" (too early though) Ricky and Bianca still rubbish, Janine still awesome.

i might start watching this if janine were to stay back

btw i love bbc iPlayer

Clare Butcher was "in Australia"

haha Rustie Lee is coming to Eastenders tonight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/images/characters_cast/characters/wellard/wellard_large_1.jpg

RIP Wellard, hope you up in heaven puffing on blunts with Isaac and Bernie.

RIP Archie Mitchell

RIP Bradley ...

Live episode of Eastenders marking 25 years passes without comment.

I didn't think anyone watched it any more. Live episode wobbles = wobbly camera, Bradley moved after being dead, Scott Maslen forgot his lines, June Brown forgot hers. Otherwise, pretty well done except for whole rubbish murderer reveal and Roxy's entire script being "is that why you killed him then, eh?" "I didn't" "ah, but you're just saying that, tell me, is that why you killed him then, eh?" etc etc etc

I have no idea what crack I was smoking up there when I decided Spencer Moon was good on Strictly. I must have meant in terms of entertainment value or something.

Nancy Banks-Smith is still God

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/feb/20/eastenders-live-review

I didn't notice anyone forget their lines or fuck up, but then I watched the whole thing after getting back from the pub. I was sort of impressed they pulled something like that off with that many different locations in the episode. I'd expected the whole thing to be in the Vic or something.

Fuck them for killing Bradley by the way.

Yeah, the falling-off-the-roof stunt was pulled off pretty well given the live action constraints (though we did laugh at the police on the roof visibly slowing down to not catch Bradley), and the multiple scene cutting was pretty smooth. Jack's mistake was covered well with him acting flustered anyway, and Dot forgot Dottie's name.

I watched the after-show thing on BBC3 afterwards, Lacey Turner was ill with the flu and could hardly speak apparently, and wasn't well enough to appear, so surprising she got the nod (they showed some alternate ending from rehearsals, with Ryan and Max confessing). Unless of course it's for Poor Brave Little Lacey to win more awards.

Dot forgot Dottie's name

Ah, I just assumed this was deliberate given that she's just found out that Dottie isn't her real name.

Oh, maybe it was. Sorry, June Brown. I thought that was one of the mistakes they'd referred to in the BBC3 follow-up. Just remembered Samantha Janus saying on that that she'd forgotten to pay for whatever she bought in the shop as well. It was small beer really though, it was pretty good really.

lol

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Max-Brannings-failed-attempt-of-being-sick-live/318638507349?ref=search&sid=611313637.2212041956..1

having only watched half of it, there were probably as many cuts and locations as on a normal eastenders, which was the problem, imo. it didn't engage with any idea of liveness, so what was the point of doing it at all? if i hadn't known it was live i would have just thought the sets looked a bit faker than usual.

Yeah, not that it's in any way comparable, but I watched, purely out of interest in seeing telly being done differently, the live episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, where they seemed to be having a whale of a time with the live concept, doing pub bets about juggling and stuff with whole bunches of potential for fuck-ups live on air.

Ioanna1301

20 Feb 2010, 2:30AM

As if being born with ginger hair wasn't tough enough, Bradley Branning had a hard life of it in EastEnders (BBC1).

Would you approve if I were to say, unfortunately, Nancy Banks-Smith, hampered by the age old problem of being a racist white, has gone on to make her comments as pertinent as any Nick Griffin could make?

Or sadly, as x was already hampered by having to endure a life with black skin, their future in the programme concerned was uncertain.?

No. Didn't think so.

Red hair, like afro hair, is a characteristic of a person's genetic inheritance. At least one parent has to pass on the relevant coding in their DNA, similar circumstances dictating colour of skin - whether alabaster pale and golden freckled or deepest toasted brown.

So throwaway comments that are based upon the colour of someone's hair or the colour of their skin are totally inappropriate in the Guardian.

Perhaps Ms Banks-Smith would be better placed in a publication such as the Sun or Daily Sport - they tend to enjoy such unpleasant statements.

*
RoyA1

20 Feb 2010, 2:38AM

Good luck with that ginger hair, Ioanna1301.

^lolled at this

I've never understood the Nancy Banks-Smith is something special accepted wisdom at Guardian

Man that must be like being colourblind or something, feel bad for you.

I've never understood the Nancy Banks-Smith is something special accepted wisdom at Guardian

― Bob Six, Saturday, 20 February 2010 13:53 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM i don't get it. seems totally generic and uninteresting.

I just think she's better than anyone else in her field at striking a balance between having a love for the artform she writes about and acknowleding its shittier aspects

What I was gonna say. Apart from the pure fun and elegance of her prose and her phrase-making, she can absolutely rip the piss out of a show but do it with love.

i suppose that is a rare thing these days.

R.I.P Billy.

Didn't see it coming.

My mother phoned me last night after Eastenders to tell me to be careful when I go drinking, must have given her a fright

how did he go?

It's Billy Jackson, not Billy Mitchell (ie the good Billy that people actually care about). His family through him a huge party and he was effectively downing bottles of spirits and then the family woke up and he was dead of alcohol poisoning on the sofa.

Either that or his gangster friends poisoned him in some way, which would be ridiculous but not too ridiculous for Eastenders.

key dates, according to official site, for Billy Mitchell :

09 Nov 2009
Persuading Ian to give him a job on the fruit and veg stall.

....

7 May 2010
Quitting his job on Ian's market stall.

Yes, sorry - should have made clear it was Billie, not Billy.

It was quite shocking and effective the way the episode unfolded.

Eastenders has certainly trumped Corrie's Jack Duckworth terminal cancer plot - for the time being, at least.

Lauren's "wtf, yeah right" giggles were spot on.

Bit of a grim RIP episode this evening.

Live episode of Eastenders marking 25 years passes without comment.

― Bob Six, Saturday, 20 February 2010 09:55 (fifteen years ago) link

Live episode marking 40 years of Eastenders coming up shortly…

And it was very very good!

It's been excellent this week. Phil's men's mental health storyline has been incredible. Sonia giving birth was a great mixture of comedy and drama and the Lauren/Bianca/Sonia actors really delivered in the live scenes. The Cindy whodunnit has been a bit daft but leaning into the campness of it all has worked. Also enjoyed Denise deciding that the pub blowing up was the perfect time for her to go decide who to shag.

There's a lot on social media saying it was wrong to kill Martin but I think it was 100% correct. The Stacey actress is far too talented to be landed with boring storylines about domestic bliss, I need her in the Vic every five years in mid-February seeing someone she loves blow up.

It was good - almost a bit too professionally done. It was a bit strange how major plot points were a bit under-played in the live episode. Denise going back to Jack was a bit anti-climactic, and the Cindy mystery attacker story was unresolved (I think?)

Given how underwhelming Michelle Collins acting has been I am not surprised they kept her away from the live episode

It all felt weirdly linear - was hoping that the Cindy attacker would be an unexpected returnee like Jane/Bobby/Cindy Jr/Shirley/Michelle/Pat/Lucy or something bonkers in this vein, but alas not. I kind of adored Martin and was sad to see another heritage-y person binned off but it was all pretty well done.

Trouble is that we're now sans Martin and then Sonia goes imminently and presumably Bianca too plus Stace on mat leave soon and who does that leave? It's going to be all Lauren and Nicola Mitchell for the foreseeable :(

The live one was great, yeah. I loved that they gave the overarching monologue to Sonia, that she debated calling the bairn either Tony or Julia - her and Martin are absolute legacy characters, being the Jackson and the Fowler who have been there the longest. It feels like the sort of thing that they would have given to Dot, and wouldn't have worked with Ian or Sharon, so she was a great choice.

I agree for plot purposes, killing Martin off made sense, but he's such a part of the Square it'll be weird without him (also zzzzz Stacey having to live with all those last conversations while Ruby does all the grieving and gets all the sympathy, that girl really does deserve a break)

The acting was good all round really, and Phil's storyline (and Steve McFadden's acting) has been excellently done.

Angie Watts! That was a lovely treat.

Yeah, great to see Ange.

And yes, it was a good idea to keep Phil and Cindy away from the live episode.

I kind of adored Martin and was sad to see another heritage-y person binned off but it was all pretty well done.

I've always loved Martin as well, and I'm really sad that he's gone, even if this was the first week I've watched Eastenders in aaaaaages. Also, seriously Denise? You've always done better with a super-hot younger man, and Jack is the most nothingy character in the whole programme. There hasn't been a point to Jack since Ronnie and Roxie died.

The last time I watched EastEnders regularly was its second imperial phase, which, imo, covered most of the 90s — from the introduction of the Mitchells until Tiffany’s death, which was pointless and mean (and also so stupid – how much better might the past two decades have been if the possibility of Martine M returning was real?). Although I suppose both Cathy and Michelle come back from the dead. So anything’s possible…

That said this sounds really interesting – I’ll definitely check it out. My memory is that Gillian Taylforth was a stand-out actor who probably deserved better – maybe?

I actually think Lauren is really watchable, queen of Xmas multimedia reveals. The nu-Mitchells aren't interesting enough yet but the Panesars and the Knights (Anna aside) have held their own against the established big names.

I think the idea of "legacy" characters can be quite damaging to the soaps. If you look at Corrie it's filled with deadwood that should have been written out years and years ago. These characters who spend decades on-screen might be comforting in their familiarity but there is nothing interesting about e.g Fiz and Tyrone. The most interesting thing about Martin Fowler was how he managed to feed a family of five kids by selling a few oranges every week.

Sonia calling the baby Tony/Toni would have been weird, after Whitney's stepdad.

if we're bring characters back from the dead:

1) Ronnie & Roxy (but will settle for a prequel series set in early 00s Ibiza)
2) Stella (and her spoon collection)
3) Abi

Jack has been pretty much reduced to repeatedly losing his temper, getting suspended, and arguing with his kids. The was a glint of hope recently that he might partner up with Nicola who seems to be becoming the drugs kingpin of Albert Square. That could have been an interesting developing: Jack getting drawn into the criminal underworld.

RIP Martin - I did like him but he had been underused for years. Was a bit disappointed how he treated Ruby over the last few months though.

The introduction of new families over the last few years has generally been done quite well: for example the Panesars and the Knights.

I wonder if they'll bring Bex back? It would be a good time to do it if they wanted to.