EastEnders

EastEnders is a popular BBC television soap opera which was first broadcast on 19 February 1985. It has been running ever since, generating strong ratings for much of that time, and has been the UK's highest rating programme on numerous occasions. Despite lengthy criticism of the show from the critics, in October 2005 it won the National Television Award for most popular Serial Drama. This is a prestigous award EastEnders has won several consecutive times in the past ten years.

Setting and characters

Setting

EastEnders is set in the fictional London Borough of Walford, however the central focus of the show is that of the equally fictional Victorian square named Albert Square. The shows 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, 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. Albert Square It is thought that Albert Square was built around the early 20th Century, indeed heavy research was done by the shows creators to support this. Firstly, the square is named Albert Square after Prince Albert, the late husband of Queen Victoria, whom then went on to die in 1901. Thus, central to Albert Square is The Queen Victoria Public House. But as the set was built in the early eighties, it had to be made to look as if it had been standing for years and 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. 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. In the past, fans have tried to establish the actual location of Walford within London. Walford East, is a fictional tube station for Walford, with the aid of a map that was first seen on air in 1996, it has been established that Walford East is located between Bow Road and West Ham, which realistically would replace Bromley-by-Bow. Walford has the fictional postal district of E20, thus fans have also tried to pinpoint the location using this, however, realistically London East postal districts stop at E18, the shows creators opted for E20 instead of E19 as it was thought to sound better. The strongest claim to being the 'real' Albert Square is held by Broadway Market in Hackney, a short pedestrianised road that features a weekly market and established street vendors. The postcode for the area "E8" was one of the working titles for the series. In reality, an Albert Square does exist in the East End, in Stratford. However, the shows producers actually based the square's design on the real life 'Fasset Square' in the East End.

Characters

EastEnders was built around the ideas of "clans" of strong families and each character having a place in the community. Co-creator Tony Holland was himself from a large East End family and such families have typified EastEnders. The first central family was the Fowlers, consisting of Pauline, Arthur, Mark, Michelle and also the closely related Beale family - Pete, Lou and Ian. Tony Holland drew on the names of his own family for his characters. The Watts and Mitchell families have been central to most of the notable EastEnders storylines and Peggy Mitchell in particular is notorious for her ceaseless repetition of such statements as "You're a Mitchell". The 2000s saw a new focus on the largely female Slater clan before the return of emphasis to the Watts and Mitchell families. Key people involved in the production of EastEnders have stressed how important this idea of strong families is to EastEnders. Some families feature an stereotypical East End matriarch such as Lou Beale, Pauline Fowler, Mo Harris and Peggy Mitchell. These characters are seen as being loud and interfering but most importantly, responsible for the well-being of the family and usually stressing the importance of family, reflecting on the past. Another recurring character type is the smartly dressed businessman, often involved in crime, who is seen as a local authority figure. Examples include Den Watts, James Wilmott-Brown, Steve Owen, Andy Hunter and Johnny Allen.

Social realism

Created in Thatcher Britain during the worst economic recession in Britain since the 1930s combined with high unemployment and rocketing crime rates, EastEnders tried to represent this in the social realist tradition. In the eighties, EastEnders featured gritty storylines involving drugs and crime, representing the issues faced by working-class Britain much as Coronation Street did in the 1960s but updated for an age of social breakdown. However EastEnders has for the most part remained a populist series and has generally avoided the arguably tougher stories of Brookside. Brookside had also launched as a social realist drama, leading the way for more conservative soaps like EastEnders to follow. Arguably the difference between them was whilst Brookside confronted issues it was more sensationalist and EastEnders tried to maintain realism. The programme makers emphasised that it was to be about 'everyday life' in the inner city 'today' and regard it as a 'slice of life'. Creator/ producer Julia Smith declared that 'we don't make life, we reflect it'. She also said: ‘We decided to go for a realistic, fairly outspoken type of drama which could encompass stories about homosexuality, rape, unemployment, racial prejudice, etc., in a believable context. Above all, we wanted realism’. Such storylines include Sue and Ali’s baby's cot death, Nick Cotton's homophobia, the rape of Kathy Beale in 1988, Michelle Fowler's teenage pregnancy, drug dealing, prostitution, mixed-race relationships, shoplifting, sexism, racism, divorce and muggings. As the show progressed into the nineties, less screen time was spent on these issues, perhaps reflecting the change in government. However, EastEnders still featured hard-hitting issues such as Mark Fowler discovering he was HIV positive in 1991 and the death of Gill, murder, adoption, alcoholism and domestic violence. In the early 2000s, EastEnders covered the issue of euthanasia with long-established characters Ethel Skinner and Dot Cotton, Kat Slater's abuse by her uncle Harry as a child, the domestic abuse of Little Mo Slater by husband Trevor, Sonia giving birth at the age of fifteen and then putting the baby up for adoption, prostitution, agoraphobia and drugs.

History and popularity

Background

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 ident 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 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 guts to air the soap after Patricia Phoenix, arguably England's premier soap diva, left Coronation Street. It was the brass at BBC who had the last laugh, however, as EastEnders became wildly popular and displaced Coronation Street from the top of the ratings for the remainder of the 1980s and 1990s.

History

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. The first people to whom David Reid, then head of series and serials, turned were Julia Smith and Tony Holland, a well established producer/script editor team who had first worked together on Z-Cars. The outline that Reid presented was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year. Smith and Holland then went about putting ideas down on paper, they decided it would be set in the East End of London. 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, didn’t 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. When developing EastEnders, both Julia Smith and Tony 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 begun did Coronation Street start to feature black people for example. They also identified that it has had difficulty in replacing 'big' characters such as Len Fairclough and Elsie Tanner, something which is arguably still present to this day, with the exit of Karen McDonald. They came to the conclusion that Coronation Street had grown old with its audience, and that EastEnders would have to attract a younger, more socially extensive audience ensuring that it had the longevity to retain it for many years thereafter. They also looked at Brookside but found there was a lack of central meeting points for the characters, making it difficult for the writers to intertwine different storylines. The target launch date was originally September 1984 but this was postponed due to Michael Grade - the new controller of BBC One -preferring a January start. Julia Smith and Tony Holland had just 11 months in which to write, cast and shoot the whole thing. However, in February 1984 they didn't even have a title or a place to film. The project had a number of working titles — Square Dance, Round the Square, Round the Houses, London Pride, East 8. It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process. After they decided of the filming location (BBC Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire), Smith and Holland set about creating the 24 characters needed in just 14 days. Once they decided on these they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone was in agreement, East 8 was to be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp - and it would start with a bang. 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) and Alan Jeapes (visuals) created it, and it remains one of the strongest title clips in television. 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 7pm on 19 February 1985. Both Holland and Smith could not watch, they both instead returned to the place where it all began. The next day viewing figures were confirmed at 13 million. The reviews were largely favourable, although after three weeks on air, BBC One's early evening shared 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. Within weeks the headline they had all dreaded had appeared — EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER. This referred to Leslie Grantham, and set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years. By Christmas of 1985, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the show. 'Exclusives' about EastEnders storylines became a staple of tabloid buyers daily reading. A precursor in UK soaps also set in a East End market was ATV's Market in Honey Lane between 1967 and 1969.

Popularity

As mentioned, EastEnders proved highly popular and Appreciation Indexes reflected this, rising from 55–60 at the launch to 85–5 later on, a figure which was nearly ten points higher than the average for British soap opera. Research suggested that people found the characters true to life, the plots believable and, importantly in the face of criticism of the content, people watched as a family and regarded it as viewing for all the family. In the Christmas of 1986, it attracted a massive 30.15 million viewers who tuned in to see Den Watts hand over the divorce papers to wife Angie. This remains the highest rated episode of a soap in British television history. EastEnders is one of the more popular programmes on British television and regularly attracts between 9 and 13 million viewers, while the show's ratings have fallen since its initial surge in pouplarity, the programme continues to be largely lucrative for the BBC. Its main rival for ratings is usually Coronation Street. In order to maximise ratings the BBC and ITV are usually careful to avoid scheduling clashes between their flagship soaps. In 2001 however, the soaps clashed for the first time. EastEnders won the battle with 8.4 million viewers (41% share) whilst Coronation Street lagged behind with 7.3 million viewers (36% share). On 21 September, 2004 Louise Berridge, the then executive producer, quit following massive criticism of the show. The following day the show received its lowest ever ratings (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour long episode of its usually less-popular soap, Emmerdale against it. Emmerdale was watched by 8.1 million people. However, EastEnders was at a disadvantage as Emmerdale had began half an hour earlier, and the press were reporting viewers were bored with implausible and ill thought out storylines. Kathleen Hutchison who had been the producer of hospital drama Holby City, was announced the new executive producer. And within a few weeks later the producers announced a major shake-up of the cast with the highly-criticised Ferreira family, first seen in June 2003, set to leave at the beginning of 2005. Kathleen Hutchison went on to axe Den Watts, Andy Hunter, Juley Smith and Derek Harkinson. Whilst she was there she set about reversing the previous executive producer's work. It indicated a fresh start for EastEnders after declining ratings in 2004. But in January 2005, after just four months it was the end for Kathleen Hutchison. John Yorke who led EastEnders through what Mal Young (the then head of BBC drama) said was one of its most successful periods in 2001, returned to the BBC as the head of drama, meaning his responsibilities included the running of EastEnders. He also brought back long serving script writer Tony Jordan. It is reported that the cast and crew did not get on well with Kathleen Hutchison as she had them filming up to 12am in the morning. She is also said to have torn up many of the scripts that were planned and demanded re-writes. This was one of the reasons storylines such as the 'Real Walford' football team were suddenly ignored. But through her short reign she led EastEnders to some of its most healthy viewing figures in months. John Yorke immediately stepped into her position until a few weeks later when Kate Harwood was announced as the new executive producer. In autumn of 2005, EastEnders had seen its average audience share increase, with the unearthing of Den Watts' body and the marriage of Sharon and Dennis. Weeks after this, ITV again scheduled episodes of Emmerdale against EastEnders. The episode of Emmerdale, which saw the departure of one of its more popular characters, attracted 8.3 million viewers leaving EastEnders with 6.6 million for the funeral of Den Watts. However, this indirectly helped increase the audience of digital channel BBC Three as 1 million tuned (10% share) in to see the second showing.

Viewership

Based on market research by BBC commissioning in 2003, EastEnders is most watched by 16 - 24 year olds, closely followed by 25 - 34 year olds. An average EastEnders episode attracts a total audience share between 45% and 50%. Aside from that, the 10pm repeat showing on BBC Three attracts an average of 500,000 viewers, whilst the Sunday omnibus attracts a further 3 million. Ever since EastEnders began on the mainstream BBC One, it has achieved some of the highest audiences in British television history. The launch show attracted 17 million viewers in the 1980s, this was perhaps helped by the amount of press attention it received, something which continues today. In 1986, just under two years since it had been on air, EastEnders attracted 30.15 million viewers, for the Christmas episode in which Den handed a divorce letter to wife Angie. This was its largest audience ever, the largest amount of viewers for a soap episode, the 4th largest audience for a British television channel ever and the highest television audience for a single channel of the 1980s. In comparison, the smallest amount for an EastEnders episode was around 6.2 million in 2004, higher than the lowest of its rivals Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Despite a decade and a half of high ratings it was most popular in the early 2000s, attracting an average of 15 million for most episodes and peaks of upto 25 million for the climaxes of popular storylines. Sonia's shock birth in 2000 was watched by 19.3 million viewers and in 2001, Mel's marriage to Steve Owen was watched by 22.5 million viewers. EastEnders was perhaps at its least popular in the year 2004, its lowest ever audience share was 28% in early 2005.

Scheduling

For the past 20 years EastEnders has remained at the center of BBC One's primetime schedule. EastEnders is currently aired at 7.30PM on Tuesday & Thursday and 8.00PM on Monday and Friday, the omnibus is aired on Sunday, though the exact time differs. Originally EastEnders was shown twice weekly at 7.00PM, however it soon moved to 7.30PM as Michael Grade did not want the soap running in direct competition with Emmerdale Farm; the BBC had originally planned to take advantage of the 'summer break' that Emmerdale Farm usually took in order to capitalise on ratings, but ITV added extra episodes and repeats so that Emmerdale Farm was not taken off over the summer. Realising the futility of the situation, Grade decided to move the show to the later 7:30PM slot, but to avoid tabloid speculation that it was a 'panic move' on the BBC's behalf, they had to "dress up the presentation of that move in such a way as to protect the show" giving "all kinds of reasons" for the move . EastEnders output then increased to thrice after Coronation Street added an extra episode - in response to competition from EastEnders. EastEnders then added its fourth episode (shown on Fridays) on August 10th 2001. This caused some controversy as it clashed with Coronation Street, which at the time was moved to 8.00 PM to make way for an hour long episode of rural soap Emmerdale at 7.00 PM. The move immediately provoked an angry response from ITV insiders, who argued that the BBC's last-minute move - only revealed at 3.30 PM on the day - broke an unwritten scheduling rule that the two flagship soaps would not be put directly against each other. In this first head-to-head battle, EastEnders claimed victory over its rival. In 1998, EastEnders Revealed was launched on BBC Choice (now BBC3), the show takes a look behind the scenes of the show and investigates particular places, characters or families within EastEnders. EastEnders Revealed is the only BBC Choice programme to last the entire life of the channel and is still running on BBC3. An episode of EastEnders Revealed which was commissioned for BBC3 attracted 611,000 viewers. In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of EastEnders on digital channel BBC3 before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped BBC3 break the one million viewers for the first time with 1,030,000 million who watched to see Mark Fowler's departure. In February 2005, there were reports that the EastEnders schedule was threatened due to production problems. Newspaper reports indicated that the show faced being taken off air for a fortnight after a storyline shortage, however this was denied by the BBC. In March of the same year, as Peter Fincham became the BBC One controller, rumours were sparked that EastEnders could air in a new time slot. EastEnders is usually repeated on BBC3 at 10:00 PM and old reruns can often be seen on UKTV Gold (As of November 2005, UKTV Gold are showing episodes originally aired in September 2002. They are showing 5 episodes which means that 5 week's worth of episodes are shown every 4 weeks, which results in a catch-up rate of around 3 months a year). As part of the BBC's digital push, EastEnders Xtra was introduced in 2005. The show is presented by Angelica Bell and available to digital viewers by pressing the red button at 8.30 PM on Monday nights. The series goes behind the scenes of the show and talks to some of the cast members. The current series has now finished.

International screenings

EastEnders is aired around the world in many English-speaking countries, including New Zealand and Canada. The series aired in the United States until BBC America ceased broadcasts of the serial in 2003, amidst fan protests. It is still shown on BBC Prime in Europe and Africa, and BBC Canada in Canada. In June, 2004, the Dish Satellite Network picked up EastEnders, airing episodes starting at the point where BBC America had ceased broadcasting them, offering the serial as a Pay-per-View item. Dish first broadcast two weeks' worth of shows each week to get caught up. In approximately February, 2005, the programming reached the point of being one month behind the new shows being aired in the UK. At that point, Dish stopped its double-helping schedule, and now maintains the schedule of airing the new programmes consistently one month behind the UK schedule. Episodes from prior years are still shown on various PBS stations in the US. The series was screened in Australia by the ABC from 1987 until the early 1990s. Currently the series is seen in Australia only on pay-TV channel UK.TV. In New Zealand, it was shown by TVNZ on TV One, but is now on Prime. In Ireland, it is shown on RTÉ One at the same time as BBC One, which is also widely received in the country.

Critique

EastEnders has received both praise and criticism for most of its storylines which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape and murder. Mary Whitehouse argued at the time that EastEnders represented a violation of 'family viewing time' and that it undermined the watershed policy. She regarded EastEnders as a fundamental assault on the family and morality itself. She made reference to representation of family life and emphasis on psychological and emotional violence within the show. She was also critical of language such as 'bleeding', 'bloody hell', 'bastard' and 'For Christ's sake'. However Whitehouse also praised the programme, describing Michelle Fowler's decision not to have an abortion as a 'very positive storyline'. She also felt that EastEnders had been cleaned up as a result of her protests, though she later commented that EastEnders had returned to its old ways. Her criticisms were widely reported in the tabloid press as ammunition in its existing rivalry with the BBC. The stars of Coronation Street in particular aligned themselves with Mary Whitehouse, gaining headlines such as 'STREETS AHEAD! RIVALS LASH SEEDY EASTENDERS' and 'CLEAN UP SOAP! Street Star Bill Lashes 'Steamy' EastEnders'. The long-running storyline of Mark Fowler's HIV was so successful in raising awareness that in 1999 a survey by the National Aids Trust found teenagers got most of their information about HIV from the soap. Though, one campaigner noted that in some ways the storyline was not reflective of what was happening at the time as the condition was more common among the gay community. The child abuse storyline with Kat and her uncle Harry, saw calls to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) go up by 60%. The chief executive of the NSPCC praised the storyline, for covering the subject in a direct and sensitive way, coming to the conclusion that people were more likely to report any issues relating to child protection because of it. In 2002 EastEnders also won an award from the Mental Health Media Awards held at BAFTA for this storyline. EastEnders is often criticised for being too violent, most notably during a domestic violence storyline between Little Mo and husband Trevor. As EastEnders is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that scenes of this storyline were too graphic for its audience. Complaints against a scene in which Little Mo's face was shoved in gravy on Christmas day, were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls. Erin Pizzey, who became internationally famous for having started one of the first Women's Refuges, said that EastEnders had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in twenty-five years. In 2003, Shaun Williamson who played Barry Evans, said that the programme had become much grittier over the past 10 to 15 years, and found it "frightening" that parents let their young children watch. The BBC was criticised of anti-religious bias by a committee in the House of Lords, examples of this suggestion included EastEnders. Dr Indarjit Singh, the editor of the Sikh Messenger and patron of the World Congress of Faiths, said: "EastEnders Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly from the Bible and it ridicules [religion] to some extent."
Trivia

- Between 2001 and 2002, EastEnders was the 10th most searched-for TV show on the Internet.
- EastEnders was the 2nd most popular UK search term in 2003.
- EastEnders was the 4th most popular UK search term in 2004.
- EastEnders holds the record for highest rated soap episode in Britain.
- In 2001 EastEnders went head to head with Coronation Street for the first time, EastEnders won the battle with 8.4 million viewers (41%) while Coronation Street attracted 7.3 million (36%).
- There is a shop in Walford named Barratt's Bargain Corner, cleverly incorporating the BBC's initials.
- Susan Tully who played Michelle Fowler has directed some episodes since leaving.
- Sheila Hancock has appeared in the soap playing Barbara Owen.
- Madonna and Guy Ritchie are rumoured to be big fans of the show, with her favourite character being Dot Cotton.
- George Michael, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are also fans of the soap.
- Brad Pitt is such a fan of the soap that when BBC America took EastEnders off the air in 2003, he and estranged wife Jennifer Aniston joined a petition of 15,000 US fans demanding the cable channel reinstate it.
- Robbie Williams has made a cameo appearance on the telephone in the Queen Vic.
- Martha Ross, mother of television presenter Jonathan, has been an extra in the programme, as a market stallholder, since its inception.
- Before the Spice Girls, Emma Bunton was cast as a troubled youth in the soap.
- Researchers, from the BBC, went to the East End and visited 'Fassett Square' in the 1980’s.
- The famous double-handers when only two actors appear in an episode was originally done for speed: while they film that, the rest of the cast can be making another episode.
- Pam St Clement (Pat) has 125 pairs of earrings from which to choose.
- Leslie Grantham originally auditioned for the part of Pete Beale but was thought too good looking so was instead cast as Den Watts.
- The War memorial on set features names of people involved in EastEnders along with past stars.
- Oxfam was the main outlet used for the actors costumes when the series was first made.
- A vocal version of the theme tune called 'Anyone can fall in Love' reached number 4 in the charts in the summer of 1986 and was sung by Anita Dobson (Angie Watts).
- The Queen visited the set in 2001 and was shown around by actresses Wendy Richard and Barbara Windsor.
- The roads around Albert Square are not built to scale: they look real but some can only take one car at a time.
- When Barbara Windsor joined in 1994, she was only contracted for ten episodes.
- Albert Square is built on the site last used for building works in the 1980s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
- In 1993, the show's theme tune was updated to a Jazzy version, first heard on 11 May 1993. However, it proved very unpopular with the viewers and was replaced with a remix of the original theme tune only 11 months later, from 11 April 1994 (Also the first Monday edition of the show).
- EastEnders was the inaugural winner of the 1999 BAFTA for best continuing drama.
- Since EastEnders began in 1985, at least one of its episodes have rated higher than any other British soap opera throughout each decade. This includes the 1980's, 1990's and so far the 2000's.
- Osymyso a.k.a Mark Nicholson, one of the UK's original bootleg artists created a track based on remixed scenes of the Pat vs Peggy showdown.
- On Friday the 11 November 2005, EastEnders was the first British drama to feature a two minute silence.
- Lulu is a big fan of the show.
Further reading

- EastEnders: The First 10 Years: A Celebration : BRAKE, Colin (1994, BBC Books, ISBN 0563370572 (hardback); 1995, Penguin, ISBN 0140253394 (updated paperback)) : Official guide to the soap’s first decade.
- Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience : BUCKINGHAM, David (1987, BFI, ISBN 0851702104)
- The EastEnders Programme Guide : MUNRO, Josephine (1994, Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0863698255)
- EastEnders: The Inside Story : SMITH, Julia and HOLLAND, Tony (1987, BBC Books, ISBN 0563206012)
See also

- Albert Square
- EastEnders theme tune
- EastEnders merchandise
- EastEnders off set episodes
- List of EastEnders cast members
- List of past EastEnders characters by year of exit
- Storylines of EastEnders
- Sharongate, Shannis, Molfie
- EastEnders Revealed
- EastEnders Xtra
- Walford, London E20
- Albert Square
- Walford East, The Queen Vic, The Dagmar, Angie's Den, E20
References

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- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/ BBC: EastEnders, official site]
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External links

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/ BBC - EastEnders] Official site
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- [http://www.starfury.demon.co.uk/uground/walford.html Underground EastEnders] Information on Walford East
- [http://www.walfordweb.co.uk Walford Web ] EastEnders on the Net
- [http://www.wgazette.com/ The Walford Gazette]
- [http://www.nceastenders.com/ North Carolina EastEnders Fan Club]
- [http://www.walford.net/ Walford.net] Archive of EastEnders Updates
- [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv.uk.eastenders/ rec.arts.tv.uk.eastenders]
- [http://popmatters.com/tv/reviews/e/eastenders.shtml PopMatters] EastEnders review
- [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/eastenders/eastenders.htm Encyclopedia of Television]
- [http://www.saveeastenders.com Save EastEnders] Originally set up when the show was taken off air in America
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/insight_eastenders_face2face.shtml BBC writers room] Face2Face with EastEnders
- [http://www.e-subversive.net/soundboards/eastenders/ Eastenders soundboard]
- [http://www.walford-underground.com/ Walford Underground] EastEnders Community
- [http://www.talkwalford.co.uk/ipb/ Talk Walford] Talk about the show with fans Category:EastEnders Category:Social realism simple:EastEnders

BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom (see British television). It produces programmes and information services, broadcasting on television, radio, and the Internet. It is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. The BBC's main domestic services on television include BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, the news channel BBC News 24, and the children's channels CBBC and CBeebies. BBC One and BBC Two are available via conventional analogue transmission — the remainder can be viewed only by those with digital reception equipment. The BBC also operates the UK's only dedicated politics channel, BBC Parliament, covering events in the British Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, and European Parliament, as well as highlights of overseas legislatures such as the US Congress. National radio services include Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, and Radio 4, and BBC Radio Five Live. Digital radio services include 1Xtra, BBC 6 Music, BBC 7, BBC Five Live Sports Extra, and the BBC Asian Network. There is also a huge catalogue of BBC Local Radio stations (such as BBC Hereford and Worcester), Open Centres, BBC Buses, and BBC Big Screens. In addition the BBC operates the BBC World Service on radio, funded by and operated in cooperation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The BBC's commercial operations are run by BBC Worldwide. These include its international television services which are funded commercially and include the international news channel BBC World, as well as entertainment channels BBC Prime, BBC America, BBC Canada and BBC Japan. There is also a Canadian children's channel BBC Kids. BBC Worldwide also co-runs, with Flextech, the UKTV network of stations in the UK, producers of amongst others UKTV Gold. In Australia and New Zealand, BBC Worldwide runs the UK.TV network jointly with Foxtel and Fremantle Media. The BBC produces a large body of programming for domestic and worldwide broadcast. Many programmes (especially documentaries) are sold to foreign television stations, and comedy, documentaries and historical drama productions are popular on the international DVD market. It is an autonomous corporation run by a board of governors appointed by the government for a term of four years (formerly five years). This is soon to be changed to a BBC trust. Management of the organisation is in the hands of a Director-General appointed by the governors. Its domestic programming and broadcasts are funded by levying television licence fees upon the owners of television sets.
History
television licence broadcast]] The British Broadcasting Company was founded in 1922 by various private firms, to broadcast experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November. The BBC, with John Reith as general manager, took on its current form in 1927 when it was granted a Royal Charter of incorporation. It started experimental television broadcasting in 1932, becoming a regular service (known as the BBC Television Service) in 1936. Television broadcasting was suspended from September 1, 1939 to June 7, 1946 during the Second World War. Competition to the BBC was introduced for the first time in 1955 with the commercially and independently operated ITV. The BBC introduced a second TV channel, (BBC 2), in 1964, renaming the existing channel BBC 1. BBC 2 was broadcast in colour from July 1, 1967, and was joined by BBC 1 and ITV on November 15, 1969. Since the deregulation of the UK television and radio market in the 1980s, the BBC has faced increased competition from the commercial sector (and from the advertiser-funded public service broadcaster Channel 4), especially on satellite television, cable television, and digital television services. The BBC Research Department has played a major part in the development of broadcasting and recording techniques. In the early days it carried out essential research into acoustics, programme level measurement, and noise measurement and established standards that rapidly spread, particularly throughout the British Empire. In this respect it filled a role that is now lacking in many areas, since it was motivated by the desire for quality, not profit.
The Corporation

Funding
The principal means of funding the BBC is through the television licence. Such a licence is required to operate a broadcast television receiver within the UK. The television licence is set by the government and enforced by the criminal law but is collected privately and does not pass through the state before reaching the BBC, and hence it is inaccurate to refer to the BBC as a "state" broadcaster. A similar licence used to exist for radios, but was abolished in 1971. These licences were originally issued by the British General Post Office (GPO), which was then the regulator of public communications within the UK. For a more detailed historical explanation see British Broadcasting Company. In the case of the elderly (over 75), TV licences are funded by the government. Subsidised TV licences are available for the blind and the residents of residential care homes. Licence fees are set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (a Cabinet Minister). Collecting them has been the responsibility of [http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ TV Licensing] (an autonomous arm of the BBC) since 1990, but much of the collection work is subcontracted to the independent companies Capita and AMV. The television licence is often the subject of controversy; a number of people — including the Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Miller — argue that the licence is a regressive tax, in that the very poorest are those least likely to have a licence, and least able to pay the fine for not having a licence. However, supporters of the licence fee claim that it helps maintain a higher quality of programming on the BBC compared to its commercial rivals. Some also claim that it also leads to better programmes on the commercial channels as they seek to draw viewers/listeners away from the BBC's output. Because government regulation controls its funding, the BBC is able to provide domestic public service broadcasting to educate, inform and entertain, free of commercial advertising. However, the BBC does engage in commercial advertising in its publications and some broadcasting activities. In theory the BBC is answerable only to the licence payer. World Service external broadcasting is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The BBC has the largest budget of any UK broadcaster. Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years. Its annual budget is approximately £3.7 billion.
Revenue sources
The [http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/annreport/report05_keysections_dl.html#section6 2005 Annual report] gave revenue sources in millions of:
- £2,940.3m licence fees collected from consumers.
- £624.3m from BBC Commercial Businesses.
- £247.2m from the World Service, of which £225.1m is from grants (primarily funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), £16.7m from subscriptions, and £5.4m from other sources.
- £23.5m from other income, such as providing content to overseas broadcasters and concert ticket sales. In total, the BBC's group income is estimated at £3835.3m for 2005.
Licence fee expenditure
The BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4309325.stm gives] the following figures for expenditure of licence fee income:
- 50% - BBC One and BBC Two
- 15% - local TV and radio
- 12% - network radio
- 10% - digital (BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies)
- 10% - transmission costs and licence fee collection
- 3% - BBC Online, Ceefax, and Interactive Content (including bbc.co.uk and BBCi)
Management
The BBC is a nominally autonomous corporation, independent from direct government intervention. It is run by an appointed Board of Governors. General management of the organisation is in the hands of a Director-General appointed by the governors. The governors at 19 January 2005 are:
- Michael Grade (Chairman)
- Anthony Salz (Vice Chairman)
- Professor Ranjit Sondhi (National Governor for the English regions)
- Professor Fabian Monds (National Governor for Northern Ireland)
- Professor Merfyn Jones (National Governor for Wales)
- Jeremy Peat (National Governor for Scotland)
- Deborah Bull
- Dame Ruth Deech
- Dermot Gleeson
- Angela Sarkis
- Richard Tait, appointed for a four-year term on 1 August 2004. The current Director-General is Mark Thompson. On his first day in the role he announced a shake-up of senior management, including the replacement of the Executive Committee, formed by directors of divisions within the BBC, with a streamlined nine-member Executive Board currently consisting of:
- Mark Thompson (Director-General)
- Mark Byford (Deputy Director-General)
- John Smith (Chief Operating Officer)
- Zarin Patel (Group Finance Director)
- Caroline Thomson (Strategy)
- Stephen Dando (BBC People)
- Tim Davie (Marketing, Communications & Audiences)
- Jana Bennett (Television)
- Jenny Abramsky (Radio and Music)
- Ashley Highfield (New Media and Technology)
Current review of Royal Charter
The BBC's Royal Charter is currently under review. Although the Charter is widely expected to be renewed in 2006, some proposals have suggested dramatic changes. On 2 March 2005 the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell published a green paper setting out her proposals for the future of the BBC. The main points of this are:
- Maintenance of the licence fee system until at least 2016
- Abolition of the BBC Governors, to be replaced by a "BBC Trust"
- Increasing outsourcing of production (a process already started by Mark Thompson)
- Reduced emphasis on "ratings for ratings' sake" and copycat programmes (such as reality television).
Political and commercial independence
The BBC motto is Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation and many have claimed that it is the most respected broadcaster in the world. The BBC is, in theory, free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners. However, the BBC is regularly accused by the government of the day of bias in favour of the opposition and, by the opposition, of bias in favour of the government. This gave rise to the satirical name "Buggers Broadcasting Communism". Similarly, during times of war, the BBC is often accused by the UK government, or by strong supporters of British military campaigns, of being overly sympathetic to the view of the enemy. This gave rise, during the first Gulf War, to the satirical name "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation". Conversely, some of those who style themselves anti-establishment in the United Kingdom or who oppose foreign wars have accused the BBC of pro-etablishment bias or of refusing to give an outlet to "anti-war" voices. Some have argued that a current of anti-BBC thinking exists in many parts of the political spectrum and that, since the BBC's theoretical impartiality means they will broadcast many views and opinions, people will see the bias they wish to see. Quite often domestic audiences have affectionately referred to the BBC as the Beeb, or as Auntie; the latter originated because of the somewhat fuddy duddy [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/10_october/21/hull.shtml Auntie knows best] attitude which goes back to the early days when John Reith was in charge. Political influence may manifest itself via appointments to its Board of Governors and by threats to change the level of the licence fee. Commercial competition has influenced BBC programming on both radio and television throughout its history. Despite these criticisms, many still regard the BBC as a trusted and politically neutral news source across the globe, and in some areas the BBC World Service radio is the only available free press.
Location
Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London is the official headquarters of the BBC. It is home to the national radio networks Radio 2, 3, 4, 6 Music, and BBC 7. On the front of the building are statues of Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest), by Eric Gill. Broadcasting House is currently undergoing renovation, scheduled for completion in 2010. As part of a major reorganisation of BBC property, Broadcasting House is to become home to BBC News (both television and radio), national radio, and the BBC World Service. The major part of this plan involves the demolition of the two post-war extensions to the building and construction of a new building, to be of equal "architectural creativity", beside the existing structure. While the rebuilding process is being undertaken many of the BBC Radio networks have been relocated to other buildings in the vicinity of Portland Place. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2010. In 2007/2008 BBC News is expected to relocate from the News Centre at BBC Television Centre to what's being described as "one of the world's largest live newsrooms". As well as the various BBC buildings in London, there are major BBC production centres located in Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and Newcastle upon Tyne. There are also many smaller local and regional studios scattered throughout the UK, some of which are known locally as "Broadcasting House" in imitation of the BBC's London headquarters.
BBC Services
Newcastle upon Tyne Among its many services are domestic radio and television stations. The BBC also jointly operates a number of other broadcasting services, namely the UKTV channels, some of the Discovery channels, and several other services available on satellite & cable services in the UK. It also has many non-broadcasting commercial ventures within the United Kingdom including book & magazine publishing (BBC Books), and multimedia production services (DVDs, CDs, computer games) provided by BBC Multimedia. The BBC has both satellite and cable broadcasting joint-ventures serving the United States, Canada, and other countries. In addition the BBC operates a number of radio and television world services in cooperation with funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, one of which includes a recently set up TV news station in the Middle East in the Arabic language. Before the introduction of Independent Television in 1955 and subsequently Independent Radio in 1973, it held a monopoly on broadcasting. More recent de-regulation of the British television broadcasting market produced analogue cable television and satellite broadcasting and later digital satellite, digital cable and digital terrestrial television (DTT). Today the BBC broadcasts in almost all media and operates an award-winning Internet service, bbc.co.uk, itself indicative of the corporation's continued ability to move with the times.
BBC Departments

- Governances & Accountability
- Programming Groups
- News
- Drama Entertainment & CBBC
- Factual & Learning
- Sport
- Broadcasting Groups
- World Service
- TV
- New Media & Technology
- Radio & Music
- Nations & Regions
- Professional Services
- Strategy (formerly Strategy and Distribution and merged with Policy and Legal)
- Marketing & Comms
- Finance Property & Business Affairs
- BBC People (to 2004, Human Resources & Internal Communications)
- Commercial Groups
- BBC Resources Ltd
- BBC Worldwide Ltd
BBC News
BBC News is the largest broadcast news gathering operation in the world and it produces almost 160 hours of news output every hour. BBC News provides its services to BBC domestic radio as well as television networks such as; BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, BBC World, as well as BBCi, Ceefax and BBC News Online. New BBC News services that are also proving popular are mobile services to mobile phones and PDAs. Desktop news alerts, e-mail alerts, and digital TV alerts are also available. The BBC News Centre maintains its headquarters within the BBC Television Centre. It also operates regional news offices throughout the UK and bureaux in almost every country around the world. Coverage of political events is controlled from the Millbank Studios in Westminster. On 5 July 2004 the BBC celebrated 50 years of television news. Its first bulletin was telecast in 1954. The BBC had carried news programmes prior to this, but in the form of newsreels. Although the BBC news service in the UK is mostly non-commercial by reason of its financial base, it does compete for its audience with commercial companies such as Sky News and ITN. During major events the majority of domestic television viewers in the UK tune to BBC news for information, but its coverage does not come without criticism.
Radio
The BBC has five major national stations, Radio 1 ("the best in new music"), Radio 2 (the UK's most listened to radio station, with 13.7 million weekly listeners), Radio 3 (specialist-interest music such as classical, world, arts, drama and jazz), Radio 4 (current affairs, drama and comedy), and Radio 5 Live (24 hour news, sports and talk). There is also a network of local stations with a mixture of talk, news and music in England and the Channel Islands as well as national stations of BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru (in Welsh), BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (in Scots Gaelic), BBC Radio Ulster, and BBC Radio Foyle. The BBC has been in the forefront of digital radio broadcasting with Five Live Sports Extra (a companion to Five Live for additional events coverage), 1Xtra (for black, urban and gospel music), BBC 6 Music (alternative genres of music), BBC7 (Comedy, Drama & Kids shows), Asian Network (Asian talk, music and news in many Asian languages), and World Service. For a world-wide audience, the BBC produces the BBC World Service, which is broadcast on shortwave radio (DAB Digital Radio in the UK) and can be received in many places across the globe. It can be received in most capital cities and it is a major source of news and information programming, and it is funded by the British Foreign Office. It broadcasts in 43 different languages, (including English) in the most relevant local language. The German Service, created in 1938, which has recently been discontinued, played an important part in the propaganda war against Nazi Germany. The authoritative source is Carl Brinitzer's book "Hier spricht London". Brinitzer, a German lawyer from Hamburg living in exile in London, was a founding member. Another famous member of staff was Egon Jameson (Egon Jacobsson), a former Ullstein journalist from Berlin. Since 1943, the BBC has also provided radio programming to the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which broadcasts in countries where British troops are stationed. All of the national BBC radio stations, as well as the BBC World Service, are available over the Internet in the RealAudio streaming format. The BBC has also recently experimented with the free, open source Ogg Vorbis streaming audio format and podcasting.
Television
BBC One and BBC Two are the BBC's flagship television channels. The BBC is also promoting the new channels BBC Three and BBC Four, which are only available via digital television. The BBC also runs BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, and two children's channels, CBBC and CBeebies. The BBC's commercial subsidiary BBC Worldwide is also part of a joint venture with Flextech in the TV company UKTV, and provides various channels for overseas markets, such as BBC World, BBC Prime, BBC America, BBC Canada and BBC Kids (in Canada), and BBC Japan. Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), allowing members of HM Forces serving all over the world to watch and listen to their favourite programmes from home on two dedicated TV channels.
Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC responsible for the commercial exploitation of BBC programmes and other properties. It broadcasts television stations throughout the world. The cable and satellite stations BBC Prime (in Europe, Africa the Middle East, and Asia), BBC America, BBC Canada, and BBC Japan broadcast popular BBC programmes to people outside the UK, as does UK.TV in Australasia. BBC Worldwide also runs a 24-hour news channel, BBC World. In addition, BBC television news appears nightly on many Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, as do reruns of BBC programmes from Lionheart TV. BBC Worldwide also maintains the publishing arm of the BBC and it is the third-largest publisher of consumer magazines in the United Kingdom [http://www.bbcworldwide.com/aboutus/corpinfo/annualreps/review2001/Documents/Magazines.pdf]. BBC Magazines, formerly known as BBC Publications, publishes the Radio Times and a number of magazines that support BBC programming such as BBC Top Gear, BBC Good Food, and BBC Music. In addition, BBC Worldwide acquired the independent magazine publisher Origin Publishing in 2004.
Internet
The bbc.co.uk [http://www.bbc.co.uk/] website, formerly BBCi and before that BBC Online, includes a comprehensive news website and archive. It is the UK's most-visited digital destination with over 3 million web pages and that number is rising fast every day. According to Alexa's TrafficRank system, in August 2005 bbc.co.uk was the 10th most popular English Language website in the world. (References: [http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none Global Top 500 Sites] - [http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=lang&lang=en Top English Language Sites]) The website allows the BBC to produce sections which complement the various programmes on television and radio, and it is common for viewers and listeners to be told website addresses for the bbc.co.uk sections relating to that programme. The site also allows users to listen to most Radio output live and for seven days after broadcast using its RealPlayer-based "Radio Player"; some TV content is also distributed in RealVideo format. A new system known as iMP is currently under development, which uses peer-to-peer and DRM technology to deliver both radio and TV content for offline use for up to 7 days. In recent years some major on-line companies and politicians have complained that the bbc.co.uk website receives too much funding from the television licence, meaning that other websites are unable to compete with the vast amount of advertising-free on-line content available on bbc.co.uk. Some have proposed that the amount of licence fee money spent on bbc.co.uk should be reduced — either being replaced with funding from advertisements or subscriptions, or a reduction in the amount of content available on the site. In response to this the BBC carried out an investigation, and has now set in motion a plan to change the way it provides its online services. bbc.co.uk will now attempt to fill in gaps in the market, but will guide users to other websites for currently existing market provision. (For example, instead of providing local events information and timetables, users will be guided to outside websites already providing that information.) Part of this plan included the BBC closing some of its websites, and rediverting money to redevelop other parts.
Interactive
BBCi is the brand name for the BBC's interactive digital television services, which are available through Freeview (digital terrestrial), as well as satellite and cable. Unlike Ceefax, BBCi is able to display full-colour graphics, photographs, and video, as well as allow the viewer to interact with the programme. Recent examples include the interactive sports coverage for football and rugby football matches and an interactive national IQ test. All of the BBC's digital television stations, with the exception of BBC Parliament on digital satellite, allow access to the BBCi service. However, the amount of content available on the digital television BBCi service does not currently match the amount available on Ceefax, which is still available on analogue terrestrial television. BBCi provides viewers with over 120 interactive TV programmes every year, as well as the 24/7 service.
Unencrypted satellite transmissions
In March 2003 the BBC announced that from the end of May 2003 (subsequently deferred to 14 July) it intended to transmit all eight of its domestic television channels (including the 15 regional variations of BBC 1) unencrypted from the Astra 2D satellite. This move was estimated to save the BBC £85 million over the next five years. While the "footprint" of the Astra 2D satellite was smaller than that of Astra 2A, from which it was previously broadcast encrypted, it meant that viewers with appropriate equipment were able to receive BBC channels "free-to-air" over much of Western Europe. Consequently, some rights issues have needed to be resolved with programme providers such as Hollywood studios and sporting organisations, who have expressed concern about the unencrypted signal leaking out. This led to some broadcasts being made unavailable on the Sky Digital platform, such as Scottish Premier League and Scottish Cup football, while viewers watching on other platforms can see the broadcasts without issue, although when rights contracts were renewed, these issues were resolved.
References
#Briggs, Asa. - The BBC - The First Fifty Years - Condensed version of the five-volume history by the same author. - Oxford University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-19-212971-6 #Coulton, Barbara. - Louis MacNeice in the BBC - Writer and producer from 1941 to 1961 in the Features Department of BBC radio. - Faber and Faber, 1980. ISBN 0-571-11537-3 #Gilder PhD., Eric. - Mass Media Moments in the United Kingdom, the USSR and the USA. - Historical background relating to the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd., its founding companies; their transatlantic connections; General Post Office licensing system; commercial competitors from Europe prior to World War II and offshore during the 1960s. - "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu Press, Romania. 2003. ISBN 973-651-596-6 #Milne, Alasdair. - The memoirs of a British broadcaster - History of the Zircon spy satellite affair, written by a former Director General of the BBC. A series of BBC radio programmes called "The Secret Society" led to a raid by police in both England and Scotland to seize documents as part of a government censorship campaign. - Coronet, 1989. - ISBN 0-34-049750-5 #Moran, Lord. - Churchill at War 1940 to 1945 - The Memoirs of Churchill's Doctor, with an introduction by Lord Moran's son, John, the present Lord Moran. - This diary paints an intimate portrait of Churchill by Sir Charles Watson, his personal physician (Lord Moran), who spent the war years with the Prime Minister. In his diary, Moran recorded insights into Churchill's character, and moments when he let his guard down, including his views about the BBC being riddled with communists. - Carroll & Graf, 2002. Reissue ISBN 0-78-671041-1 #Parker, Derek. - David & Charles - Radio: The Great Years - History of BBC radio programmes from the beginning until the date of publication. 1977. ISBN 0-7153-7430-3 #Spangenberg, Jochen. - The BBC in Transition. Reasons, Results and Consequences - Encompassing account of the BBC and influencing external factors until 1996. - Deutscher Universitaetsverlag. 1997. ISBN 3-8244-4227-2 #Wilson, H.H. - Pressure Group - History of the political fight to introduce commercial television into the United Kingdom. - Rutgers University Press, 1961. #West, W.J. - Truth Betrayed a critical assessment of the BBC, London, 1987, ISBN 0-7156-2182-3
Index

See also

- BBC Asian Network
- BBC Birmingham
- BBC Research Department
External links

BBC web pages

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ bbc.co.uk: BBC Homepage]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/ bbc.co.uk: About the BBC]
- [http://www.bbcnews.com/ News: BBC News World Edition]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/keyfacts/stories/broadcasting_house.shtml BBC Press Office - Broadcasting House]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/heritage/buildings/broadcasting_house.shtml History of the BBC - Broadcasting House]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/ BBC Editorial Guidelines]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/charter/pdf/charter_text.shtml Copy of Royal Charter 1]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/features/blog/ Morris Telford's Blog – BBC Shropshire]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation/test2004/index.shtml BBC Test the Nation]
Articles from news websites

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4375652.stm Evolution of bbc broadcasting languages]
- [http://www.sundayherald.com/33018 Sunday Herald: The BBC's war ... caught in crossfire (Mark Damazer, Deputy Director, BBC News)] — 13 April 2003
- [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63857,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4 Wired: BBC to Open Content Floodgates BBC's Creative Archive project] — 16 June 2004
- [http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,753213,00.html Media Guardian: BBC renews conflict of interest guide for staff] — 11 July 2002
- [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1426542,00.html Media Guardian: Tories go to war over 'leftie' BBC] — 27 Feburary 2005
- [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article313482.ece The Independent: Blair tells Murdoch: 'gloating' BBC is 'full of hatred for America'] — 18 September 2005
Personal sites

- [http://www.miketodd.net/other/bhhistory/ Broadcasting House - a potted history]
- [http://www.roger.beckwith.btinternet.co.uk/bh/bh32/bh32_i.htm Broadcasting House in 1932]
- [http://www.htw.info/bbc.html Historical Television Website: This is the BBC]
- [http://www.tv-ark.org.uk TV Ark - The British Television Museum]
- [http://www.globalcitizen.co.uk/about/essays/bbc.doc Essay examining the reasons for and against the licence fee]
- [http://www.thetvroom.com The TV Room]
- Category:British television Category:British cultural icons ja:英国放送協会 simple:BBC

Soap opera

:Soap Opera redirects here. For the album by The Kinks, see Soap Opera. Soap Opera, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline "Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon".]] A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio and most recently on mobile phones. This genre of TV and radio entertainment has been in existence long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap. What differentiates a soap from other television drama programs is their open-ended nature. Plots run concurrently, and lead into further developments: there is rarely a need to "wrap things up", although soaps that run in series for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic cliffhanger.
Development of the "soap opera"
The soap opera form first developed on US radio in the 1920s, and expanded into television starting in the 1940s, and is normally shown during the daytime, hence the alternative name, daytime serial drama. The first concerted effort to air continuing drama occurred in 1946 on the DuMont television series Faraway Hill. Soap operas, in their present format, were introduced to television in 1949. Two long-running soaps, Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life, first started broadcasts in 1951. The term "soap opera" originated from the fact that when these serial dramas were aired on daytime radio, the commercials aired during the shows were largely aimed at housewives. Many of the products sold during these commercials were laundry and cleaning items, and included a jingle praising the product. This specific type of radio drama came to be associated with these particular commercials, and this gave rise to the term "soap opera" — a melodramatic story that aired commercials for soap products. Though soap operas are still sponsored by companies such as Procter & Gamble, the diverse demographic groups that soap operas attract have caused other advertisements for such things as acne medication and birth control, appealing to a much younger audience.
Soap opera characteristics

Plots and storylines
Most soaps follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place. The storylines follow the day-to-day lives of these characters. In many soap operas, in particular US daytime serials, the characters are generally more handsome, beautiful, seductive, and wealthy than the typical person watching the show. This is true to a lesser extent in Australian and UK soap operas which largely focus on more everyday characters and situations. Many Australian and UK soap operas explore social realist storylines such as marriage breakdown or financial problems, and sometimes include significant amounts of comedy. However in general even the most realistic soap operas take everyday, ordinary lives and exaggerate them to a degree where they are still plausible, yet are more dramatic. Romances, secret relationships, catfighting, extra-marital affairs, and genuine love has been the basis for many US soap opera storylines. The most popular soap opera characters, and the most compelling and popular storylines, have usually involved a romance between two characters, of the sort often presented in paperback romance novels. Soap opera storylines sometimes weave intricate, convoluted, sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, are swept off their feet by dashing (yet treacherous) lovers, sneak behind their lovers' backs, and engage in other forms of adultery that keep their audiences returning to find out who is sleeping with whom, who has betrayed whom, who is having a baby, or who is related to each other. Remarkable (sometimes unbelievable) coincidences are sometimes used to enhance the drama. If a young woman in a soap secretly has a single sexual encounter with a boyfriend in high school, this forbidden affair will come back to haunt her at the very moment it would cause the most harm — such as on the day of her wedding. Previously-unknown (and sometimes evil) twins may emerge, and unexpected calamities disrupt weddings with unusual frequency. Much like comic books—another popular form of linear storytelling—a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent without an on-camera corpse, and sometimes not even then. The death of Dr. Taylor Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful seemed permanent as she had flatlined on-camera and even had a funeral. But when actress Hunter Tylo returned to the show in 2005, the "flatlining" was explained away with the revelation that Taylor had actually gone into a coma. More recently, the American soap opera "Passions" currently involves some supernatural or science fiction elements in their ongoing storylines. This can include, for instance, an alien character or a vampire character (most infamously seen on Port Charles). Often, these characters are isolated in only one of the ongoing storyline "threads", which can seemingly allow a fan to ignore them if they do not like that element, a form of krypto-revisionism.
"Soap music"
In addition, the musical soundtrack used for a soap opera uses a style that instantly identifies it as belonging to soap operas. Soaps aired during the golden age of radio usually used organs to produce most of their music (because they were cheaper than full-blown orchestras). The organists from the radio serials moved over to television, and were heard on some serials as late as the 1970s. Like the storylines themselves, soap opera soundtracks were overblown and melodramatic. An instantly recognizable characteristic of a soap (one that has been spoofed and imitated many times) consists of a scene where a lovely woman tells her husband or boyfriend that she no longer loves him, for she has been seeing someone else...and at that moment, a single, blaring organ chord resonates on the soundtrack, emphasizing this dramatic moment. Organ music has been abandoned on the serials for thirty years now and pre-recorded music has largely taken its place. For most of the 1970s and continuing through the latter part of the 1990s, full orchestras performed the underscore. Today, however, soap music performances have, in a sense, come full circle from keyboard to keyboard as it is almost entirely done by synthesizers, thereby avoiding the high cost of using orchestras.
Soaps in the United States
The American soap opera The Guiding Light started as a radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s when Irna Phillips was in dispute with Procter & Gamble, The Guiding Light has been heard or seen every weekday since it started, making it the longest story ever told. Other American soaps that have been telecast for more than thirty years (and are still in rotation) include As the World Turns, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live, All My Children, and The Young and the Restless. Due to the shows' longevities, it is not uncommon for multiple actors to play a single character over the span of many years. It is also not uncommon for a single actor to play several characters on other shows over the years. Actors such as Robin Mattson, Roscoe Born and Michael Sabatino have played no less than six soap roles. In the USA, the shows purely known in the vernacular as soap operas are broadcast during daytime. In the beginning, the serials were broadcast as fifteen-minute installments each weekday. In 1956, the first half-hour soaps debuted, and all of the soaps broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. When the soap opera hit a fever pitch in the 1970s, popular demand had most of the shows, one by one, expanded to an hour in length (one show, Another World, even expanded to ninety minutes for a short time). More than half of the serials (and all of the pre-'80s hour-long serials on the air today) expanded to the new time format by 1980. Today, eight out of the nine American serials air sixty-minute episodes each weekday. The USA soap opera Port Charles used the practice of running 13-week "story arcs", in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc.
The Golden Age of American television
story arc Many soaps, in the beginning of television, found their niches in telling stories in certain environments. The Doctors and General Hospital, in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. As the World Turns dealt heavily with Chris Hughes's law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, when she tired of being "the loyal housewife" in the 1970s, became one of the first older women on the serials to become a working woman. The Guiding Light dealt with Bert Bauer (Charita Bauer) and her endless marital troubles. When her status moved to that of the caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were then put on display. Search for Tomorrow told the story, for the most part, through the eyes of one woman only: the heroine, Joanne (Mary Stuart). Even when stories revolved around other characters, she was almost always a main fixture in their storylines. Days of Our Lives first told the stories of Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. In later years, the show branched out and told the stories of their five children.
American soaps: for the evening, too
Prime time serials were just as popular as those in daytime. The first real prime time soap opera was Peyton Place (1964-1969), based in part on the original 1957 movie (which was itself taken from the 1956 novel). The structure of the series (its episodic plots and running story arcs) would set the mold for the prime time serials of the 1980s when the format reached its pinnacle. The successful prime time serials of the 1980s included Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. These shows frequently dealt with wealthy families and their personal and big-business travails. Common characteristics were sumptuous sets and costumes, the presence of at least one glamorous bitch-figure in the cast of characters, and spectacular disaster cliffhanger situations. Dallas, its spin-off Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest all initially featured episodes with self-contained stories and specific guest stars who appeared in just that episode. Each story would be completely resolved by the end of the episode and there were no end-of-episode cliffhangers. After the first couple of seasons all three shows changed their story format to that of a pure soap opera with interwoven ongoing narratives that ran over several episodes. Dynasty featured this format throughout its run. The soap opera's distinctive open plot structure and complex continuity also began to be increasingly incorporated into major American prime time television programs. The first significant drama series to do this was Hill Street Blues, produced by Steven Bochco, which featured many elements borrowed from soap operas such as an ensemble cast, multi-episode storylines and extensive character development over the course of the series. The success of this series prompted other drama series and situation comedy shows such as St. Elsewhere, E.R., The West Wing and Friends to incorporate soap opera style stories and story structure to varying degrees. The prime time soap operas and drama series of the 1990s, such as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Dawson's Creek, focused more on younger characters. In the late 1990s and early 2000s many new prime time soap operas were produced for cable television, including Sex and the City and Queer As Folk. Currently the primetime soap operas The O.C., Desperate Housewives and LOST enjoy significant success, and Desperate Housewives is the first primetime soap since the 1985-1986 season to have been in the top ten for the overall season.
Evolution of US daytime soaps
For several decades US daytime soap operas concentrated on family and martial upsets, legal dramas and romances. The action rarely left the interior settings within the fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns in which the shows were set. Exterior shots, once a rarity, were slowly incorporated into the series Ryan's Hope, which was set in New York City; unlike in many earlier series, Ryan's Hope was set in an already-existing place, and outside shoots were needed to give the series more authenticity. The first exotic location shoot was made by All My Children, to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soaps planned lavish storylines after seeing the success of the All My Children shoot. Another World went to St. Croix in March 1980 to culminate a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice. Search for Tomorrow taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorpate action and adventure storylines, featured an increased emphasis on youthful romance, and supercouples. One of the first and most popular supercouples was Luke and Laura in General Hospital. Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own. With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue Luke and Laura saved the world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a Left-Handed Boy Statue, and helped a Princess find her Aztec Treasure in Mexico. Other soaps attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location - frequently in exotic locales. During the 1990s the mob stories and the action and adventure plotlines fell out of favour with producers due to overall lower ratings for daytime soap operas and the resultant budget cuts. In the 1990s soaps were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots to Argentina, France, Hawaii, Jamaica, Italy and Japan as they had in the 1980s. In the 1990s soaps increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues, such as Erica Kane's drug addiction on All My Children, the re-emergence of Vicky Lord's Multiple Personality Disorder on One Life to Live, and Katherine Chancellor's alcoholism on The Young and the Restless. Other social issues included Breast Cancer, AIDS, and racism.
Characteristics of American soaps today
U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera ideal, and many distinctive storyline and filming techniques set them apart from soap operas in other countries. The format of ending a scene to switch to other characters but to then return to the original scene at the precise time the viewer last left it is unique to U.S. daytime serials. Elizabeth Taylor American soap operas since the 1980s have shared many common visual elements that set them apart dramatically from other shows:
- Overhead spotlighting, or back lighting, is often placed directly over the heads of all the actors in the forground, causing an unnatural shadowing of their features along with a highlighting of their hair. Back lighting was always a standard technique of film and television lighting, though it was mostly abandoned in the mid-to-late eighties due to its somewhat unnatural look. The technique has nevertheless persisted in soap operas.
- The rooms in a house often use deep stained wood wall panels and furniture, along with many elements of brown leather furniture. This creates an overall "brown" look which is very noticeable, and which is supposed to be associated with the wealth of the characters portrayed.
- The video quality of a soap opera is usually lower than comparable prime time television shows of the time, due to the lower budgets and quicker production times involved. This is due to the fact that the shows are recorded on videotape and not on film like primetime productions.
Current American daytime television schedule
The daytime serials in America air five days a week, Monday through Friday. Local affiliates have the right to air the serials whenever they wish, but this is how the networks schedule them. All times are Eastern local time
- (subtract one hour for all other time zones). :
- Guiding Light airs at 10 a.m. in some markets in the East, while some local CBS affiliates do not air it at all. :
- In some markets, Days of our Lives and Passions air on NBC affiliates with a one-hour difference either earlier or later (this stemmed from a 1990s agreement that many affiliates switch the timeslots of Days of Our Lives and Another World, which previously occupied the slot Passions now holds). :
- The scheduling of other soaps is at the discretion of your local station, so check your local listings for exact times in your area.

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Soaps in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, soap operas are one of the most popular genres, most being broadcast during prime time. Unlike the rich, glamorous and good-looking characters typical of US soap operas, most UK soaps focus on working-class communities. The most popular is ITV's Coronation Street, which regularly attracts the highest viewing figures for any programme. Coronation Street since the show was first aired in 1960.]] As in the USA, soap operas began on radio and consequently were associated with the BBC. The BBC continues to broadcast one of the earliest radio soap operas in Britain, the Archers on Radio 4. It has been running since 1951 nationally. It continues to attract over five million listeners, or roughly 25% of the radio listening population of the UK at that time of the evening. Although British soaps do not have the same commercial origins as their American counterparts, the term "soap opera" was adopted in Britain for this genre in the early 1980s with the influx of popular American soaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. In the 1960 Coronation Street revolutionised UK television and quickly became a British institution. Other soap operas of the 1960s Emergency Ward 10 (ITV), and on the BBC Compact (about the staff of a women's magazine) and The Newcomers (about the upheaval caused by a large firm setting up a plant in a small town) however none came close to making the same impact as Coronation Street. During the 1960s Corries main rival was Crossroads, a daily serial that began in 1964 and was broadcast by ITV at teatime. Crossroads was set in a Birmingham (England) motel and while the series was popular, its purported low technical standard and bad acting was much mocked. By the 1980s its ratings had begun to decline and several attempts to revamp the series through cast changes and later, expanding the focus from the motel to the surrounding community, were unsuccessful, and Crossroads was cancelled in 1988. A later rival to Corrie was ITV's Emmerdale Farm (later renamed Emmerdale) which began in 1972 in a daytime slot and had a similar northern setting (Yorkshire, this time). Increased viewing figures saw Emmerdale being moved to a prime-time slot in the 1980s. When Channel 4 began in 1982 it launched its own soap, the Liverpool based Brookside, which over the next decade re-defined the UK television soap. In 1985, the London based soap opera EastEnders debuted and was a near instant success with viewers and critics alike. Critics talked about the downfall of Coronation Street, but this was put to rest in 1994 when the two serials were scheduled opposite each other, with Corrie winning handily. For the better part of ten years, the show has shared the number one position with Coronation Street, but the ratings for EastEnders reached an all-time low as of late 2004, allowing Corrie to regain the top spot. 2004 Daytime soaps were unknown until the 1970s because there was virtually no daytime television in the UK. ITV introduced General Hospital, which later transferred to a prime time slot, and Scottish Television had Take the High Road, which lasted for over twenty years. Later, daytime slots were filled with an influx of old Australian soap operas such as The Young Doctors, The Sullivans, Sons and Daughters and eventually, Neighbours and Home and Away. These achieved significant levels of popularity and Neighbours and Home and Away were moved to prime-time slots and the UK soap opera boom began in the late 1980s. Subsequent to this 1992 saw the BBC launch the disastrous Eldorado to alternate with EastEnders but it only lasted a year, but this failure did not stop the ever increasing prominence that soap operas would have in UK schedules. When Channel Five began in March 1997 it came with its own soap opera, Family Affairs which debuted as a five-days-a-week soap. In 2001 a new version of Crossroads was produced featuring a mostly new cast, but it did not achieve satisfactory ratings and was cancelled in 2003. In 1995 Channel 4 introduced Hollyoaks, a new soap that would serve as a replacement for the outgoing Brookside. Family Affairs, which was broadcast opposite the racier Hollyoaks, never achieved significantly high viewing figures and after several dramatic revamps of the cast, changes in style and even location, it was cancelled in late 2005. Unlike US daytime soaps which have almost always been shown five episodes a week, Monday through Friday, UK soaps for many years usually only aired two nights a week. The exception was the original Crossroads, which began as a five days a week soap opera in the 1960s, but was later reduced. In 1989<