EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I hope they won't just have him being a flunky in this dull Vincent/Mitchells story, or have him fight over Abi or Louise. I mostly want to see him with Denise.

 

He was pretty decent on Doctor Who.

 

Ex-Alan talks about Sian Blake's murder.

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sian-blakes-eastenders-lover-howard-7149581

Edited January 10, 2016 by DRW50

[NothinButAttitude]

I want to see Jordan with Denise too. I really hope that they don't try and revive Ben v. Jordan via the Vincent/Mitchell rivalry you already stated, @DRW50. I hope he has his head screwed on right and is just a normal, nice young chap on the Square. 

[BetterForgotten]

Nowhere else to put this, but WTF? It looks like Mal Young has joined Y&R as a producer, per his Twitter account. 

 

Edited January 10, 2016 by BetterForgotten

[LondonScribe]

And there are pictures he has taken of Y&R actors. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this. Perhaps he has taken Mary O'Leary's role? Or is a Supervising Producer? I say that as he appears to be on set. 

I guess we'll see.

[BetterForgotten]

O'Leary has worked with JFP since GL, I would be very surprised if she was fired/left. JFP, Young, and Pratt - what a clusterfuck of egos. Let's see where this ends up indeed.

 

 

[NothinButAttitude]

WHAT?!!!

 

OMG. I hope that they eventually boot Jill's ass (along with Pratt) and allow him to take the EP role. He at least seemed to run EE at a logical time, so I could see him restoring logic to Y&R.

[BetterForgotten]

Speaking of old staff members, I'd never seen Tony Jordan's 2007 British Soap Award tribute for Outstanding Contribution to British Soap before, glad it was posted.

 

If anything, the Slater's (and Sharon and the Mitchell's for that matter) are missing him. He really loved those characters and wrote the best material for them:

 

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[LondonScribe]

Well, let's just see. Mal Young, it has been said, started the shift in focus from Brookside's roots to what subsequent producers, specifically Paul Marquess, did, which was more heightened drama (and sensationalism). A style of producing that allowed the newly established Channel 5 to use him to create Family Affairs and the BBC to poach him to the position of Head of Drama that same year. If I have this right, he was responsible for the Eastenders stewardships of both Matthew Robinson (Steve Owen character, Saskia murder, Matthew Rose saga, Tiffany exit, Grant Mitchell exit, etc) and John Yorke (you know what he did and who he introduced, lol) as well as the creations of afternoon soap, Doctors and Holby City. Add the re-commissioned Dr Who to the mix (though I think he may have left by the time it came on air).

He is not without question, having hired the well meaning but unfortunate Louise Berridge at Eastenders and former Emmerdale and Coronation Street producer Mervyn Watson to overhaul and completely 'soap-up' Casualty at roughly the same time ITV hired Paul Marquess with the same mandate.  

Having being hired both here and in the States for 19Television (I think it's called) as Head of Drama, it would be quite a turn up if he isn't taking up a fairly significant role at Y&R. A potential replacement one (or both) of the current Executive Producers? I don't know as the senior executives at CBS and Sony seemed to be all in with the two incumbents.

[DRW50]

I always thought Mal Young was a woman...

 

I hope he has better luck than Daran Little did! 

 

So have any of you watched Jordan's new show Dickensian?

[BetterForgotten]

Part of Young's mandate when the BBC hired him in 97-98 was to revamp EE, which has been seen as being on decline since the latter part of 1996 (though to be fair, Corrie was also having major issues during this time). He and Matthew Robinson were successful in giving the show new life, and did set up a lot for John Yorke's lauded tenure. There's so many factors in what went wrong with Louise Berridge's tenure, but that's another topic. 

Edited January 10, 2016 by BetterForgotten

[DRW50]

It must be quite a comedown likely being a flunky at Y&R.

[NothinButAttitude]

So you all think that Mal is there to push out either Jill or Chuck?

[BetterForgotten]

I'm thinking he's more of a consultant, but we'll see. He never specified what his job title is and isn't answering that question on Twitter. 

 

 

Somewhere Martine McCutcheon is drafting a memo to the Y&R cast, starts 2:15 in:

 

 

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Edited January 10, 2016 by BetterForgotten

[NothinButAttitude]

I am all for him axing a huge portion of the cast. Go, Mal! Just ax the proper ones. 

[cassadine1991]

That would be quite an interesting thing.