EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Emilia di Girolamo didn't mention who the Script Editor was in her Tweets.

Emilia's only written episodes for EastEnders in 2008 and 2009, so she wasn't around for the 2006 period.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You must be thinking of Brigie de Courcy, who was the Series Story Producer during the awful Kate Harwood era. Brigie is now EP of the ailing Irish soap Fair City.

[DRW50]

Thanks! There must be some thing about three named people at EE, what with Dominic Treadwell Collins now ruling the roost. I wonder what she wrote in 2008.

I have watched some of today's episode, not that far into it yet but I did love all the stuff about Jack being so helpful to his family what would they do without him. The only thing he's ever helped himself to is lowering the skirts of every Mitchell but Peggy. Didn't he even throw Tanya and her children out on the street when he had enough of them?

I think my biggest LOL of the day was seeing Roxy with Amy. I thought she had sold that child for bad hair extensions.

Edited April 2, 2010 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

LOL! at Adam dancing in his wheelchair.

Darren can be an interesting and funny character outside of this Libby/Adam crap.

The actress that plays Lauren will be very pretty in a few years when she grows into her looks. I have to laugh at Abi being much taller than Lauren though, even though Lauren is older.

Danny's overprotectiveness of Roxy is a bit weird and almost borders on incest. It feels like he's attracted to his damn sister.

I have to laugh at Jack being shot and Devon Anderson doing those heavy emotional scenes in the hospital. Lindsey Coulson CARRIED those heavy emotional scenes.

Ben's little temper tantrum. But I did feel sorry for him. It's obvious that Stella's abuse is still effecting him. She's scarred him for life.

I, of course, loved the Ryan and Janine scenes towards the end of the episode:

Ryan: The reason I couldn't go though with all of this - you pimping me out. Is ... I'm in love with you Janine! I mean you're the most HORRENDOUS human being I've ever met in my life, but I'm so completely and utterly in love with you. It makes me sick! Alright, now it's your turn

Janine: Whaaat?

Ryan: You've gotta say it! 'Cause I know you feel the same and then we'll REALLY have a chance, and I WANT THAT, JANINE! I WANT THAT MORE THAN ANYTHING ... but you've got to say it! Come on, tell me you love me. Please! Say it!

::Janine conceals her feelings and stands still as Ryan leaves to go to the train station::

Looking forward to more of this in Friday's episode.

Edited April 2, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

I would put this down to the really lousy acting from the "hair model" (finally that term becomes useful) who plays Danny. Danny was also very much wanting to break up Ronnie/Jack, before he abruptly stopped focusing on Ronnie when he realized Roxy was an easier mark. The thing with Danny is that we have no idea whether he's actually their brother. There were no tests, and we have never seen any of the conversations between Glenda and Danny. I am guessing that either they're both cons, or that they're cons as well as lovers. I'm just glad my initial fears that they would try to do Shannis 2.0 between Ronnie and Danny didn't happen. I LOVED the scene where she dismissed Danny's running back to Roxy with, "That's OK. You're her poodle, not mine." That is probably my favorite Ronnie scene of all time.

Those scenes seemed odd. Lauren saying she didn't want to be happy around Max because of Bradley -- that line should have gone to Abi, as Lauren has never been very close to Max. I guess all of this was to show us how weak Max is compared to saintly Jack. All I kept thinking was that Lauren ran Max over and it's hard to go back to the scenes about Max and his long-suffering kids after that.

The other thing was that I was again focused on what strong chemistry Jake Wood and Lacey Turner in those scenes. I really wish the show would put them together, especially if that puts out unbearable Tanya.

The Ben scenes have been poorly written. They never should have had it where he would seem like he was just being a brat. He was badly damaged from the abuse inflicted on him. They should have had this referenced earlier on because I think people have less sympathy for Ben than they should.

I liked those scenes too, mainly because of Charlie Brooks. When she gets the chance to act, few are better. Finally, a decently written Janine scene. I also thought whoever plays Ryan did a good job.

Lindsay Coulson really was the lifeblood of most of the Jack shooting scenes. I especially loved her grinding her worthless son down to nothing. He is a user and loser and also continues to remind me of Barney.

Edited April 2, 2010 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

Part 2 of the Matthew Robinson interview.

http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2315

Some fascinating stuff. He was the one who cast Den, Dot, and Pauline. Den helped him cast Billy Mitchell many years later (smart move with Perry Fenwick -- I honestly think Billy would be long gone if Perry weren't so good).

He's not a Michelle Collins fan!

[Sylph]

Why is Emilia's episode a big deal?

So who's editing now? Ormerod, Klee, Dosanjh, King...? Phil Hunter?

We'll know when the episode airs.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't know, but she left EastEnders to write for the UK version of Law & Order, and claims she was lured back to EastEnders to do these these two episodes only because they're a huge event of some kind. Who knows...

In yesterday's credits, Sharon Batten was listed as the Script Producer, and Caroline Ormerod was listed as the Script Editor.

Of course the Script Editor varies depending on the episode. I know Helen Jenkins was listed as the Script Editor on Tuesday.

Looking forward to watching Friday's episode. Janine and Ryan.

[Sylph]

So no one here knows what happened to Darren's Russian models scheme? They just dropped that story and he didn't pay for it?

[DRW50]

Didn't he move on from that and start some webcam of Keith or something?

[Sylph]

I don't remember. But hadn't he, like, taken a lot of money from those 'clients'? And should've payed for it?

But how come you know about her?

And why are they giving the episode to her and not to Ashdown, who seems to be their go-to guy for this "big events"?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Was doing some digging and found her Tweets.

It's probably not some grand event, but she made it out to be something big as she's only coming back to write just two episodes and claimed she wouldn't if the content wasn't as good.

[Sylph]

You should do it more often! I love it when you snoop around!

For all the Sharon Batten's talk about how EastEnders is written, and she really went into detail, I now know less than I did before!

How do they coordinate the whole thing? We have a story meeting every several months, I presume at regular intervals, the in-house writers pitch stuff and then what? Someone writes it all down in one big, whopping story document or no? Do scriptwriters work off of outlines or what? How do they establish the exact sequence of events, from episode to episode? How does the guy on Thursday know what happened in Wednesday script?

[DRW50]

They're going to need to expand beyond Ashdown anyway. Several years ago they could count on several other writers. Now that they have leaned only on him it seems like his big hyped episodes fall increasingly flat (the Max/Stacey two-hander, Bianca/Ricky's wedding).

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Is Lyn Papadopoulos still at Hollyoaks? I remember her writing some of my favourite Hollyoaks episodes during the Bryan Kirkwood era. I hope Kirkwood can pick her up for EastEnders if he's interested in a past writer he's worked with before.