BAFTA Nominations - Continuing Drama

The Bill

Production Team

ITV1/Talkback Thames

Casualty

Production Team

BBC One/BBC Productions

Coronation Street

Kieran Roberts, Kim Crowther, Joe Turner, Kay Patrick

ITV1/ITV Studios

EastEnders

Production Team

BBC One/BBC Productions

Edited May 10, 201015 yr by dannigold

I'm not exactly shocked at those nominations but I'm not sure about them. I don't watch The Bill or Casualty, perhaps they're good (and The Bill is going soon, they may want to have one last moment of praise). I can't say most of Corrie or Eastenders of the past year deserved an award. Unless BAFTA wants to give an award to a show that treats rape and child abuse as nothing more than a plot device to be shrugged off, never to be mentioned again.

I Reckon it will be Eastenders. I do.

Why does Casualty get nominated, but Holby City doesn't? Personally, Holby is the stronger of the two - it has better writing, and better day-to-day episodes. They have strong characters, and some good character driven stories. Casualty has good production values, with its big stunts, and shock and awe plots, where people get blown-up, trapped in a crashed car, sawn in half with lots of blood and gore (which happens in every episode); the writing is clumpy, contrived, and sometimes cliché. I avoid the show at all costs.

The Bill, IMO, is probably b/c its been cancelled.

Corrie doesn't deserve to be nominated, much less win. EE aren't that much better, but probably more deserving than Corrie.

Deadly boring episode. I don't even remember what happened.

Three brief interviews Kris Green of Digital Spy conducted with Nina Wadia & Nitin Ganatra, Cheryl Fergison, and Neil McDermott at the British Soap Awards red carpet...

Enders Ganatra: Nina Wadia's a diamond

Monday, May 10 2010, 4:15am EDT

By Kris Green, Soaps Editor

Nina Wadia and Nitin Ganatra at the British Soap Awards 2010

EastEnders actor Nitin Ganatra has described his screen wife Nina Wadia as a "diamond" to work with.

Speaking to Digital Spy on the red carpet at this year's British Soap Awards, Ganatra - who plays postman Masood Ahmed in the soap - said: "I'm really proud of our scenes - Nina's a diamond to work with."

Zainab actress Nina continued: "My phone didn't stop going with really, really lovely stuff people were saying. And I have to say that he made me cry a few times as well. And that wasn't the acting - he just hurt me a lot!"

Ganatra joked: "There was a scene where I accidentally punched her in the left boob... that brought tears to her eyes!"

You can watch the clip of this brief interview here: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a218915/enders-ganatra-nina-wadias-a-diamond.html

Enders Fergison delighted by new boss

Monday, May 10 2010, 11:00pm EDT

By Kris Green, Soaps Editor

EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison has praised the show's "lovely" new executive producer Bryan Kirkwood.

The 46-year-old, who plays struggling single mother Heather Trott, said of the programme's new showrunner: "He's gorgeous. He's the most lovely, lovely new guy. He's really really nice. I tell you what, things are really going [places]."

Teasing Heather's future, she mused: "I don't know about the Trott but [bryan] said that I have something nice coming up..."

You can watch the brief clip of the interview here: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a218916/enders-fergison-delighted-by-new-boss.html

McDermott: Ryan and Janine love each other

Monday, May 10 2010, 11:25am EDT

By Kris Green, Soaps Editor

EastEnders star Neil McDermott has said that his character Ryan Malloy is slowly realising he is falling in love with Janine Butcher.

Speaking to Digital Spy on the red carpet at this year's British Soap Awards, the 29-year-old mused: "They're as close as they can get right now. Janine's really fallen for Ryan at the moment and Ryan is coming to terms with the fact that he possibly does love Janine... He's doing his best."

Of his new boss Bryan Kirkwood and his long-term future with the show, he continued: "I went up and met him probably about three or four weeks aho and we had a little chat about the future for Ryan and it looks pretty good for me. I'm quite happy and I've got some big storylines coming up which will be screening [within the next few months] around the World Cup!"

He added: "I think September-time I have a big story and then Christmas, so it's great."

You can watch the brief clip of Neil's interview here: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a219078/mcdermott-ryan-and-janine-love-each-other.html

Edited May 10, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I thought Ryan was already supposed to be in love with Janine?

I think she will end things with him soon enough, it will probably all blow up over Stacey's baby.

I'm glad Nitin is praising Nina Wadia, as the show endlessly trashes Zainab to prop Syed.

OMG CARL!!!!!

Zsa Zsa and Leon ae being WRITTEN OUT!!!!

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a219224/leon-zsa-zsa-to-leave-eastenders.html

Exclusive: Leon, Zsa Zsa to leave 'EastEnders'

Tuesday, May 11 2010, 7:24pm EDT

By Kris Green, Soaps Editor

Sam Attwater and Emer Kenny are to leave EastEnders in the coming months, Digital Spy can exclusively reveal.

The pair - who play Leon Small and Zsa Zsa Carter in the show - are the latest cast members to be written out under new executive producer Bryan Kirkwood's tenure.

Their characters first appeared in online spinoff E20, before transitioning into the main show shortly after the run of 12 webisodes.

Speaking of their departure, Kirkwood exclusively told DS: "Emer and Sam have made a real impact in the short time they've been on the Square and we wish them all the best for the future."

He added: "Of course, we look forward to continuing working with Emer in her capacity as a writer on EastEnders: E20."

Attwater and Kenny are the 13th and 14th cast members scheduled to bow out before the end of the year.

Other actors due to leave include Lacey Turner (Stacey Slater), Tiana Benjamin (Chelsea Fox) and Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell).

Since his arrival, however, Kirkwood has cast former Footballers' Wives star Zöe Lucker and soap newcomer Kylie Babbington as mother-daughter duo Vanessa and Jodie Gold.

Edited May 11, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Producer season has begun!

Digital Spy's Kris Green's interview with Bryan Kirkwood!

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/interviews/a219138/bryan-kirkwood-executive-producer-eastenders.html

Bryan Krikwood will first be credited on June 7th, he'll share the EP credit with Santer for the first two weeks.

I'm thrilled with these latest axings. I can't get past the Dick Van Dyke accent and the extremely old (for a teenager) face on Zsa Zsa, and I don't think Emer Kenny is all that great as an actress. She was getting better, but they screwed her over from the start. It was obvious they were thinking of having her with Peter but she looks like his mother! I also don't believe that she somehow had a great place on the show because she was Shirley's niece -- she rarely spent time with Shirley.

Leon was deadwood from the beginning.

I'm also happy that Denise's sister Kim will be joining the show, I hope that means Denise might survive the clearout.

Edited May 11, 201015 yr by CarlD2

Teasers from Bryan Kirkood:

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/scoop/a219167/enders-exec-offers-character-teasers.html

I love how Kirkwood basically admitted that the E20 set were a massive FAIL.

I might as well post this too, even though Kirkwood mentioned it in his interview.

Denise's sister Kim is returning...

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a219222/tameka-empson-returns-to-eastenders.html

This almost sounds like a "No." Or I hope it is.

Do you want Christian and Syed to be together?

"After the story we've told, I wouldn't want to disappoint viewers who have waited so patiently. We have a story beyond where we are now - it's far from the end of these characters."

This also doesn't actually say anything about their relationship.

Are you a fan of Christian and Syed?

"Absolutely. The actors have done an outstanding job. It's a storyline that I've inherited but some of the first episodes I watched as producer were the big reveal with Amira's exit and Syed's suicide attempt. It's stunning material and beautifully played by all concerned. I'm thrilled that I have all the actors involved in this story in the show."

It would be a huge step forward if he ended this very toxic relationship and sent them in separate directions.

In contrast, my approach to EastEnders is to make it as real as possible. It must exist in reality. Over the course of 25 years of story, the sense of it being a real place with real people has occasionally been lost.

That's very good to hear. I hope it happens. The attempts by Eastenders in the past few years to try to be a glitzy American style primetime soap have been very poor. The show has become too much of a self-parody.

I also hope he can do something about the show being so obvious and so plot-driven, where characters do things because it fits the plot, not because it's organic.

"Vanessa brings a different flavour to the show. She's very strong-minded, but she's quite a positive character. EastEnders has a lot of very strong, feisty, shouty women and it's great fun - Shirley, Bianca, Carol, Zainab, Denise, the list goes on. We wanted Vanessa to come in with a different energy and although she doesn't suffer fools gladly, she has a real sense of herself. She knows that she's likely to rub women up the wrong way and she knows what she wants. But she doesn't intimidate or use bullyboy tactics. She's clever, interesting and she might just have a secret…

I hope that means she's not going to have to be hardfaced all the time and depressing, which is something that seems to have become the cliche of an Eastenders female. They didn't used to all be that way.

Edited May 11, 201015 yr by CarlD2

He did say Vanessa was going to be "quite positive", whatever that means. She doesn't sound depressed though. I wonder what "secret" she's hiding.

I wonder what type of chemistry Zoe Lucker and Jake Wood will have.

Also interesting that it seems like Vanessa will debut on Kirkwood's first episode...

He seems particularly proud of Peggy's exit, calling it the first big story he got to sink his "teeth into."

He also sems to be planning something big for Stacey's exit.