Who killed Archie Mitchell? Britain enjoys a soap opera cliffhanger as ‘EastEnders’ turns 25

By Jill Lawless, AP
Friday, February 19, 2010

UK soap ‘EastEnders’ celebrates 25 years of misery

LONDON — Someone killed Archie Mitchell, bludgeoning the pub landlord with the bust of Queen Victoria that stood proudly atop his bar.

Millions of Britons wanted to know who did it; thousands placed bets. Mitchell was a character in the soap opera “EastEnders,” which marked its 25th birthday Friday with a live episode, when up to 15 million viewers tuned in to learn Stacey Slater had murdered him in revenge for raping her.

The BBC said even the actor playing the killer did not know whodunit until half an hour before the live transmission. The cast rehearsed 10 possible endings as it prepared for a complex broadcast involving 51 actors, 36 camera operators and 13 makeup artists.

British soaps have a special place in the nation’s heart, attracting huge ratings and generating political debate, despite being gritty, unglamorous and routinely derided by cultural commentators.

“American soaps are about watching beautiful people suffer,” said Tim Teeman, arts editor of The Times of London newspaper and a big soap fan. “We like to watch ugly people suffer.”

“EastEnders” was launched by the BBC in 1985 as a cockney rival to the northern English soap “Coronation Street,” which is marking its 50th birthday this year. “EastEnders” is set in Albert Square, a TV version of a typical working-class London district. There’s a Tube station, Victorian houses, a street market, a cafe, a laundromat and a pub, the Queen Victoria, that serves as the center of community life.

The Queen Vic is where the show’s first great villain, “Dirty” Den Watts, served his wife Angie with divorce papers at Christmas 1986 after she had lied about having terminal cancer — an event watched by 30 million people, more than half the British population.

More recently, it is where Archie met his demise — the 76th “EastEnders” character to die.

Past residents of Albert Square have been shot, stabbed, strangled, impaled, burnt to death and run over. A study in the British Medical Journal once concluded that a soap character was a more dangerous role than bomb disposal expert, steeplejack or Formula One race car driver.

Unlike their American counterparts, British soaps are broadcast in the evening, and have a strikingly earthy tone. “EastEnders” is a distinctive mix of violence, implausible plots — long-lost children pop up regularly, and more than one character has come back from the dead — and finely observed everyday detail.

Jamie Medhurst, a lecturer in film and television at Aberystwyth University, said British soaps emerged from a tradition of social realism, and still have one foot rooted in that world.

“They have to keep within the bounds of realism,” he said. “The audiences have to be able to see something of their own lives.”

The stars, too, are expected to remain down-to-earth. Gillian Taylforth, who starred on “EastEnders” for 15 years, said her family had been less than thrilled to learn she had got a part in a soap.

“I said: ‘I’ve got this fantastic new job,’” she told the BBC on Friday. “And my mum and dad went: ‘Oh,’ and their faces dropped … They said: ‘We thought you were going to tell us you’d got engaged.’”

British soaps have fans in high places — Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, recently expressed a desire for a walk-on part in “Coronation Street.” But some politicians remain unconvinced of their worth.

Two Conservative lawmakers squared off this week on whether “EastEnders” is good for society. The party’s culture spokesman, Jeremy Hunt, wished the show happy 25th birthday and praised it for raising difficult social issues. But children’s spokesman Tim Loughton said it perpetuated damaging stereotypes.

“Social workers are always caricatured as sandal-wearing interferers; the police as pretty dim and flat-footed and teachers as snotty busybodies,” he wrote on a Conservative blog.

Supporters argue that “EastEnders” takes on serious social issues, from teen pregnancy to drug abuse, racism and homophobia, and has reflected — and at times pushed — changes in British society.

The show recently saw its first Muslim wedding, when Syed Masood married his fiancee Amira in a lavish ceremony — to the dismay of his secret boyfriend, Christian.

Some had predicted there would be a negative reaction to a gay Muslim character, but the story line has been welcomed by viewers, with many fans rooting for Syed and Christian’s romance to succeed.

“In the beginning soaps were leading public opinion, and that’s why they were so shocking,” Teeman said. “Now public opinion is ahead of them, so you keep having to up the ante. You can no longer just have a gay couple. You have a gay couple who are separated by religion, basically. And the audience is on their side, 100 percent.”

On the Net: www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/twentyfive/

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