During the lockdowns of 2020, when we were all sick to the teeth of zoom quizzes, but before we finally succumbed and agreed to quietly watch Netflix – I contemplated a blog of ‘my top 10s’. These lists never made it out of mind’s eye and onto the page, but one of the initial ideas I had was for ‘my top 10 favourite TV shows’.
The listing would have contained a combination of serious dramas (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, This is England) and satirical comedy (The Thick of It, Derry Girls, Fleabag). A bit of a variety, but something each share in common is that they comment on the world we live in. Into this, I was going to include the long running BBC serial, Eastenders.
My rationale for Eastenders’ inclusion went something along the lines of thus: to have something which can show the ongoing effects of some of societies’ deepest, most complex and challenging issues – in a way which is so easily accessible it can be shown four times a week at prime time on the UK’s largest channel – is nothing short of remarkable. Sure, at times it feels contrived (Ian Beale being forced into a business partnership with his rival Max Branning), boring (Ian Beale complaining about bin collections) or just downright ridiculous (Ian Beale becoming homeless and living feral). But just look at some of the storylines it has mined from the lives of everyday British citizens, and reflected back onto them.
Take Keegan Baker: a young, hardworking, mixed-race entrepreneur struggling to make a life for himself and his wife in spite of institutions – whether consciously or unconsciously – being unfairly weighted against him because of his age, class and race. Or the Baker family: living constantly on the breadline. Or in the way it handled the death of long-standing Jewish character Dr. Legg; who’s final days were marred by anti-semitic abuse at a time when hate crimes have been on the rise.
And then there was the story of Chantelle and Gray Atkins. A young, attractive couple with two beautiful children. They were wealthy, healthy, and popular. Outwardly living a seemingly idyllic life, Gray was very cleverly introduced as a character to feel sympathy towards. He was shown to be an excellent, loving father and husband, and a hardworking and successful lawyer failing to receive the approval he so clearly deserved from his father-in-law.
However, slowly and carefully, the show began to reveal the shocking mental abuse he had been subjecting Chantelle to. It came as no surprise by the time Gray was revealed as also inflicting physical abuse upon his wife, yet the journey we had been on with this family made it no less shocking. The message Eastenders was trying to send was clear: our perception of domestic abusers as unhinged monsters, who exist outside of civilised society, is not accurate. They could be the man you see in the pub, the colleague, or the seemingly loving father dropping his kids off at the school gate.
The storyline was reaching a climax at the time the show was forced into a hiatus owing to the Covid pandemic. Shortly after returning, the storyline reached its culmination in a single episode where Gray murders his wife; then leaves her for dead. This episode really was a tremendous piece of television. Harrowing, sickening, chilling – there really aren’t enough superlatives to describe a 20 minute piece of television which was as dramatic as anything on Breaking Bad. That Eastenders produced this at a time when it was having to film under social distancing restrictions further justified its place on the list.
At the time of writing (October 2021) Eastenders has not reached anything like those heights, 13 months since Chantelle’s death. Much of this resulted from circumstance. I’ve never worked in television, and so cannot appreciate the challenges they must be experiencing in having to deliver a four times weekly serial in an era of social distancing restrictions. Yet still, the handling of the Gray Atkins story in the intervening period has really undermined the message the show had cultivated so carefully in the period leading up to, and including, Chantelle’s murder.
Since then, Gray has completely unravelled. To some degree, the residents of Walford might anticipate some unusual behaviour from a man who lost his wife to a tragic accident (as far as they are aware). However, Gray’s behaviour has now escalated to the point where he has murdered Tina Carter after she confronted him on his abusive nature as well as Kush Kasemi in a fit of jealousy. The latter murder in particular, committed through pushing Kush into an onrushing train at King Cross St. Pancras station speaks of an unhinged monster who has completely lost touch with reality. Gray has now been revealed to Eastenders viewers as a maniacal lunatic. But in turning him into a deranged serial killer the message that domestic abuse is often happening in plain sight, often by people you wouldn’t expect, has been undercut.
I’d argue this is not the only story Eastenders has gotten wrong since its return from its hiatus. Ruby Allen was re-introduced in September 2018 to portray the victim in a planned rape storyline. The show had tackled rape many times before and, whilst always handled sensitively, the focus had typically been on the ‘predatory’ rapist preying on women.
This storyline was crafted to explore the nature of sexual consent. Ruby had been openly flirtatious during a night out, and had consented to sex with someone she had met during the course of the evening – only to wake up next to another man whom she had not consented to have sex with. Amongst other aspects of the storyline, which was handled very well by the show, Eastenders explored how Ruby struggled to get people – even some of her closest friends – to believe that she had not given consent to her rapist, in part because she was seen as behaving ‘deviously’ or even ‘asking for it’ when she flirted with him earlier in the evening.
Louisa Lytton, the actress who plays Ruby Allen, announced her pregnancy in March 2021 meaning the show was obliged to write the character out of the serial for the period of her maternity leave. In her exit, the character manipulated events and people around her, including lying about a pregnancy and perpetuating a lie she had told which had led to the wrongful imprisonment of her former friend, and now love rival, Stacey Slater. The conclusion of this story sees Ruby also wrongfully arrested after losing the support of the people closest to her, including her husband Martin Fowler, because of her persistent lying.
There has always been an ambiguity to the Ruby Allen character. That’s fine, we all have flaws. Furthermore, the evolution of characters is essential in a long running serial drama, and is a reflection on the world we live in. However, in the context of the previous sexual consent storyline the decision to turn the character into a devious liar, who cannot be trusted even by her own husband, feels misjudged. In fact, the final line spoken about her by Jean Slater (Stacey’s mother) as she leaves in a police car that “you can’t believe a word Ruby Allen says” feels particularly jarring. I’m sure it wasn’t their intention, but it would be easy to interpret from this comment that Ruby’s version of events surrounding her rape should not be taken at face value.
Eastenders’ viewing figures have dropped significantly since its return from hiatus. Piers Wenger, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, has cited scheduling changes and the enforced reduction in episodes length to 20 minutes since its return. However, I also think the show has lost control of some of the narratives it is looking to tell, and this loss has been recognised by its viewers. I sincerely hope it can find its way back to leading the way on telling thought-provoking real life story telling, and articulating the important messages of the day as it has done consistently well for over 30 years.
