Of Eastenders and Less Mis
I have been tempted – and told – to resurrect my retired TV blog for some time now, but nowhere has it been more fortuitous than during this week’s Eastenders.
Let me recap the joys and the falls. For the past month or so, there has been a new famlee in the Queen Vic, consisting of Shirley Carter’s relatives. (Naturally, these misfits were never mentioned in all the years Shirl graced/melted our screens, despite her tedious weeks after the Murder of Heather that Ev was her ‘only famlee’, but this is a classic Eastenders trope so can be passed over. For now.)
The Carters consist of Mick played by Danny Dyer, a truly awful actor whose main method of thesp seems to be folding his arms, tilting his head to the side and frowning – whether he is acting menacing about the market closure or being kind to runaway Stacey/Jenny; his dreadful wife Linda, played with cringeworthy accuracy by Kellie Bright, and their offspring Nancy and Johnny. (Both of whom can actually act, particularly the excellent Maddy Hill as Nancy.)
Radio Times and other experts in tellyland tell us repeatedly that this ushers in a new era of Walford – again – yet no-one seems to have spotted that dire Danny is as convincing as Fill Mitchell (aka Tomatohead) as an East End gangsta.
Yet. I was silent until now. But Thursday’s episode, opening with Linda Carter blaring Do You Hear the People Sing (from ‘Less Mis’) crossed a line, as did Danny Dire untunefully referring to ‘the barricades’ the week before. The only musical I have ever liked. I still weep.
However. Once this was blotted from my mind with the brain bleach I normally keep for inadvertent glimpses of The X Factor, matters did improve. Although it makes me wince to write it, Linda then used her fired up revolutionary spirit to lead The People in a protest against the closing of Bridge Street Market – and I may have cheered when Tamwar declared he was ‘not a sheep’, revolutionally dropped his clipboard and joined the protest.
I have possibly watched too much Less Mis, but it is cheerworthy to see soap characters manning barricades of sorts, particularly as this fits with new Eastenders boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins’s assertion that a ‘real’ East End should reflect the new types now living and working there. Shoreditch red-trousered twats, as they’re more commonly known, but the 'East End' has seen traditional markets and shops fall like flies as the area is gentrified, so this may have been an unusual nod to the ‘living in the real world’ gallery.
Unlike the rest of the episode, concerning Kat’s obsessive attempts to ruin the life of fugitive cousin Stacey by blowing her cover and forcing the truth to be revealed to her boyfriend of two years. Like many themes in Eastenders when the Beale fish and chips are down, famlee was used as a plot device weaker than Dire’s acting, either to introduce a new or recurring character, or to cause one to behave in uncharacteristic ways. I am a fan of both Kat and Jessie Wallace’s acting, but really.
The other subplots concerned Massood getting angry again (this should happen more often; sublime acting) and Jane/Ian considering whether they should get back together with Ian/Jane. Ian Beale’s string throughout the decades of attractive, competent and normal women (possibly not Laura) is possibly the most unrealistic Eastenders trope yet. Don’t do it, Jane.
I do despair. Although the latest news in Eastenders development is that the godawful annoying Lucy Beale is to be killed off. This is clearly because Dominic Treadwell-Collins, along with the rest of the Eastenders viewing public, has weighed up the balance of a long-standing character versus the annoyance of her ‘acting’ by folding her arms and scowling, so it must be applauded. Apparently the ‘who killed Lucy' story is to occupy us over the summer months, in the usual long drawn out Eastenders whodunnit tradition. But I shall probably watch.
Although if they bring back Deano… that’s me gone for good.
Previous Eastenders and TV blogs: http://lauracanning.net/journalism.html; scroll down to Eye on the Box.
In Other News this week, I've written about events in France this year for Pitchup (http://www.pitchup.com/blog/2014/feb/... published the third edition of Taste the Bright Lights and prepped my press packs in time for London Author Fair on 28 February; managed to properly cook tofu for the first time (I am sad but it was yum); noticed a thigh muscle after a couple of weeks of working out and decided that I really am going to buy a motorbike. I am buying a piggy bank for it and everything.
Let me recap the joys and the falls. For the past month or so, there has been a new famlee in the Queen Vic, consisting of Shirley Carter’s relatives. (Naturally, these misfits were never mentioned in all the years Shirl graced/melted our screens, despite her tedious weeks after the Murder of Heather that Ev was her ‘only famlee’, but this is a classic Eastenders trope so can be passed over. For now.)
The Carters consist of Mick played by Danny Dyer, a truly awful actor whose main method of thesp seems to be folding his arms, tilting his head to the side and frowning – whether he is acting menacing about the market closure or being kind to runaway Stacey/Jenny; his dreadful wife Linda, played with cringeworthy accuracy by Kellie Bright, and their offspring Nancy and Johnny. (Both of whom can actually act, particularly the excellent Maddy Hill as Nancy.)
Radio Times and other experts in tellyland tell us repeatedly that this ushers in a new era of Walford – again – yet no-one seems to have spotted that dire Danny is as convincing as Fill Mitchell (aka Tomatohead) as an East End gangsta.
Yet. I was silent until now. But Thursday’s episode, opening with Linda Carter blaring Do You Hear the People Sing (from ‘Less Mis’) crossed a line, as did Danny Dire untunefully referring to ‘the barricades’ the week before. The only musical I have ever liked. I still weep.
However. Once this was blotted from my mind with the brain bleach I normally keep for inadvertent glimpses of The X Factor, matters did improve. Although it makes me wince to write it, Linda then used her fired up revolutionary spirit to lead The People in a protest against the closing of Bridge Street Market – and I may have cheered when Tamwar declared he was ‘not a sheep’, revolutionally dropped his clipboard and joined the protest.
I have possibly watched too much Less Mis, but it is cheerworthy to see soap characters manning barricades of sorts, particularly as this fits with new Eastenders boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins’s assertion that a ‘real’ East End should reflect the new types now living and working there. Shoreditch red-trousered twats, as they’re more commonly known, but the 'East End' has seen traditional markets and shops fall like flies as the area is gentrified, so this may have been an unusual nod to the ‘living in the real world’ gallery.
Unlike the rest of the episode, concerning Kat’s obsessive attempts to ruin the life of fugitive cousin Stacey by blowing her cover and forcing the truth to be revealed to her boyfriend of two years. Like many themes in Eastenders when the Beale fish and chips are down, famlee was used as a plot device weaker than Dire’s acting, either to introduce a new or recurring character, or to cause one to behave in uncharacteristic ways. I am a fan of both Kat and Jessie Wallace’s acting, but really.
The other subplots concerned Massood getting angry again (this should happen more often; sublime acting) and Jane/Ian considering whether they should get back together with Ian/Jane. Ian Beale’s string throughout the decades of attractive, competent and normal women (possibly not Laura) is possibly the most unrealistic Eastenders trope yet. Don’t do it, Jane.
I do despair. Although the latest news in Eastenders development is that the godawful annoying Lucy Beale is to be killed off. This is clearly because Dominic Treadwell-Collins, along with the rest of the Eastenders viewing public, has weighed up the balance of a long-standing character versus the annoyance of her ‘acting’ by folding her arms and scowling, so it must be applauded. Apparently the ‘who killed Lucy' story is to occupy us over the summer months, in the usual long drawn out Eastenders whodunnit tradition. But I shall probably watch.
Although if they bring back Deano… that’s me gone for good.
Previous Eastenders and TV blogs: http://lauracanning.net/journalism.html; scroll down to Eye on the Box.
In Other News this week, I've written about events in France this year for Pitchup (http://www.pitchup.com/blog/2014/feb/... published the third edition of Taste the Bright Lights and prepped my press packs in time for London Author Fair on 28 February; managed to properly cook tofu for the first time (I am sad but it was yum); noticed a thigh muscle after a couple of weeks of working out and decided that I really am going to buy a motorbike. I am buying a piggy bank for it and everything.
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