In 1985, BBC1 launched a soap called EastEnders, created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland. Forty years later, it gave us one hell of an explosive week.
Written by Bryan Kirkwood And Simon Ashdown And Kevin Rundle And Lauren Klee
Directed by Lance Kneeshaw
Sonia: "Welcome to the world, Julia. It's all about to begin."
In the space of four episodes, which included an hour long Wednesday episode on the actual anniversary itself and a live episode on Thursday, there was a lot of plots to cover. Stories that have building up for months but within these episodes, we got plenty of resolutions. Let's break them down.
Phil's Mental Health: Steve McFadden who plays Phil Mitchell has been given plenty of heavy stories in the thirty plus years he's been on the show but the character's battle with depression might be the best one yet. Over the last few months, Phil's isolated himself from everyone, had hallucinations of his mother, Peggy (Jamie Winstone) and during this week, he came close to ending it all. Had it not been for the interventions of Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) and Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), Phil could've taken his own life. This story also involved Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) and Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), though the latter struggled to effectively help his younger brother. Easily the best story of the week.
Who Whacked Cindy?: It was Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth). She was sick of her treacherous daughter in law (Michelle Collins) constantly making a fool out of Ian (Adam Woodyatt) and had Cindy not gotten a little gun happy, Kathy might have kept that secret to herself. Cindy not only shot Ian but she also pushed him in front of a certain car and her antics ended up causing said car to crash into the Queen Victoria pub. In a funny twist of events, Kathy ended up saving Cindy's life, though she wasn't particularly grateful about the save. I had convinced myself the last few days that Peter Beale (Thomas Law) who committed the act and I'm really mixed on it being Kathy. Saying that, I'm actually relieved that Elaine Peacock (Harriett Thorpe), George Knight (Colin Salmon) or any of the Knights did the deed. Now where will Cindy go as a character, considering she's burned every bridge, except for Junior (Micah Balfour) of course?
The Death Of Martin Fowler: A lot of people on social media actually called this one. I certainly didn't. I genuinely thought the show wouldn't have the balls to kill off a legacy character and even when it became apparent that Martin Fowler (James Bye) was a goner, I still thought there was going to be a last minute save for the character. Just when the live triangle between Martin and two of his big love interests Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and Ruby Allen (Louisa Lytton) was about to be resolved, he had to go and die. His death certainly packed an emotional punch with James Bye proving to be one of the most successful soap recasts in the eleven years he played the fruit and veg family man. While the show can survive without Martin, there's something rather sad about the last of the original Fowlers no longer being on the show. I mean there's still Hope and Roman to carry on Martin's legacy though.
Julia or Toni?: It wasn't just deciding on a certain outcome for a love triangle that viewers had to do their due diligence but also the naming of Sonia Fowler's (Natalie Cassidy) baby girl. In the end Julia won out as Sonia had to give birth to her daughter in a crumbling pub with both Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) and Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) as her midwives. Oh and the troublesome baby daddy/wife killer/sister kidnapper Reiss Colwell (Jonny Freeman) getting his just desserts, courtesy of a bathtub crashing down on him. I think we were all happy to see Reiss get a rather brutal but campy death but Sonia will also be departing soon after this anniversary week. Who will end up in her house once she leaves with Bianca and Julia?
The Viewers Decided: Oh, they certainly did. For weeks, UK viewers has a choice in which Denise Fox (Diane Parish) could reunite with estranged husband Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) or continue her relationship with bad boy Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara). Personally, there should've been a throuple option but at the start of the live episode, it was made clear that Denise had in fact chosen Jack over Ravi. The viewers might have decided Jack but a lot of social media were Team Ravi. Can Denise and Jack work for a third time or will they fall into the same patterns that have broken them up over the last few years?
There Was A Wedding: It wasn't all misery on the Square. There was the wedding of Billy (Perry Fenwick) and Honey Mitchell (Emma Barton) and while it wasn't the first time those two went down the aisle, it was a bright spot in a very explosive week. In terms of plots, it might not be the most compelling but Billy and Honey have always been a likeable pairing and giving them the anniversary wedding was a nice touch. The second wedding of the year, following the similarly disastrous one between Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) and Eve Unwin (Heather Pearce) on New Year's Day. Weddings in Walford are not off to a good start in 2025.
- It only took thirty seven years but wasn't it brilliant that Anita Dobson briefly appeared as Angie Watts to give Sharon the strength to fight to survive?
- The title sequence was made to nearly mirror the original one but the river was red. Rubies are associated with 40th anniversaries.
- I got the impression that Linda herself will get a new love interest towards the second half of the year given her conversation with Denise.
- BBC3 hosted a lock in with the cast on Tuesday, presented by Joe Swash (who played Mickey Miller) while the theme's creator appeared on Wednesday's episode of The One Show on BBC1. Ross Kemp also hosted 40 Years On The Square documentary and Lacey Turner had Anita Dobson on her podcast.
- Lacey Turner was pregnant while filming the first three episodes of the week but came back from maternity leave to film the live episode.
- Chronology: February 19th 2025.
The 40th Anniversary Week of EastEnders was certainly a triumph with all the episodes certainly packing a punch and keeping audiences entertained. Overall, while I think I might have preferred the 20th and 30th Anniversaries, this 40th had plenty in its favour. Here's to the next decade of the show. Chris Clenshaw helped to deliver a brilliant week along with the cast and crew.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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