Eastenders, live!

I don't usually watch Eastenders but when I heard they were doing a live programme I thought it would be interesting to watch. I wondered how they would cover up mistakes and my biggest thought was how it would look unedited!

Eastenders celebrated its 25th birthday by screening a live episode of the soap. It was made so interesting because of the huge storyline going on in the soap. There has been lots of curiousity about who infact murdered 'Archie Mitchell', the killer was revealed in the live episode. What made it so exciting for viewers was the fact that they were unaware of who Archie's killer was, and so were the actors. Script writers wrote 10 possible endings which were rehearsed and actors had to adapt to what was happening live being watched by millions of viewers


On the whole, I thought the cast did really well. There was a slight slip up at the beginning when 'Jack Branning' muddled up his words slightly, but other than that it ran smoothly up until 'Bradley Branning's' death. It was here that i noticed Bradley twitching after falling off of a building from being chased by police. I also noticed 'Max Branning' stick his fingers down his throat, attempting to be sick live for the programme at the sight of Bradley plunging to his death. This would have looked decent if the camera had cut away from him quicker.

The main let down in my opinion was the technical difficulties involved. There was nothing major, but it was easily recognisable where the cameras were cutting and its transition to the next scene was not as quick as perhaps it usually is. There was also an aspect of dodgy camera shake in 'Albert Square', a renowned place in the soap when people came out at the realization of Bradleys death. These problems couldn't really be helped though as they were filiming live and obviously had no time to edit what they'd filmed, which other episodes would have had done to them.

There were loads of possible killers purposely made to create suspense for the audience and throughout the programme people were pointing fingers at who they believed was Archie's killer. Lots of people thought it may have been Peggie, being his wife, or Ronnie, his daughter who reveals he sexually abused her in this episode. It was at the very end of the programme that 'Stacey Slater' admits to killing her rapist Archie following her newly-wed husband's death.