Eastenders is 'too white'...

[max_tranmere]

More people watch it now than they did, but less than once watched it. I remember the early days when it pulled in phenomenal amounts of viewers. People like to see a show reflecting the environment they're used to, wherever they're from in the UK, so people would expect Eastenders to be 70-80% white and the rest be what a government cencus form would call "ethnic minority".

Do you think they should make the show minority white? That wouldn't be right, fair, or interesting. I have to say that many of those described on government census forms as "ethnic minority" are actually very racist themselves. There is an Asian mayor in Tower Hamlets, the local people elected him largely because he looks like them, you see ads in local newspapers in British cities where a local authority is trying to find foster parents for what they describe as 'a black child' and ask specifically for a couple of an 'afro-Caribbean background' to foster that child, there is a 'black newspaper' called The Voice, and the list goes on.

Someone landing here from Mars and looking at how we do things could learn very comprehensively just how to be a racist - and they would only have to look at those who would be described as being from "an ethnic minority" to learn how to do it.

[Robches]

Albert Square is already an anomaly. No-one owns a washing machine, and they all spend their spare time in the pub. If they really wanted to reflect the new East End then the Queen Vic would have been turned into a mosque and all the street signs would be in Urdu.

[max_tranmere]

Lol. There are three kinds of eastend now: the traditional old eastend, full of working class people whose families have been there for years (but their numbers are always reducing); the one where no one speaks English and where there are muslim patrols who tell women to cover up and that 'this is an alcohol-free zone'; and the other eastend which is made up of middle-class trendies who love the fact there are tower blocks, graffiti, crack-dens, working class street markets and greasy-spoon caff's.

The third category has been expanding more and more as every year goes by since they started piling into the eastend in the 1990's. Apparently the makers of Eastenders want to show some of this on the show, the Hoxton/Shoreditch type vibe. We already have The Albert bar on the show, run by Sharon which has odd sounding cocktails and very retro-style wording on the walls. We are apparently going to get more of this as the next year progresses. So the trendification of the eastend the show is due to focus on, and there will be little focus on the bedsheet-wearing 'don't drink alcohol in this street' community who also occupy the eastend. Good!

[derrick76]

The 'ethnic minorities' are the real racists???? What rubbish.

[RetroBlueFilms]

The model for Albert Square was Wilton Square just off the New North Road in N1 which is, as any estate agent will tell you, Islington. Even if it borders Dalston.

The whole area has been "improving" for as long as I can remember and if the problem with Eastenders is that it doesn't represent the real East end of today it's because there are too few second home owners, professionals and generally wealthy people living in what is a prime locality, whatever their ethnic origin.

If we consider the kind of area which would surround a "real" Albert Square there would also have to be mention of some council tenants and the like.

[max_tranmere]

I hate to disagree with you but you're wrong. The model for Albert Square was/is Fassett Square in Dalston, just off Graham Road. I've been there and it is identical to Albert Square: the same style of houses, same gardens in the middle with the same fencing around it, and so on. The only differences are there's no pub and on one side of the square there is a former hospital which looks very different. The ex-hospital was derelict for years but they've probably found a new use for the building now as the area has been smartened up a lot in recent times. The square is so similar, it even has those little dead-end things in the corners where you can park a car with the bumper to the wall, just like Albert Square has.

The show was originally called 'E8', which is the postcode for Fassett Square, they filmed the pilot of the show there and were going to continue filming the outdoor scenes there, but it was decided to build a replica at BBC Elstree Studios where it's been filmed ever since. Albert Square, although located in the fictional district of Walford, is supposed to be located about there - you would often heard in the early days of the show references to the Balls Pond Road and how it is just a few minutes walk away. Here are some pictures of Fassett Square, one article here calls the area 'Hackney' but I've always viewed that area as Dalston:





One of the two people who came up with the idea for the show, Tony Holland, lived in a small sideroad in Stoke Newington called Walford Road, and he apparently named the district Eastenders is set in after that.

[MrTickle]

You could say that there is a hospital on the corner of Albert Square as Holby City is filmed there, which Eastenders use whenever they are filming any hospital scenes.
Also, for those that are fans of Auf Wiedersehen pet, they filmed the First series on the plot of Albert Square before it was built. They even had to import bricks from Germany because they were different to ones we use.

[max_tranmere]

The Holby City set is a few hundred yards from Albert Square at Elstree, it is not 'on the corner of Albert Square'.

[steve56]

Boring story about the lesbians trying to have a kid been b4 in others

[Porn Baron]

The smear campaign against Lutfur Rahman is an insult to democracy!



Police to investigate a ?rotten borough? Allegations of cronyism, corruption and religious extremism. Eric Pickles has taken control.