I love EastEnders but the Queen Vic fire is painfully stale and unoriginal – here’s why
Can the foundations of the Walford institution really take another battering? I'd love to know how much Elaine and George Knight fork out on insuring the place each month
EASTENDERS are blowing up the Queen Vic – again – as they’ve clearly ran out of ideas ahead of their 40th anniversary.
Soaps are often accused by fans – and critics – of recycling storylines every couple of years.
It can be at times warranted, but sometimes unavoidable as writers attempt to hold a mirror up to society and draw awareness on important issues affecting communities.
This year in Coronation Street, Bethany Platt left her family worried for her life as she awoke in a foreign hospital to learn she would have a stoma bag for the rest of her life, having had botched liposuction.
A similar storyline will no doubt rear its head again as there’ll be many more Bethany’s with body dysmorphia in years to come, such is the world we live in.
However, there’s no excuse for EastEnders execs to blow up The Queen Vic pub yet again.
Granted, the last time the place was ablaze was 14 years ago as Phil Mitchell threw that faithful match on the ground in front of his devastated mother Peggy.
It was event television and had fans gripped as the Beeb perfectly aired the late Dame Barbara Windsor’s final scenes – at that point anyway – as she bowed out after years in the role.
The storyline made perfect sense for fans and did justice on Peggy’s decision to quit Walford; the pub was her everything and now it was destroyed.
Can the foundations of the Walford institution really take another battering? I’d love to know how much current landlords Elaine Peacock and George Knight fork out on insuring the place each month.
Earlier this month, The Sun reported how EastEnders will screen a huge explosion in the boozer that will ‘tear the Vic apart’.
Located smack-bang in the centre of Albert Square, the Queen Vic is the epicentre of drama, from furious bust-ups to scandalous romps and has housed the most iconic Walford matriarchs.
Fiery alcoholic Angie Watts and her husband Den once resided there, as did Peggy Mitchell obviously, Sharon Watts, Kat Slater, Pat Butcher – and not to mention Chrissie Watts after she bumped off her hubby Den and took control.
It’s synonymous with EastEnders and such an easy target for lazy script writing and story ideas. Could we not blow the Minute Mart up? Surely it would make sense to explain the decision to revert it back to that God-awful green colour.
When a whopping £87million has been spent with taxpayers’ money to fund the shiny new EastEnders set and compound at Elstree, having ran £27m over budget and was delivered four years late – maybe let’s not destroy it?
Alex Doyle
We know the pub will always be a part of The Square and won’t become eye-watering expensive shoebox flats, so what’s the point of blowing it only for viewers to know it will eventually reopen again?
The last year alone has showed us soaps don’t need big storylines to engage their fans and keep them tuning in. This time last year we were gearing up for the highly-anticipated reveal of who the dead body was on the floor of The Vic on Christmas Day.
Outgoing executive producer Chris Clenshaw left fans’ jaws dropped, aghast as the credits rolled, reeling having watched Linda Carter kill Keanu Taylor in defence of her best mate Sharon.
The scenes easily sit on the highly-esteemed pedestal of best ever Christmas Day moments, nearby to 2007 when Tanya and Bradley Branning – as well as the wider family – learned their respective partners were having an affair.
In the last year we’ve lost BBC medical drama Doctors due to the rising costs in the production sector and they don’t show signs of reducing, with Casualty already slashing its episode number in a bid to stay on air.
Earlier this year Beeb bosses announced they were drawing up plans to sell off the land that currently houses EastEnders to raise funds.
When a whopping £87million has been spent with taxpayers’ money to fund the shiny new EastEnders set and compound at Elstree, having ran £27m over budget and was delivered four years late – maybe let’s not destroy it?
