EastEnders is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London,the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Within eight months of the show's original launch,it had reached the number one spot in BARB's television ratings,and has consistently remained among the top-rated series in Britain. Four EastEnders episodes are listed in the all-time top 10 most-watched programmes in the UK,including the number one spot,when over 30 million watched the 1986 Christmas Day episode. EastEnders has been important in the history of British television drama,tackling many subjects that are considered to be controversial or taboo in British culture,and portraying a social life previously unseen on UK mainstream television.
Brooke Kinsella is a British actress,author and anti-knife crime campaigner. A graduate of the Anna Scher Theatre School,Kinsella has been acting since childhood. She has had various roles on television and in film. Her most notable role is that of Kelly Taylor,who featured in BBC's long-running soap opera,EastEnders,between 2001 and 2004. She has her own drama school called True Stars Academy.
Mark Fowler is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Mark,an original regular character when the series started in February 1985,became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the role in April 1985. Scarboro made brief returns to the role in 1986 and 1987. Scarboro died by suicide in April 1988 and subsequently Mark was recast two years later on his return,with former Grange Hill regular Todd Carty taking on the role. From this point the character was a permanent fixture in the series and Carty remained in the role until the character was written out of the series in early 2003.
Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on 18 September 2000. Zoe arrives in Walford along with her father,Charlie,sisters Kat,Lynne,Little Mo,and grandmother Big Mo.
Vicki Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Emma Herry from the character's birth in 1986 to 1988,Samantha Leigh Martin from 1988 to 1995,and Scarlett Alice Johnson from 2003 to 2004. She is the daughter of Michelle Fowler and Den Watts. The character is born in the serial,conceived in a controversial storyline about teenage pregnancy. Exploiting a whodunnit angle,at the time of the first showing,viewers were not initially told who was the father,and press interest in the fledgling show escalated as journalists attempted to guess. The audience finally discovered his identity in October 1985 in episode 66. Written by series co-creator/script-editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith,it was considered a landmark episode in the show's history. Early suspects were Ian Beale and Kelvin Carpenter,but then four possible suspects are seen leaving the Square early in the episode:Tony Carpenter,Ali Osman,Andy O'Brien,and Den Watts. As Michelle waits by their rendezvous point,a car pulls up and the fluffy white legs of the soap landlord's poodle Roly leap out of a car to give it all away:Den Watts is the father of Michelle's baby. After this storyline the programme started to appear in newspaper cartoons as it moved more and more into the public mainstream. Vicki's character was written out in October 1995,after Susan Tully,who played Vicki's mother Michelle,decided to leave the soap.
Mickey Miller is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Joe Swash. He made his first appearance on 15 April 2003. Introduced as a guest character,Mickey proved popular and was turned into a regular by executive producer Louise Berridge. The character is portrayed as a wheeler-dealer,involved in various money-making scams. A family was built around the character in 2004 when the other Millers moved to Albert Square. It was announced on 25 February 2008 that the characters of Mickey and his stepfather Keith had been axed by EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer. Mickey left on 1 July 2008. In July 2011,it was announced Swash would reprise his role for the departure storyline of his screen brother Darren and appeared for two episodes on 19 and 20 September 2011.
Gus Smith is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Mohammed George. He made his first appearance on 28 May 2002. It was announced in January 2008 that Gus would leave the show later in 2008,and he made his last appearance on 1 May 2008.
Spencer Moon is a fictional character from the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Christopher Parker between 2002 and 2005. Spencer is the brother of Alfie Moon.
Kelly Taylor is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Brooke Kinsella. The character was introduced by executive producer John Yorke,in 2001. She was only due to appear in eight episodes as part of a prostitution/homelessness storyline featuring Michelle Ryan's established character,Zoe Slater,who had run away from home in late 2001 and was living at the same brothel as Kelly. However,the viewer response to Kelly was positive,so she was reintroduced as a regular at the end of 2002. The character remained in the serial until 2004,when executive producer Louise Berridge decided that her storylines had come to a natural end.
Roy Evans is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Tony Caunter from 26 December 1994 to 18 March 2003. Introduced by executive producer Barbara Emile in 1994,Roy is scripted as a love interest for Pat Butcher. Caunter remained a regular character until new executive producer Louise Berridge axed him in 2003,a decision which she later stated she regretted.
Pooja Ashwin Shah is a British actress,filmmaker and model. She is known for her role as Kareena Ferreira in the popular UK soap opera EastEnders. Shah works with her husband directing and writing short films and has won three film awards for them.
Ricky Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Sid Owen. Introduced as a school boy in 1988,Ricky is one of the longest-running male protagonists to feature in EastEnders. Owen originally left the role in 2000 to pursue a music career. However,he reprised the role in 2002 before being axed by producer Louise Berridge in 2004. In 2008,producer Diederick Santer introduced the character for a third time,along with his wife Bianca Jackson. Ricky is portrayed as unintelligent,simplistic,easily led and bossed around by dominant personalities. On 26 February 2011,it was announced that Owen would take a temporary break from the show. The character exited on 19 July 2011,returning five months later on 13 December 2011. Ricky left EastEnders on 17 January 2012. Ricky returned to EastEnders on 20 June 2012 for the wedding of his sister,Janine Butcher,before departing for the final time on 29 June 2012. In April 2016 he had voiced his interest in returning to EastEnders during an appearance on Celebrity Juice. He reprised his role as Ricky for an eight-week stint from 1 December 2022 to 26 January 2023.
Bianca Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders played by Patsy Palmer. The character was introduced by executive producer Leonard Lewis and appeared initially from 1993 to 1999,when Palmer opted to leave. In 2002 executive producer John Yorke brought the character back for a special spin-off show. She returned to EastEnders as a full-time character in April 2008,reintroduced by executive producer Diederick Santer. Palmer took maternity leave in 2010 and Bianca left the series in January 2011. The character returned in December 2011 after Palmer signed a "working mums" contract,which granted her leave from the soap between April and November 2012. The actress quit EastEnders in 2014 and Bianca departed on 12 September 2014. Palmer reprised the role on 2 September 2019 for a guest stint and a second guest stint was scheduled for 2020,but later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 January 2024,it was announced that Bianca will return to EastEnders in the spring for a short stint to collide with the departure of her adopted daughter Whitney Dean;the character returned in the episode broadcast on 4 March 2024.
Dalip Tahil is an Indian film,television and theatre actor. He is best known for his work in Baazigar (1993),Raja (1995),Hum hai rahi pyar ke (1993) and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988),Pyaar Ki Miss Call (2009) along with actor Gaurav Prateek. In the UK,he appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Dan Ferreira,the head of the Ferreira family,from June to December 2003.
Tamwar Masood is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Himesh Patel. He made his first appearance on 1 October 2007. On 12 March 2016,it was announced that Patel would be leaving the show,with Tamwar making his final appearance alongside Nancy Carter on 22 April 2016. After more than three years together,he married Nancy off-screen,in Australia,in 2019.
Christian Clarke is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,portrayed by John Partridge. He first appeared in the show's 3,509th episode,originally broadcast in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2008,and was introduced as the brother of established character Jane Beale. He was introduced as a new homosexual character for the show,following the popularity of Coronation Street's Sean Tully. Christian and Partridge's casting were announced on 20 November 2007.
Syed Masood is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders,played by Marc Elliott,and first appeared on screen on 21 April 2009. Syed is a British Pakistani and is the eldest son of Masood Ahmed and Zainab Masood,and older brother of Tamwar,Shabnam and Kamil Masood. Syed's storylines see him fall in love with a man,Christian Clarke,and his eventual acceptance that he is gay. Syed initially marries his girlfriend Amira Shah but later comes out,and enters a relationship with Christian,despite the pressures of his family and his Muslim faith.
This is a list of British television-related events from 2003.
