EastEnders at 40: how a ‘public service soap’ became a national institution

By Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Film and Media, Aberystwyth University

Thirteen million people across the UK sat down to watch a brand new soap opera that burst onto their screens on February 19 1985. The first character to speak on EastEnders was Dirty Den, as he came to be known, played by Leslie Grantham. Breaking into a dingy flat with fellow characters Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) and Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Den uttered the words “Stinks in ‘ere, dunnit?”, before discovering the elderly Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton) close to death.

Up until this point, the BBC had not had much luck with the continuing serial drama, or soap opera, format. Its first…

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