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BBC GIVES PEGGY SENDOFF
THAT U.S. CAN’T WATCH; BFI
DISSES EASTENDERS, AGAIN
By Larry Jaffee
The BBC is sending off Peggy Mitchell in
style. Barbara Windsor announced nearly a year
ago that she would retire from playing the popular
character that has been so central to East-
Enders, and her last episode will air in the U.K.
on 9 Sept. (U.S. public TV broadcasts are six
years or more behind what BBC1 airs, so we’ll
have Peggy a good bit longer.)
The official BBC website did a great job
coming up with various online features under
the umbrella “GOODBYE PEGGY
MITCHELL,” but the problem is – with the
exception of YouTube clips – they can’t be accessed
outside the U.K. I really can’t think of
a good reason why the BBC feels it needs to
deprive American fans of seeing Ms. Windsor
explain in an interview how she feels about
leaving the job she’s had for 16 years, or what
are her personal favourite Peggy moments.
We also don’t get to see Peggy’s greatest
“slapdowns” with various other characters.At
least we can watch some classic scenes at
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C
BB7B11D10B432E7
Meanwhile, a feature article in the June
issue of Sight & Sound magazine sounded
promising enough. Published by the British
Film Institute (BFI), the article “The New
Golden Age of British TV Drama” some 3,000
words and four pages later did not have even
one mention of EastEnders, which this past
spring took home the BAFTA award for Best
Continuing Drama Series.
The article, written by BFI curator Mark
Duigid, focused on the perception that the U.S.
produces better drama, shows like Mad Men
and The Wire, and The Sopranos before them,
created and nurtured by American pay cable
networks like HBO.
Duigid’s EE snub is not completely surprising,
considering the BFI’s dismissive attitude of
soap opera in general and EastEnders in particular.
A decade ago, EastEnders didn’t even rank
among the BFI’s poll of the 100 Best British
TV Programmes; it finished No. 132 (Coronation
Street, No. 40). In fairness, all the BFI did
was tabulate the industry’s choices. Ballots
were given to 1,600 programme makers, performers,
writers, technicians, executives, critics,
academic analysts, historians, activists and
archivists.
And mind you, EastEnders’ poor showing in
poor showing in the BFI TV 100
came three years after it won in
1997 the Best Drama award (not
Best Soap Opera) from the prestigious
British Academy of Film and
Television Arts (BAFTA).
A recurring theme at a September
2000 public discussion at the
National Film Theatre to review
the poll’s results was the glaring
omission of EastEnders from the
list. An industry panel and audience
members at the event concurred
that the series is so easily
taken for granted as the result of its
omnipresence in the tabloid-driven
British media. Or could it be a
snobbishness that can’t fathom that
a serial could be anything other
than ‘lowbrow’?
John Yorke, current Controller
of BBC Drama Production, comments:
“Historically ‘soaps’ have
tended to be excluded from these
things. I lose no sleep!” (Maybe
not over EE not getting respect, but
perhaps over the constant threat of
government budget cuts?)
Former EastEnders writer Andrew
Collins, currently film editor
of the BBC-published Radio Times
weekly magazine, had a lot more to
say: “I read that article with interest,
as it shone a rare light of positivity
on British TV drama, and
countered the raving pro-Americanism
that characterises much
writing here about TV drama. (I
am an unashamed fan of the best
U.S. TV drama too.) I had never
considered any prejudice against
soaps at the BFI until you mentioned
it. You do still encounter
critical resistance, because soap is
still regarded as practical, populist,
schedule-filler, used by broadcasters
as a guarantee of regular audiences,
hence its heavy marketing
on all the big terrestrial channels.
Because I no longer watch EastEnders
I am unable to comment on its
current quality. But certainly when
I was there, in the early part of the
decade, some brilliant writing was
being produced, under huge pressure.
And had been since the start. I
still rate the two-handers and, in
Dot’s case, one-hander, of Tony
Jordan. The fact that he has moved
from EastEnders to writing and
producing big populist BBC drama
like Life on Mars and Hustle probably
means he will continue to
struggle for critical kudos. Critics
will always focus on one-off drama
on TV here. Or even big fiveparters
like Criminal Justice or
Five Days. The event stuff. Soap
just rolls on, critically unnoticed
and unloved, three or four or five
nights a week, and is watched by
millions of people. I don’t take it
personally.”
The BFI didn’t always view
soap with such derision. In 1987, it
published Public Secrets: EastEnders
and its Audience. And in
1981, as part of the BFI’s Television
Monograph series, a group of
academics studied Coronation
Street. Both books examined television’s
role in society and the reasons
behind soap popularity.
EastEnders is the closest we
can get on our home screens to the
kitchen-sink realism of the “golden
age of British drama,” circa early
1960s.
