Letter from the Publisher
Spring 1999
There’s been a whirlwind of activity at the Walford Gazette in recent
months. Among the highlights was the arrival of a documentary crew from
London-based September Films, which last fall supplied ITV with an
hour-long piece entitled Soap Secrets. This May 12 at 8 p.m., ITV will
air in the U.K. a companion piece that will focus on EastEnders fans in
New York.
Among those interviewed by director David Cumming include yours
truly, Gazette website editor/expat Paul Field and his wife Denise,
Gazette interviewer Tim Wilson, EastEnders e-mail newsletter publisher
Judy Hirsch and Newsday (Long Island, NY daily newspaper) TV
columnist/EastEnders fan Marvin Kitman, who I presume was included to
provide the proceedings with a little legitimacy (i.e., we’re not just a
bunch of lunatics). We had a nice turnout of about 30 diehards for the
Tri-State EastEnders Fan Club, whose meeting was filmed at the Irish
restaurant Fiddlesticks in Greenwich Village, including a trivia contest
administered by Esta Asteroff. Despite the hoopla, we all shared a
little sadness over club founder Virginia Wood’s passing about a month
earlier. (see Judy Hirsch’s tribute on page 3).
Tea & Sympathy (NYC British restaurant) proprietor Nicky Perry
did a yeowoman’s effort in arranging the shoot to occur at Fiddlesticks,
as well as landing EastEnders actor Russell Floyd, who plays Bridge
Street market inspector 'Michael Rose, to help pitch memberships on
March 3 during the EastEnders marathon by WLIW-TV in Plainview, NY.
Nicky managed to pull strings to get complimentary airfare (courtesy of
Virgin Airways) and lodging (The Plaza, no less!). Well done, Nicky.
Russell, who had loads of fun on-air with WLIW’s Laura Savini,
spent time with Paul and me for an interview in between pitches.That
interview appears on page9. He’s a great personable bloke, and it
appears that this character is going to move to the forefront of
storylines in the not-so-distant future.
In any case, WLIW was ecstatic because they made their goal of
bringing in 400 memberships. By the way, Russell was the first
EastEnders actor to do a live appearance at the station in the
three-plus years since WLIW has aired the series. Several years ago, I
escorted Deepak Verma ('Sanjay’) for some taped spots, which the station
still airs.
The forementioned Tim Wilson came back from a month-long work
holiday in London, where he landed interviews with Shaun Williamson
('Barry Evans') and Daniela Denby-Ashe ('Sara Hills').
Both interviews will run in future issues of the Gazette.
I was also interviewed in February by a New York correspondent
of London’s Evening Standard, whose features editor found his way to the
Gazette through our website. A headline in the Feb. 26 edition bellows
'When Larry Met Peggy'.
Moving to an entire different subject, there have been some
questions about the Gazette’s publishing schedule. It remains quarterly,
roughly around the start of each season. Since the Gazettebegan
publishing 7 years ago, there has never been less than 4 issues a
year.
I’d like to leave you with a line from a recent column by the
forementioned Marvin Kitman about a recent trip to London and his
impression of British TV that I think anyone reading this newspaper
could certainly relate.
'There are some great things about British TV. EastEnders on BBC1
is on at 8 p.m. on Monday nights. You don’t feel like a member of the
lunatic fringe being addicted to the soap.
Marvin, you're not alone.
