History Of East Enders
EastEnders was launched at a critical moment in the BBC's history and was intended to demonstrate the BBC's ability to produce popular programming. It started airing on the night after a major identity change for the channel, with the show representing the "new face" of the BBC. Critics first derided the new offering, as it was clear that the BBC wished to bridge the gap between the network and its competitor, ITV. One news source went as far as to accuse the channel of only having the courage to air the soap after Patricia Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) left Coronation Street.
The BBC brass was vindicated, however, when EastEnders became wildly popular and displaced Coronation Street from the top of the ratings for the rest of the 1980s and much of the 1990s and 2000s.
A precursor in UK soaps also set in an East End market was ATV's Market in Honey Lane between 1967 and 1969.
Read more about History Of East Enders: Conception and Preparations For Broadcast, 1980s Broadcast History, Changes Into The 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, Celebrity Appearances
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or east:
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“We might as easily reprove the east wind, or the frost, as a political party, whose members, for the most part, could give no account of their position, but stand for the defence of those interests in which they find themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)