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:
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)