As everyone living in the UK knows Archie Mitchell, who died on Christmas Day in the Queen Vic, was a cad who deserved everything that happened to him. He finally got his comeuppence and that led to two months of speculation as to who killed him. Early indication was that it was his daughter Ronnie, whose child he hid from her and who was sexually assualted by her father as a child, who in true Lady Macbeth style went slightly mad over the past two months. Other suspects included Phil Mitchell, Ian Beale, Peggy Mitchell, Jack Branning and Bradley Branning. However as with all great Soap storylines, things are never so simple and last night things got very complicated as for the first time ever Eastenders had a live broadcast.
Now a live Television broadcast of a drama is huge news, and a huge ask nowadays. Its been nearly 50 years since live tv performance was the rule instead of the exception and so there was a huge chance that things could go drastically wrong.
As LibraryGirl and myself sat down to watch this new experience we already felt really tense. As a performer myself I can appreciate the nerves these guys must have been feeling at going live, then factor in the fact that this is the blowoff to one of the biggest storylines ever to grace the square and then the idea that there could be nearly 12 million viewers watching you and waiting for you to screw up. I would say that under that pressure I would be really feeling anxious. LibraryGirl was geared up for the story and wanted to see how good the actors were in a live setting.
As we started watching we were incredibly surprised at the seemingly breakneck speed that everything seemed to be going and then we saw our first mistake. Scott Maslen the heart throb Jack Branning had what he later described as a 'Matrix Moment' as he fluffed his lines and had that thing all actors dread where their brain goes 'where am I in the script... um whats the next line' but it sort of helped build my suspicions that Jack was the murderer. Did Maslen screw up the show? No not at all because he carried on and the acting by Charlie Clements who plays Bradley, Jake Wood as Max and Lacey Turner as Stacey kept that scene going along and the quick angle change on Stacey's face helped build the tension up.
We then moved onto other suspects as Bradley and Stacey started their doomed escape. Janine Butcher, played by Charlie Brooks, was still rushing around trying to make sure she didn't get arrested again and looking for the person who planted the missing engagement ring in her flat. Brooks was brilliant as Janine, it looked as if her parts had been pre taped in that she herself was flawless, her character came through perfectly and she didn't fluff any lines, her only problem was she tripped over her step on the way into her doorway. This was not a big deal, after all it just added to the frantic panic the character was feeling.
Other performers who fluffed up included Barbara Windsor who ran a couple of words together, a very easy thing to do when you only have a very short amount of time to shoot and its one take, she didn't react to it she just kept on going in her scene with Charlie Brooks. Samantha Womack apparently entered the corner shop in Albert Square to get paint thinner, picked it up and during her argument with Rita Simons who plays her sister Roxi left without paying for it, despite walking straight past the shop staff. There were a few snafus with the camera angles including under the arches between Stacey and Bradley. However the Sun Newspaper decided that the one they should mention in their coverage of the live show was that Jake Wood, who is brilliant as Max, was seen putting his fingers down his throat to make himself retch. Now I have to call the Sun on that one mainly due to the fact that it is barely noticeable because when it happens Jake makes the sound of retching and covers his mouth in a way that his fingers went in his mouth, he just wanted it to be more realistic and its not his fault that the camera caught him. Plus I am pretty sure not more than 2 seconds later, as people are leaving the Queen Vic there is a crew member in shot who looks round then touches what looks to be headphones, hidden under a hat of course, before we carry on with the show. Not to mention the awful pause before the stuntman leapt off of the Pub. It just seemed unfair to me for them to criticise Jake Wood.
Now onto what I thought of the episode. The show was fantastic it just was a tense laden show with some phenomenal acting. As such I am going to declare my top 5 MVPs (Most valuable Performers) from last nights live episode.
5. Steve McFadden
Phils story was he was paranoid his girlfriend, Shirley, was going to rat him out and that Ian had evidence that could be used to frame him for Archies Murder. This led to him tracking down Ian and attacking him and trashing his home looking for what he thought Ian had. McFadden much like Brooks was brilliant in that he was totally natural when it came to being angry Phil, thats what you get for really knowing your character.
4. Adam Woodyatt
Ian had gone home with Dot to talk to her about how she felt and he ended up showing her the video tape of all the then young cast members from 25 years ago. Then as mentioned above Phil came thundering in and Woodyatt is brilliant at being a snivelling coward. His work was great to watch as he and McFadden got physical but it was obviously well rehearsed and these two actors have great chemistry as enemies. You could also tell that he was having fun with it, not in a distracting way but you could just tell.
3. Charlie Brooks
Janine as I said before was rushing around trying to find out who framed her. She was just Miss One Take all night and was brilliant at her character work. This storyline has, whilst making us want to all give Janine a slap for being so evil, in many ways shone a slightly sympathetic light on the Janine Butcher character something that perhaps she needed to keep her fresh.
2. Lacey Turner
This was a really hard choice as it is very close between her and Charlie Clements as to who was better but for me she comes second. Stacey Branning was trying to escape the square with her husband Bradley thanks to the betrayal of her best friend Becca. She ran around and revealed all to Bradley who tried to help her get away but in the end she admitted all to Max... she killed Archie. A really strong performance and Lacey Turner has shown herself to be a very powerful young actress who I hope when she leaves Eastenders, eventually, gets some good dramatic roles.
1. Charlie Clements
Yes Bradley passed away last night trying to escape the Police. When he fell from the top of the Queen Vic there couldn't have been many dry eyes in the millions of homes tuned in to the show. Clements work really helped this storyline move along, his slow disintegration since his return was a truly beautiful piece of acting and his abililty to just pick that up last night and truly put the ending to his story with a great piece of performance was great. The last line he uttered was perfectly pitched and a wonderful note to go out on. The show will sadly miss the gravitas and cheekiness the the Bradley character and Charlie Clements brings to it.
So what was having a live soap like? It was excellent, the excitement of the story was amped up to 11 just because of the unpredictable nature of the performance. Would I do it again? Yes I would, but with some modifications. The main modification I would make is to have it only involve a couple of characters and perhaps 2 or 3 sets. It was wonderful seeing the crew and cast pull off this mammoth task with such great results but there was a feeling of chaos at times. Lets take June Browns solo episode, now that could have easily been shown live and as long as the storyline is strong enough viewers will still tune in. Make it a 1 or 2 room show and then do a live, it will be cheaper and easier to pull off. Also there are certain things that need to be edited for future broadcast, I know we will see clips of Bradleys death and the ending of this episode for years to come but they need to do an edit to make it flow better from the last Bradley line to his fall. I would call this a success and think its a brilliant experience for the actors and is something they should be given the chance to do. Eastenders has done a great job in the lead up to this episode and I hope the fallout is just as good.
Live Eastenders was a truly brilliant event that showed that Soap actors aren't just pretty faces for TV and that a lot of them can do the job when needed. Catch it on Catch up if you haven't seen it or look at it on iPlayer because it is well worth the watch.
Now if only more TV shows had this dangerous event like feel.
Xtofer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders
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