The Guardian View on Eastenders in 40: middle age crisis | Estenders

“IT is not just like looking at Homer’s Home or resorting to the first page of war and peace, but you have to say NBC did his best to start the start of its new soap twice a week. The review concluded that the review saw the TV critic in the Guardian in 1985. Eastenders celebrated this week the fortieth anniversary of its founding.

But as with every celebration in Albert Square, the less rejoiced story in the background, despite the direct version of events, documentaries, nostalgia and the best menus. The Rating giant once in the BBC, which drives 30 million viewers on Christmas Day 1986, suffers from a middle -aged crisis. The Christmas show numbers for this year were 4.39 million people. It is a similar image on ITV, where Coronation Street and Emmerdale will return next year from hour to hour 30 minutes rings.

Reality TV, broadcasting, budget discounts, “Prestige”, changing viewing habits, artificial intelligence – there are the largest vulgar wounds: exceeding the number of episodes, the duration of sacrifice of social realism and strong description of ridiculous stories. Again when the largest glasses on Coronation Street belong to Deirdre Barlow, the author Paul Abbott described the excitement of writing an experimental text about DuckWorth to get the window cleaning tour. It will not make the pieces today.

Unlike Dallas, the shoulder and strain in the United States, British soap has always been more blurry celebrations of the families of the working class and life. Korean came out of the kitchen drama in the fifties. Eastenders was born in the changing landscape of that of that is the changing landscape in that of that. The worlds they depicted no longer exist. The idea of ​​the pub as the heart of society is dated like Babycha – the Queen will definitely be from the stomach now.

But soap gave a voice to people who did not speak with radio dialects 4, and it is rarely seen roles for people on our screens, not the least older women. Albert Square belongs to a long group of mothers with large hearts and larger earrings. From the first gay kiss in British soap on Eastteners in 1989, these shows also played an important role in tabing taboo issues.

Today, TV programs are part of our cultural DNA, such as Dickens’s novels (often cited as soap sects): Elsie Tanner and Dirty den as familiar like Miss Havisham or The Artful Dodger. Simon Mai “DOOF” Eastenders theme Tune (I voted more than the national anthem in 2008The soundtrack was for countless TV dinner. The sad editorial indicated to Korean, written to capture the feeling of sunlight that explodes through clouds, to the end of the day for generations. Regardless of the disasters that occurred in Walford or Weatherfield, they promised comfort and escape from our lives. There are very little sunlight across TV schedules these days.

While the display of numbers will never match with their numbers, these offers are still loved by millions. BBC invested 87 million pounds sterling On a new group for Eastendens, the expansion plans were in the Tawjoj Street group It was announced in 2022So they will not join Crossroads, Brookside and NeighBors on soap any time soon. Will they survive until the next important birthday? Dooof, dof …

• Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you want to provide a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered to be published in our messages section, please click here.