Former EastEnders writer Daran Little has addressed one fan’s complaint that the BBC and ITV soaps don’t acknowledge one another during major events like the EastEnders‘ 40th anniversary.
It’s a big week for soap fans, with EastEnders celebrating its 40th birthday with a number of episodes – including a live special on Thursday. Meanwhile, over on ITV, Emmerdale is in turmoil after a major limo crash into an icy lake that is set to kill a number of residents.
However, one fan recently complained that the rival soaps of Emmerdale, EastEnders and Coronation Street do not support one another enough. They wrote on X, previously known as Twitter: “I do wish there was more solidarity between the soaps, because it feels quite slimy that both Corrie and Emmerdale have got big event weeks, seemingly out of nowhere, that perfectly line up with EastEnders’ 40th anniversary big week.”
They added: “I doubt it’ll end well, viewing figures wise, for either ITV soap, but especially Emmerdale which usually overlaps with Eastenders.” In response, writer Daran Little – who has written scripts for EastEnders since 2010 – wrote: “When it was Corrie’s 50th, I wrote Kat telling Dot she was going home to watch it.”
Replying to Daran, one Twitter user asked the writer: “I hate to question the author but wasn’t it Dot who was going to watch it…Kat said she’d rather watch the washing spin round in the machine…” Acknowledging his error, Daran admitted: “Oh you’re right!!!! Oops.”
BAFTA-winning TV writer Daran started his career writing for Coronation Street before writing for Hollyoaks and later EastEnders. He most recently wrote for EastEnders at the start of this month.
Tonight’s episode of EastEnders saw the soap reveal which Walford resident was behind Cindy Beale’s attack, with her mother-in-law Kathy owning up to the Christmas Day crime. Explaining that she attacked Cindy after learning that she cheated on her son Ian with Junior Knight, Kathy said: “I thought anything could happen, his heart but you know what, at least you were gone. At least he was safe from you,” she said. “Oh no – there you were, traipsing past the house. Back.”
Shortly afterwards, Cindy inadvertently caused the Queen Vic to burst into flames – after pushing Ian in front of a car, which swerved into the pub, resulting in an explosion. Fans are certain that the pub explosion isn’t the only disaster that will hit Albert Square this week, with hints at a train crash being dropped throughout the week.
“The train sounds??? #eastenders,” one fan wrote. While another said: “Did we ever find out what happened with the train stuff that was being teased around the time of Christmas/New Years?? #Eastenders does anyone remember??”
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