When did EastEnders first air?

"EastEnders" is often filmed on location, away from the studios in Borehamwood. Sometimes an entire quartet is filmed on location, which has a practical function and are the result of "EastEnders" making a "double bank", when an extra week's worth of episodes are recorded at the same time as the regular schedule, enabling the production of the programme to stop for a two-week break at Christmas. These episodes often air in late June or early July and again in late October or early November. The first time this happened was in December 1985 when Pauline (Wendy Richard) and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) travelled to the Southend-on-Sea to find their son Mark, who had run away from home. In 1986, "EastEnders" filmed overseas for the first time, in Venice, and this was also the first time it was not filmed on videotape, as a union rule at the time prevented producers taking a video crew abroad and a film crew had to be used instead. In 2011, it was reported that eight per cent of the series is filmed on location.

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since 1985. Set in Albert Square in the East End of London in the fictional Borough of Walford, the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Initially there were two 30-minute episodes per week, later increasing to three, but since 2001 episodes have been broadcast every weekday apart from Wednesdays.

Within eight months of the show's launch, it reached the number-one spot in BARB's TV ratings and has consistently remained among the top-rated TV programmes in Britain. In 2013, the average audience share for an episode was around 30 per cent. Today, "EastEnders" remains a significant programme in terms of the BBC's success and audience share, and also in the history of British television drama, tackling many dilemmas that are considered to be controversial and taboo issues in British culture and social life previously unseen on United Kingdom mainstream television.

, "EastEnders" has won nine BAFTA Awards and the Inside Soap Award for Best Soap for 14 years running (from 1997 to 2012), as well as twelve National Television Awards for Most Popular Serial Drama and 11 awards for Best Soap at the British Soap Awards. It has also won 13 TV Quick and TV Choice Awards for Best Soap, six TRIC Awards for Soap of The Year, four Royal Television Society Awards for Best Continuing Drama and has been inducted into the Rose d'Or Hall of Fame.

In March 1983, under two years before "EastEnders" first episode was broadcast, the show was a vague idea in the mind of a handful of BBC executives, who decided that what BBC1 needed was a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences that ITV was getting with "Coronation Street". The first people to whom David Reid, then head of series and serials, turned were Julia Smith and Tony Holland, a well established producer/script editor team who had first worked together on "Z-Cars". The outline that Reid presented was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year. After the concept was put to them on 14 March 1983, Smith and Holland then went about putting their ideas down on paper; they decided it would be set in the East End of London. Granada Television gave Smith unrestricted access to the "Coronation Street" production for a month so that she could get a sense how a continuing drama was produced.

There was anxiety at first that the viewing public would not accept a new soap set in the south of England, though research commissioned by lead figures in the BBC revealed that southerners would accept a northern soap, northerners would accept a southern soap and those from the Midlands, as Julia Smith herself pointed out, did not mind where it was set as long as it was somewhere else. This was the beginning of a close and continuing association between "EastEnders" and audience research, which, though commonplace today, was something of a revolution in practice.

The show's creators were both Londoners, but when they researched Victorian squares, they found massive changes in areas they thought they knew well. However, delving further into the East End of London, they found exactly what they had been searching for: a real East End spirit—an inward looking quality, a distrust of strangers and authority figures, a sense of territory and community that the creators summed up as "Hurt one of us and you hurt us all".

When developing "EastEnders", both Smith and Holland looked at influential models like "Coronation Street", but they found that it offered a rather outdated and nostalgic view of working-class life. Only after "EastEnders" began, and featured the characters of Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter, did "Coronation Street" start to feature black characters, for example. They came to the conclusion that "Coronation Street" had grown old with its audience, and that "EastEnders" would have to attract a younger, more socially extensive audience, ensuring that it had the longevity to retain it for many years thereafter. They also looked at "Brookside" but found there was a lack of central meeting points for the characters, making it difficult for the writers to intertwine different storylines, so "EastEnders" was set in Albert Square.

A previous UK soap set in an East End market was ATV's "Market in Honey Lane" between 1967 and 1969. However this show, which graduated from one showing a week to two in three separate series (the latter series being shown in different time slots across the ITV network) was very different in style and approach to "EastEnders". The British Film Institute described "Market In Honey Lane" thus: "It was not an earth-shaking programme, and certainly not pioneering in any revolutionary ideas in technique and production, but simply proposed itself to the casual viewer as a mildly pleasant affair." "EastEnders", while also featuring an East End street market, would be very different in its approach and impact.

The target launch date was originally January 1985. Smith and Holland had eleven months in which to write, cast and shoot the whole thing. However, in February 1984, they did not even have a title or a place to film. Both Smith and Holland were unhappy about the January 1985 launch date, favouring November or even September 1984 when seasonal audiences would be higher, but the BBC stayed firm, and Smith and Holland had to concede that, with the massive task of getting the Elstree Studios operational, January was the most realistic date. However, this was later to be changed to February.

The project had a number of working titles—"Square Dance", "Round the Square", "Round the Houses", "London Pride" and "East 8". It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process. However, the show was renamed after many casting agents mistakenly thought the show was to be called "Estate", and the fictional postcode E20 was created, instead of using E8. Julia Smith came up with the name "Eastenders" after she and Holland had spent months telephoning theatrical agents and asking "Do you have any real East Enders on your books?" However, Smith thought ""Eastenders"" "looked ugly written down" and was "hard to say", so decided to capitalise the second 'e'.

After they decided on the filming location of BBC Elstree Centre in Hertfordshire, Smith and Holland set about creating the 23 characters needed, in just 14 days. They took a holiday in Playa de los Pocillos, Lanzarote, and started to create the characters. Holland created the Beale and Fowler family, drawing on his own background. His mother, Ethel Holland, was one of four sisters raised in Walthamstow. Her eldest sister, Lou, had married a man named Albert Beale and had two children, named Peter and Pauline. These family members were the basis for Lou Beale, Pete Beale and Pauline Fowler. Holland also created Pauline's unemployed husband Arthur Fowler, their children Mark Fowler and Michelle Fowler, Pete's wife Kathy Beale and their son Ian Beale. Smith used her personal memories of East End residents she met when researching Victorian squares. Ethel Skinner was based on an old woman she met in a pub, with ill-fitting false teeth, and a "face to rival a neon sign", holding a Yorkshire Terrier in one hand and a pint of Guinness in the other. Other characters created included Jewish doctor Harold Legg, the Anglo-Cypriot Osman family, Ali Osman, Sue Osman and baby Hassan Osman, black father and son, Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter, single mother Mary Smith and Bangladeshi couple Saeed Jeffery and Naima Jeffery. Jack, Pearl and Tracey Watts were created to bring "flash, trash, and melodrama" to the Square (they were later renamed Den, Angie and Sharon Watts). The characters of Andy O'Brien and Debbie Wilkins were created to show a modern couple with outwardly mobile pretensions, and Lofty Holloway to show an outsider; someone who did not fit in with other residents. It was decided that he would be a former soldier, as Holland's personal experiences of ex-soldiers were that they had trouble fitting into society after being in the army. When they compared the characters they had created, Smith and Holland realised they had created a cross-section of East End residents. The Beale and Fowler family represented the old families of the East End, who had always been there. The Osmans, Jefferys and Carpenters represented the more modern diverse ethnic community of the East End. Debbie, Andy and Mary represented more modern-day individuals.

Once they had decided on their 23 characters, they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone agreed that "EastEnders" would be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp—set in Margaret Thatcher's Britain—and it would start with a bang (namely the death of Reg Cox). They decided that none of their existing characters were wicked enough to have killed Reg, so a 24th character, Nick Cotton was added to the line-up. He was a racist thug, who often tried to lead other young characters astray. When all the characters had been created, Smith and Holland set about casting the actors for the show.

Through the next few months, the set was growing rapidly at Elstree, and a composer and designer had been commissioned to create the title sequence. Simon May wrote the theme music and Alan Jeapes created the visuals. The visual images were taken from an aircraft flying over the East End of London at 1000 feet. Approximately 800 photographs were taken and pieced together to create one big image. The credits were later updated when the Millennium Dome was built.

The launch was delayed until February 1985 due to a delay in the chat show "Wogan", that was to be a part of the major revamp in BBC1's schedules. Smith was uneasy about the late start as "EastEnders" no longer had the winter months to build up a loyal following before the summer ratings lull. The press were invited to Elstree to meet the cast and see the lot, and stories immediately started circulating about the show, about a rivalry with ITV (who were launching their own market-based soap, "Albion Market") and about the private lives of the cast. Anticipation and rumour grew in equal measure until the first transmission at 7p.m. on 19 February 1985. Both Holland and Smith could not watch; they both instead returned to the place where it all began, Albertine's Wine Bar on Wood Lane. The next day, viewing figures were confirmed at 17million. The reviews were largely favourable, although, after three weeks on air, BBC1's early evening share had returned to the pre-"EastEnders" figure of seven million, though "EastEnders" then climbed to highs of up to 23million later on in the year. Following the launch, both group discussions and telephone surveys were conducted to test audience reaction to early episodes. Detailed reactions were taken after six months and since then regular monitoring was conducted.

Press coverage of "EastEnders", which was already intense, went into overdrive once the show was broadcast. With public interest so high, the media began investigating the private lives of the show's popular stars. Within days, a scandalous headline appeared —"EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER". This referred to Leslie Grantham, and his prison sentence for the murder of a taxi driver in an attempted robbery nearly 20 years earlier. This shocking tell-all style set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years.

The show's first episode attracted some 17million viewers, and it continued to attract high viewing figures from then on. By Christmas 1985, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the show. 'Exclusives' about "EastEnders" storylines and the actors on the show became a staple of tabloid buyers daily reading.

Writer Colin Brake suggested that 1989 was a year of big change for "EastEnders", both behind the cameras and in front of them. Original production designer, Keith Harris, left the show, and Holland and Smith both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coinciding with the exit of one of "EastEnders" most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). Producer Mike Gibbon was given the task of running the show and he enlisted the most experienced writers to take over the storylining of the programme, including Charlie Humphreys, Jane Hollowood and Tony McHale.

According to Brake, the departure of two of the soap's most popular characters, Den and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), left a void in the programme, which needed to be filled. In addition, several other long-running characters left the show that year including Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih) and their family; Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler); Carmel Jackson (Judith Jacob) and Colin Russell (Michael Cashman). Brake indicated that the production team decided that 1989 was to be a year of change in Walford, commenting, "it was almost as if Walford itself was making a fresh start".

By the end of 1989 "EastEnders" had acquired a new executive producer, Michael Ferguson, who had previously been a successful producer on ITV's "The Bill". Brake suggested that Ferguson was responsible for bringing in a new sense of vitality and creating a programme that was more in touch with the real world than it had been over the previous year.

A new era began in 1990 with the introduction of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp)—the Mitchell brothers—successful characters who would go on to dominate the soap thereafter. As the new production team cleared the way for new characters and a new direction, all of the characters introduced under Gibbon were axed from the show at the start of the year. Ferguson introduced other characters and was responsible for storylines including HIV, Alzheimer's disease and murder. After a successful revamp of the soap, Ferguson decided to leave "EastEnders" in July 1991. Furguson was succeeded by both Leonard Lewis and Helen Greaves who initially shared the role as Executive Producer for "EastEnders". Lewis and Greaves formulated a new regime for "EastEnders", giving the writers of the serial more authority in storyline progression, with the script department providing "guidance rather than prescriptive episode storylines". By the end of 1992, Greaves left and Lewis became executive and series producer. He left "EastEnders" in 1994 after the BBC controllers demanded an extra episode a week, taking its weekly airtime from 60 to 90 minutes. Lewis felt that producing an hour of "reasonable quality drama" a week was the maximum that any broadcasting system could generate without loss of integrity. Having set up the transition to the new schedule, the first trio of episodes—dubbed The Vic siege—marked Lewis's departure from the programme. Barbara Emile then became the Executive Producer of "EastEnders", remaining with "EastEnders" until early 1995. She was succeeded by Corinne Hollingworth.

Hollingworth's contributions to the soap were awarded in 1997 when "EastEnders" won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. Hollingworth shared the award with the next Executive Producer, Jane Harris. Harris was responsible for the critically panned Ireland episodes and Cindy Beale's attempted assassination of Ian Beale, which brought in an audience of 23 million in 1996, roughly four million more than "Coronation Street". In 1998 Matthew Robinson was appointed as the Executive Producer of "EastEnders". During his reign, "EastEnders" won the BAFTA for "Best Soap" in consecutive years 1999 and 2000 and many other awards. Robinson also earned tabloid soubriquet "Axeman of Albert Square" after sacking a large number of characters in one hit, and several more thereafter. In their place, Robinson introduced new long-running characters including Melanie Healy, Jamie Mitchell, Lisa Shaw, Steve Owen and Billy Mitchell.

John Yorke became the Executive Producer of "EastEnders" in 2000. Yorke was given the task of introducing the soap's fourth weekly episode. He axed the majority of the Di Marco family and helped introduce popular characters such as the Slater family. As what Mal Young described as "two of "EastEnders" most successful years", Yorke was responsible for highly rated storylines such as "Who Shot Phil?", Ethel Skinner's death, Jim Branning and Dot Cotton's marriage, Trevor Morgan's domestic abuse of his wife Little Mo Morgan, and Kat Slater's revelation to her daughter Zoe Slater that she was her mother.

In 2002, Louise Berridge succeeded Yorke as the Executive Producer. During her time at "EastEnders", Berridge introduced popular characters such as Alfie Moon, Dennis Rickman, Chrissie Watts, Jane Beale, Stacey Slater and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family.

Berridge was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as Alfie and Kat Slater's relationship, Janine Butcher getting her comeuppance, Trevor Morgan and Jamie Mitchell's death storylines and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, Den Watts, who had been presumed dead for 14 years. His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting "EastEnders" back at number one in the rating war with the "Coronation Street". However, other storylines, such as one about a kidney transplant involving the Ferreiras, were not well received, and although Den Watts's return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility. A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham, was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings. The scandal led to Grantham's departure from the soap, but the occasion was used to mark the 20th anniversary of "EastEnders", with an episode showing Den's murder at the Queen Vic pub.

On 21 September 2004, Berridge quit as executive producer of "EastEnders" following continued criticism of the show. Kathleen Hutchison was swiftly appointed as the Executive Producer of "EastEnders", and was tasked with quickly turning the fortunes of the soap. During her time at the soap Hutchison axed multiple characters, and reportedly ordered the rewriting of numerous scripts. Newspapers reported on employee dissatisfaction with Hutchison's tenure at "EastEnders". In January 2005, Hutchison left the soap and John Yorke (who by this time, was the BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series) took total control of the show himself and became acting Executive Producer for a short period, before appointing Kate Harwood to the role. Harwood stayed at "EastEnders" for 20 months before being promoted by the BBC. The highly anticipated return of Ross Kemp as Grant Mitchell in October 2005 proved to be a sudden major ratings success, with the first two episodes consolidating to ratings of 13.21 to 13.34 million viewers. On Friday 11 November 2005, "EastEnders" was the first British drama to feature a two-minute silence. This episode later went on to win the British Soap Award for 'Best Single Episode'. In October 2006, Diederick Santer took over as Executive Producer of "EastEnders". He introduced several characters to the show, including ethnic minority and homosexual characters to make the show 'feel more 21st Century'. Santer also reintroduced past and popular characters to the programme.

On 2 March 2007, BBC signed a deal with Google to put videos on YouTube. A behind the scenes video of "EastEnders", hosted by Matt Di Angelo, who played Deano Wicks on the show, was put on the site the same day, and was followed by another on 6 March 2007. In April 2007, "EastEnders" became available to view on mobile phones, via 3G technology, for 3, Vodafone and Orange customers. On 21 April 2007, the BBC launched a new advertising campaign using the slogan "There's more to "EastEnders"". The first television advert showed Dot Branning with a refugee baby, Tomas, whom she took in under the pretence of being her grandson. The second and third featured Stacey Slater and Dawn Swann, respectively. There have also been adverts in magazines and on radio.

In 2009, producers introduced a limit on the number of speaking parts in each episode due to budget cuts, with an average of 16 characters per episode. The decision was criticised by Martin McGrath of Equity, who said: "Trying to produce quality TV on the cheap is doomed to fail." The BBC responded by saying they had been working that way for some time and it had not affected the quality of the show.

From 4 February 2010, CGI was used in the show for the first time, with the addition of computer-generated trains.

"EastEnders" celebrated its 25th anniversary on 19 February 2010. Santer came up with several plans to mark the occasion, including the show's first episode to be broadcast live, the second wedding between Ricky Butcher and Bianca Jackson and the return of Bianca's relatives, mother Carol Jackson, and siblings Robbie Jackson, Sonia Fowler and Billie Jackson. He told entertainment website Digital Spy, "It's really important that the feel of the week is active and exciting and not too reflective. There'll be those moments for some of our longer-serving characters that briefly reflect on themselves and how they've changed. The characters don't know that it's the 25th anniversary of anything, so it'd be absurd to contrive too many situations in which they're reflective on the past. The main engine of that week is great stories that'll get people talking." The live episode featured the death of Bradley Branning and the conclusion of the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline, when Stacey Branning revealed she was the murderer. Viewing figures peaked at 16.6 million, which was the highest viewed episode in seven years. Other events to mark the anniversary were a spin-off DVD, "EastEnders: Last Tango in Walford", and an Internet spin-off, "".
Santer officially left "EastEnders" in March 2010, and was replaced by Bryan Kirkwood. Kirkwood's first signing was the reintroduction of characters Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace), and his first new character was Vanessa Gold, played by Zöe Lucker. In April and May 2010, Kirkwood axed eight characters from the show, Barbara Windsor left her role of Peggy Mitchell, which left a hole in the show, which Kirkwood decided to fill by bringing back Kat and Alfie, which he said would "herald the new era of "EastEnders"." "EastEnders" started broadcasting in high definition on 25 December 2010. Old sets had to be rebuilt, so The Queen Victoria set was burnt down in a storyline (and in reality) to facilitate this.

In November 2011, a storyline showed character Billy Mitchell, played by Perry Fenwick, selected to be a torch bearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics. In reality, Fenwick carried the torch through the setting of Albert Square, with live footage shown in the episode on 23 July 2012. This was the second live broadcast of "EastEnders". In 2012, Kirkwood chose to leave his role as executive producer and was replaced by Lorraine Newman. The show lost many of its significant characters during this period. Newman stepped down as executive producer after 16 months in the job in 2013 after the soap was criticised for its boring storylines and its lowest-ever figures pointing at around 4.8 million. Dominic Treadwell-Collins was appointed as the new executive producer on 19 August 2013 and was credited on 9 December. He axed multiple characters from the show and introduced the extended Carter family. He also introduced a long-running storyline, "Who Killed Lucy Beale?", which peaked during the show's 30th anniversary in 2015 with a week of live episodes. Treadwell-Collins announced his departure from "EastEnders" on 18 February 2016.

Sean O'Connor, former "EastEnders" series story producer and then-editor on radio soap opera "The Archers", was announced to be taking over the role. Treadwell-Collins left on 6 May and O'Connor's first credited episode was broadcast on 11 July Although O'Connor's first credited episode aired in July, his own creative work was not seen onscreen until late September. Additionally, Oliver Kent was brought in as the Head of Continuing Drama Series for BBC Scripted Studios, meaning that Kent would oversee "EastEnders" along with O'Connor. O'Connor's approach to the show was to have a firmer focus on realism, which he said was being "true to "EastEnders" DNA and [finding] a way of capturing what it would be like if Julia Smith and Tony Holland were making the show now." He said that ""EastEnders" has always had a distinctly different tone from the other soaps but over time we've diluted our unique selling point. I think we need to be ourselves and go back to the origins of the show and what made it successful in the first place. It should be entertaining but it should also be informative—that's part of our unique BBC compact with the audience. It shouldn't just be a distraction from your own life, it should be an exploration of the life shared by the audience and the characters." O'Connor planned to stay with "EastEnders" until the end of 2017, but announced his departure on 23 June 2017 with immediate effect, saying he wanted to concentrate on a career in film. John Yorke returned as a temporary executive consultant. Kent said, "John Yorke is a Walford legend and I am thrilled that he will be joining us for a short period to oversee the show and to help us build on Sean's legacy while we recruit a long-term successor." Yorke initially returned for three months but his contract was later extended.
In July 2018, a special episode was aired as part of a knife crime storyline. This episode, which showed the funeral of Shakil Kazemi (Shaheen Jafargholi) interspersed with real people talking about their true-life experiences of knife crime.
On 8 August 2018, it was announced that Kate Oates, who has previously been a producer on the ITV soap operas "Emmerdale" and "Coronation Street", would become Senior Executive Producer of "EastEnders", as well of "Holby City" and "Casualty". Oates began her role in October, and continued to work with Yorke until the end of the year to "ensure a smooth handover". It was also announced that Oates was looking for an Executive Producer to work under her. Jon Sen was announced on 10 December 2018 to be taking on the role of executive producer.

The central focus of "EastEnders" is the fictional Victorian square Albert Square in the fictional London Borough of Walford. In the show's narrative, Albert Square is a 19th-century street, named after Prince Albert (1819–1861), the husband of Queen Victoria (1819–1901, reigned 1837–1901). Thus, central to Albert Square is The Queen Victoria Public House (also known as The Queen Vic or The Vic). The show's producers based the square's design on Fassett Square in Dalston. There is also a market close to Fassett Square at Ridley Road. The postcode for the area, E8, was one of the working titles for the series. The name "Walford" is both a street in Dalston where Tony Holland lived and a blend of Walthamstow and Stratford—the areas of Greater London where the creators were born. Other parts of the Square and set interiors are based on other locations. The bridge is based upon one near BBC Television Centre which carries the Hammersmith & City tube line over Wood Lane W12, the Queen Vic on the former College Park Hotel pub in Willesden at the end of Scrubs Lane at the junction with Harrow Road NW10 just a couple of miles from BBC Television Centre, and the interior to the Fowlers' is based on a house in Manor Road, Colchester, close to where the supervising art director lived. The fictional local newspaper, the "Walford Gazette", in which local news events such as the arrests or murders of characters appear, mirrors the real "Hackney Gazette".

Walford East is a fictional tube station for Walford, and a tube map that was first seen on air in 1996 showed Walford East between Bow Road and West Ham, in the actual location of Bromley-by-Bow on the District and Hammersmith & City lines.

Walford has the postal district of E20. The postcode district was selected as if it were part of the actual E postcode area which covers much of east London although the next unused postcode district in the area was, and still is (), E19. The "E" stands for "Eastern". In 1917 the postal districts in London were assigned alphabetically according to the name of the main sorting office for each district. If Walford had been assigned in this scheme it would have been given E17, which is the postcode district for Walthamstow. In March 2011, Royal Mail allocated the E20 postal district to the 2012 Olympic Park. The postal district in "EastEnders" was entirely fictional up to that point, as London East postal districts stopped at E18 at that time. The show's creators opted for E20 instead of E19 as it was thought to sound better. In September 2011, the postcode for Albert Square was revealed in an episode as E20 6PQ.

"EastEnders" is built around the idea of relationships and strong families, with each character having a place in the community. This theme encompasses the whole Square, making the entire community a family of sorts, prey to upsets and conflict, but pulling together in times of trouble. Co-creator Tony Holland was from a large East End family, and such families have typified "EastEnders". The first central family was the combination of the Fowler family, consisting of Pauline Fowler, her husband Arthur, and teenage children Mark and Michelle. Pauline's family, the Beales, consisted of Pauline's twin brother Pete Beale, his wife Kathy and their teenage son Ian. Pauline and Pete's domineering mother Lou Beale lived with Pauline and her family. Holland drew on the names of his own family for the characters.

The Watts and Mitchell families have been central to many notable "EastEnders" storylines, the show having been dominated by the Watts in the 1980s, with the 1990s focusing on the Mitchells. The early 2000s saw a shift in attention towards the newly introduced female Slater clan, before a renewal of emphasis upon the restored Watts family beginning in 2003. Since 2006, "EastEnders" has largely been dominated by the Mitchell and Branning families, though the early 2010s also saw a renewed focus on the Moon family, and from 2013 onwards, on the Carters. The Beales are the show's longest running family, having been in "EastEnders" since it began in 1985. Key people involved in the production of "EastEnders" have stressed how important the idea of strong families is to the programme. Peggy Mitchell, in particular, is notorious for her ceaseless repetition of such statements as "You're a Mitchell!" and "It's all about family!" Pauline Fowler is also known for her insistence on family and mentioning her brother and husband to instill loyalty from family members. Her mother Lou Beale is renowned for her family meetings and traditional approach to family. More recently, Derek Branning regularly expresses the importance of a strong family unit. As the eldest sibling, he is constantly asserting his position as head of his family and reminding everyone to pull together in times of trouble. Additionally, Derek commonly refers to himself, Max Branning and Jack Branning as "the Branning brothers."

"EastEnders" has an emphasis on strong family matriarchs, with examples including Pauline Fowler and Peggy Mitchell, helping to attract a female audience. John Yorke, then the BBC's head of drama production, put this down to Tony Holland's "gay sensibility, which showed a love for strong women". The matriarchal role is one that has been seen in various reincarnations since the programme's inception, often depicted as the centre of the family unit. The original matriarch was Lou Beale, though later examples include Mo Harris, Pat Butcher, Zainab Masood and Cora Cross. These characters are seen as being loud and interfering but most importantly, responsible for the well-being of the family and usually stressing the importance of family, reflecting on the past.

The show often includes strong, brassy, long-suffering women who exhibit diva-like behaviour and stoically battle through an array of tragedy and misfortune. Such characters include Angie Watts, Kathy Beale, Sharon Watts, Pat Butcher, Denise Fox and Tanya Branning. Conversely there are female characters who handle tragedy less well, depicted as eternal victims and endless sufferers, who include Sue Osman, Little Mo Mitchell, Laura Beale, Lisa Fowler, Ronnie Mitchell and Linda Carter. The 'tart with a heart' is another recurring character, often popular with viewers. Often their promiscuity masks a hidden vulnerability and a desire to be loved. Such characters have included Pat Butcher (though in her latter years, this changed), Tiffany Mitchell, Kat Slater, Stacey Slater, Dawn Swann, Roxy Mitchell and Whitney Dean.

A gender balance in the show is maintained via the inclusion of various "macho" male personalities such as Mick Carter, Phil Mitchell, Grant Mitchell, Jack Branning and Max Branning, "bad boys" such as Den Watts, Michael Moon and Vincent Hubbard, and "heartthrobs" such as Simon Wicks, Jamie Mitchell, Dennis Rickman and Joey Branning. Another recurring male character type is the smartly dressed businessman, often involved in gang culture and crime and seen as a local authority figure. Examples include Steve Owen, Jack Dalton, Andy Hunter, Johnny Allen and Derek Branning. Following criticism aimed at the show's over-emphasis on 'gangsters' in 2005, such characters have been significantly reduced. Another recurring male character seen in "EastEnders" is the 'loser' or'soft touch', males often comically under the thumb of their female counterparts, which have included Arthur Fowler, Ricky Butcher, Lofty Holloway and Billy Mitchell. Other recurring character types that have appeared throughout the serial are "cheeky-chappies" Pete Beale, Alfie Moon, Garry Hobbs and Kush Kazemi, "lost girls" such as Mary Smith, Donna Ludlow and Mandy Salter, delinquents such as Stacey Slater, Jay Brown and Lola Pearce, "villains" such as Nick Cotton, Trevor Morgan, May Wright, Yusef Khan, Archie Mitchell and Dean Wicks, "bitches" such as Cindy Beale, Janine Butcher, Lucy Beale, Abi Branning and Babe Smith and cockney "wide boys" or "wheeler dealers" such as Frank Butcher, Alfie Moon, Kevin Wicks, Darren Miller and Fatboy.

Over the years "EastEnders" has typically featured a number of elderly residents, who are used to show vulnerability, nostalgia, stalwart-like attributes and are sometimes used for comedic purposes. The original elderly residents included Lou Beale, Ethel Skinner and Dot Cotton. Over the years they have been joined by the likes of Mo Butcher, Jules Tavernier, Marge Green, Nellie Ellis, Jim Branning, Charlie Slater, Mo Harris, Patrick Trueman, Cora Cross, Les Coker, Rose Cotton, Pam Coker, Stan Carter, Babe Smith, Claudette Hubbard, Sylvie Carter, Ted Murray and Joyce Murray. Focus on elderly characters has decreased since the show's inception. The programme has more recently included a higher number of teenagers and successful young adults in a bid to capture the younger television audience. This has spurred criticism, most notably from the actress Anna Wing, who played Lou Beale in the show. She commented, "I don't want to be disloyal, but I think you need a few mature people in a soap because they give it backbone and body... if all the main people are young it gets a bit thin and inexperienced. It gets too lightweight."

"EastEnders" has been known to feature a 'comedy double-act', originally demonstrated with the characters of Dot and Ethel, whose friendship was one of the serial's most enduring. Other examples include Paul Priestly and Trevor Short, Huw Edwards and Lenny Wallace, Shirley Carter and Heather Trott, Garry Hobbs and Minty Peterson, Denise Fox and Zainab Masood, Poppy Meadow and Jodie Gold and Peggy Mitchell and Pat Butcher. In 1989 especially, characters were brought in who were deliberately conceived as comic or light-hearted. Such characters included Julie Cooper—a brassy maneater; Marge Green—a batty older lady played by veteran comedy actress Pat Coombs; Trevor Short (Phil McDermott)—the "village idiot"; his friend, northern heartbreaker Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton); wheeler-dealer Vince Johnson (Hepburn Graham) and Laurie Bates (Gary Powell), who became Pete Beale's (Peter Dean) sparring partner. The majority of "EastEnders" characters are working-class. Middle-class characters do occasionally become regulars, but have been less successful and rarely become long-term characters. In the main, middle-class characters exist as villains, such as James Wilmott-Brown, May Wright, Stella Crawford and Yusef Khan, or are used to promote positive liberal influences, such as Colin Russell or Rachel Kominski.

"EastEnders" has always featured a culturally diverse cast which has included black, Asian, Turkish, Polish and Latvian characters. "The expansion of minority representation signals a move away from the traditional soap opera format, providing more opportunities for audience identification with the characters and hence a wider appeal". Despite this, the programme has been criticised by the Commission for Racial Equality, who argued in 2002 that "EastEnders" was not giving a realistic representation of the East End's "ethnic make-up". They suggested that the average proportion of visible minority faces on "EastEnders" was substantially lower than the actual ethnic minority population in East London boroughs, and it therefore reflected the East End in the 1960s, not the East End of the 2000s. Furthermore, it was suggested that an element of "tokenism" and stereotyping surrounded many of these minority characters. The programme has since attempted to address these issues. A sari shop was opened and various characters of different ethnicities were introduced throughout 2006 and 2007, including the Fox family, the Masoods, and various background artists. This was part of producer Diederick Santer's plan to "diversify", to make "EastEnders" "feel more 21st century". "EastEnders" has had varying success with ethnic minority characters. Possibly the least successful were the Indian Ferreira family, who were not well received by critics or viewers and were dismissed as unrealistic by the Asian community in the UK.

"EastEnders" has been praised for its portrayal of characters with disabilities, including Adam Best (spina bifida), Noah Chambers (deaf), Jean Slater and her daughter Stacey (bipolar disorder), Janet Mitchell (Down syndrome) and Jim Branning (stroke). The show also features a large number of gay, lesbian and bisexual characters (see list of soap operas with LGBT characters), including Colin Russell, Barry Clark, Simon Raymond, Tony Hills, Sonia Fowler, Naomi Julien, Tina Carter, Tosh Mackintosh, Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker. Kyle Slater, a transgender character, was introduced in 2015.

"EastEnders" has a high cast turnover and characters are regularly changed to facilitate storylines or refresh the format. The show has also become known for the return of characters after they have left the show. Sharon Rickman returned in August 2012 for her third stint on the show. Den Watts returned 14 years after he was believed to have died, a feat repeated by Kathy Beale in 2015. Speaking extras, including Tracey the barmaid (who has been in the show since the first episode in 1985), have made appearances throughout the show's duration, without being the focus of any major storylines. The character of Nick Cotton gained a reputation for making constant exits and returns since the programme's first year, until the character's death in 2015.

, Adam Woodyatt, Leonard Fenton, Gillian Taylforth and Letitia Dean are the only members of the original cast remaining in the show, in their roles of Ian Beale, Harold Legg, Kathy Beale and Sharon Mitchell (Nee Watts) respectively. However, Fenton has only returned for a guest stint and will make his departure in the coming months. Ian Beale is the only character to have appeared continuously from the first episode without officially leaving, and is the longest-serving character in "EastEnders".

"EastEnders" programme makers took the decision that the show was to be about "everyday life" in the inner city "today" and regarded it as a "slice of life". Creator/producer Julia Smith declared that "We don't make life, we reflect it". She also said, "We decided to go for a realistic, fairly outspoken type of drama which could encompass stories about homosexuality, rape, unemployment, racial prejudice, etc., in a believable context. Above all, we wanted realism". In 2011, the head of BBC drama, John Yorke, said that the real East End had changed significantly since "EastEnders" started, and the show no longer truly reflected real life, but that it had an "emotional truthfulness" and was partly "true to the original vision" and partly "adapt[ing] to a changing world", adding that "If it was a show where every house cost a fortune and everyone drove a Lexus, it wouldn't be "EastEnders". You have to show shades of that change, but certain things are immutable, I would argue, like The Vic and the market."

In the 1980s, "EastEnders" featured "gritty" storylines involving drugs and crime, representing the issues faced by working-class Britain under Thatcherism. Storylines included the cot death of 14-month-old Hassan Osman, Nick Cotton's homophobia, racism and murder of Reg Cox, Arthur Fowler's unemployment reflecting the recession of the 1980s, the rape of Kathy Beale in 1988 by James Willmott-Brown and Michelle Fowler's teenage pregnancy. The show also dealt with prostitution, mixed-race relationships, shoplifting, sexism, divorce, domestic violence and mugging. In 1989, the programme came under criticism in the British media for being too depressing, and according to writer Colin Brake, the programme makers were determined to change this. In 1989, there was a deliberate attempt to increase the lighter, more comic aspects of life in Albert Square. This led to the introduction of some characters who were deliberately conceived as comic or light-hearted. Brake suggested that humour was an important element in "EastEnders" storylines during 1989, with a greater amount of slapstick and light comedy than before. He classed 1989's changes as a brave experiment, and suggested that while some found this period of "EastEnders" entertaining, many other viewers felt that the comedy stretched the programme's credibility. Although the programme still covered many issues in 1989, such as domestic violence, drugs, rape and racism, Brake reflected that the new emphasis on a more balanced mix between "light and heavy storylines" gave the illusion that the show had lost a "certain edge".

As the show progressed into the 1990s, "EastEnders" still featured hard-hitting issues such as Mark Fowler revealing he was HIV positive in 1991, the death of his wife Gill from an AIDS-related illness in 1992, murder, adoption, abortion, Peggy Mitchell's battle with breast cancer, and Phil Mitchell's alcoholism and violence towards wife Kathy. Mental health issues were confronted in 1996 when 16-year-old Joe Wicks developed schizophrenia following the off-screen death of his sister in a car crash. The long-running storyline of Mark Fowler's HIV was so successful in raising awareness that in 1999, a survey by the National Aids Trust found teenagers got most of their information about HIV from the soap, though one campaigner noted that in some ways the storyline was not reflective of what was happening at the time as the condition was more common among the gay community. Still, heterosexual Mark struggled with various issues connected to his HIV status, including public fears of contamination, a marriage breakdown connected to his inability to have children and the side effects of combination therapies.

In the early 2000s, "EastEnders" covered the issue of euthanasia (Ethel Skinner's death in a pact with her friend Dot Cotton), the unveiling of Kat Slater's abuse by her uncle Harry as a child (which led to the birth of her daughter Zoe, who had been brought up to believe that Kat was her sister), the domestic abuse of Little Mo Morgan by husband Trevor (which involved rape and culminated in Trevor's death after he tried to kill Little Mo in a fire), Sonia Jackson giving birth at the age of 15 and then putting her baby up for adoption, and Janine Butcher's prostitution, agoraphobia and drug addiction. The soap also tackled the issue of mental illness and carers of people who have mental conditions, illustrated with mother and daughter Jean and Stacey Slater; Jean suffers from bipolar disorder, and teenage daughter Stacey was her carer (this storyline won a Mental Health Media Award in September 2006). Stacey went on to struggle with the disorder herself. The issue of illiteracy was highlighted by the characters of middle-aged Keith and his young son Darren. "EastEnders" has also covered the issue of Down syndrome, as Billy and Honey Mitchell's baby, Janet Mitchell, was born with the condition in 2006. "EastEnders" covered child abuse with its storyline involving Phil Mitchell's 11-year-old son Ben and lawyer girlfriend Stella Crawford, and child grooming involving the characters Tony King and Whitney Dean.

Aside from this, soap opera staples of youthful romance, jealousy, domestic rivalry, gossip and extramarital affairs are regularly featured, with high-profile storylines occurring several times a year. Whodunits also feature regularly, including the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline in 2001 that attracted over 19 million viewers and was one of the biggest successes in British soap television, the "Who Killed Archie?" story, which was revealed in a special live episode of the show that drew a peak of 17 million viewers, and "Who Killed Lucy Beale?".

The exterior set for the fictional Albert Square is located in the permanent backlot of the BBC Elstree Centre, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, at, and is outdoors and open to the weather. It was initially built in 1984 with a specification that it should last for at least 15 years at a cost of £750,000. The "EastEnders" lot was designed by Keith Harris, who was a senior designer within the production team together with supervising art directors Peter Findley and Gina Parr. The main buildings on the square consisted originally of hollow shells, constructed from marine plywood facades mounted onto steel frames. The lower walls, pavements, etc., were constructed of real brick and tarmac. The set had to be made to look as if it had been standing for years. This was done by a number of means, including chipping the pavements, using chemicals to crack the top layer of the paint work, using varnish to create damp patches underneath the railway bridge, and making garden walls in such a way they appeared to sag. The final touches were added in summer 1984, these included a telephone box, telegraph pole that was provided by British Telecom, lampposts that were provided by Hertsmere Borough Council and a number of vehicles parked on the square. On each set all the appliances are fully functional such as gas cookers, the laundry washing machines and The Queen Victoria beer pumps.

The walls were intentionally built crooked to give them an aged appearance. The drains around the set are real so rainwater can naturally flow from the streets. The square was built in two phases with only three sides being built, plus Bridge Street, to begin with in 1984, in time to be used for the show's first episode. Then in 1986, Harris added an extension to the set, building the fourth side of Albert Square, and in 1987, Turpin Road began to be featured more, which included buildings such as The Dagmar.

In 1993, George Street was added, and soon after Walford East Underground station was built, to create further locations when "EastEnders" went from two to three episodes per week. The set was constructed by the BBC in-house construction department under construction manager Mike Hagan. The initial build took six months to complete. Most of the buildings on Albert Square have no interior filming space, with a few exceptions, and most do not have rears or gardens. Most areas by the front (and sometimes back) doors are decorated and dressed to match the interior set to allow shots of doors being opened. The grocery shop was originally open fronted, it was turned into a closed front shop, with removable interior walls to allow for filming inside the shop when the set was expanded in 1987. Some interior shots are filmed in the actual buildings, and the café also has some interior decoration so some limited filming can take place by the door. The newer exterior sets including fish and chip shop, video shop and beauty salon had some interior filming space to create a greater sense of realism. As the show is filmed up to six weeks in advance, the trees need to have extra leaves stuck on them during the spring to make them look like they would in summer.

In February 2008, it was reported that the set would transfer to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, where a new set would be built as the set was looking "shabby", with its flaws showing up on high-definition television broadcasts. However, by April 2010 a follow-up report confirmed that Albert Square would remain at Elstree Studios for at least another four years, taking the set through its 25th anniversary. The set was consequently rebuilt for high definition on the same site, using mostly real brick with some areas using a new improved plastic brick. Throughout rebuilding filming would still take place, and so scaffolding was often seen on screen during the process, with some storylines written to accommodate the rebuilding, such as the Queen Vic fire.

In 2014, then executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said that he wanted Albert Square to look like a real-life east London neighbourhood so that the soap would "better reflect the more fashionable areas of east London beloved of young professionals" giving a flavour of the "creeping gentrification" of east London. He added: "It should feel more like London. It's been frozen in aspic for too long." The BBC announced that they would rebuild the "EastEnders" set to secure the long-term future of the show, with completion expected to be in 2018. The set will provide a modern, upgraded exterior filming resource for "EastEnders", and will copy the appearance of the existing buildings. However, it will be 20 per cent bigger, in order to enable greater editorial ambition and improve working conditions for staff. A temporary set will be created on-site to enable filming to continue while the permanent structure is rebuilt.

In May 2016 the rebuild was delayed until 2020 and forecast to cost in excess of £15 million, although the main part of the set is scheduled to be able to start filming in May 2019. In December 2018, it was revealed that the new set was now planned to cost £59 million but a National Audit Office (NAO) report stated that it would actually cost £86.7 million and be completed two-and-a-half years later than planned, in 2023; the NAO concluded that the BBC "could not provide value for money on the project". The NAO's forecast cost is more than the annual combined budget for BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2. The BBC said the new set would allow for HD filming and better reflect the modern East End of London.

The majority of "EastEnders" episodes are filmed at the BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. In January 1987, "EastEnders" had three production teams each comprising a director, production manager, production assistant and assistant floor manager. Other permanent staff included the producer's office, script department and designer, meaning between 30 and 35 people would be working full-time on "EastEnders", rising to 60 to 70 on filming days. When the number of episodes was increased to four per week, more studio space was needed, so "Top of the Pops" was moved from its studio at Elstree to BBC Television Centre in April 2001. Episodes are produced in "quartets" of four episodes, each of which starts filming on a Tuesday and takes nine days to record. Each day, between 25 and 30 scenes are recorded. During the filming week, actors can film for as many as eight to twelve episodes. Exterior scenes are filmed on a specially constructed film lot, and interior scenes take place in six studios. The episodes are usually filmed about six to eight weeks in advance of broadcast. During the winter period, filming can take place up to twelve weeks in advance, due to less daylight for outdoor filming sessions. This time difference has been known to cause problems when filming outdoor scenes. On 8 February 2007, heavy snow fell on the set and filming had to be cancelled as the scenes due to be filmed on the day were to be transmitted in April. "EastEnders" is normally recorded using four cameras. When a quartet is completed, it is edited by the director, videotape editor and script supervisor. The producer then reviews the edits and decides if anything needs to be re-edited, which the director will do. A week later, sound is added to the episodes and they are technically reviewed, and are ready for transmission if they are deemed of acceptable quality.

Although episodes are predominantly recorded weeks before they are broadcast, occasionally, "EastEnders" includes current events in their episodes. In 1987, "EastEnders" covered the general election. Using a plan devised by co-creators Smith and Holland, five minutes of material was cut from four of the pre-recorded episodes preceding the election. These were replaced by specially recorded election material, including representatives from each major party, and a scene recorded on the day after the election reflecting the result, which was broadcast the following Tuesday. The result of the 2010 general election was referenced in 7 May 2010 episode. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, actors filmed short scenes following the tournament's events that were edited into the programme in the following episode. Last-minute scenes have also been recorded to reference the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, the two-minute silence on Remembrance Day 2005 (2005 also being the year for the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar), Barack Obama's election victory in 2008, the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, Andy Murray winning the Men's Singles at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the birth of Prince George of Cambridge. Scotland voting no against independence in 2014, and the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War.

"EastEnders" is often filmed on location, away from the studios in Borehamwood. Sometimes an entire quartet is filmed on location, which has a practical function and are the result of "EastEnders" making a "double bank", when an extra week's worth of episodes are recorded at the same time as the regular schedule, enabling the production of the programme to stop for a two-week break at Christmas. These episodes often air in late June or early July and again in late October or early November. The first time this happened was in December 1985 when Pauline (Wendy Richard) and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) travelled to the Southend-on-Sea to find their son Mark, who had run away from home. In 1986, "EastEnders" filmed overseas for the first time, in Venice, and this was also the first time it was not filmed on videotape, as a union rule at the time prevented producers taking a video crew abroad and a film crew had to be used instead. In 2011, it was reported that eight per cent of the series is filmed on location.

If scenes during a normal week are to be filmed on location, this is done during the normal recording week. Off-set locations that have been used for filming include Clacton (1989), Devon (September 1990), Hertfordshire (used for scenes set in Gretna Green in July 1991), Portsmouth (November 1991), Milan (1997), Ireland (1997), Amsterdam (December 1999), Brighton (2001) and Portugal (2003). In 2003, filming took place at Loch Fyne Hotel and Leisure Club in Inveraray, The Arkinglass Estate in Cairndow and Grims Dyke Hotel, Harrow Weald, north London, for a week of episodes set in Scotland. 9 April 2007 episode featured scenes filmed at St Giles Church and The Blacksmiths Arms public house in Wormshill, the Ringlestone Inn, two miles away and Court Lodge Farm in Stansted, Kent. and the Port of Dover, Kent..

Other locations have included the court house, a disused office block, Evershed House, and St Peter's Church, all in St Albans, an abandoned mental facility in Worthing, Carnaby Street in London, and a wedding dress shop in Muswell Hill, north London. A week of episodes in 2011 saw filming take place on a beach in Thorpe Bay and a pier in Southend-on-Sea—during which a stuntman was injured when a gust of wind threw him off balance and he fell onto rocks— with other scenes filmed on the Essex coast. In 2012, filming took place in Keynsham, Somerset. In January 2013, on-location filming at Grahame Park in Colindale, north London, was interrupted by at least seven youths who threw a firework at the set and threatened to cut members of the crew. In October 2013, scenes were filmed on a road near London Southend Airport in Essex.

The two-handers (when only two actors appear in an episode) were originally done for speed; while a two-hander is being filmed, the rest of the cast can be making another episode.

"EastEnders" has featured seven live broadcasts. For its 25th anniversary in February 2010, a live episode was broadcast in which Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) was revealed as Archie Mitchell's (Larry Lamb) killer. Turner was told only 30 minutes before the live episode and to maintain suspense, she whispers this revelation to former lover and current father-in-law, Max Branning, in the very final moments of the live show. Many other cast members only found out at the same time as the public, when the episode was broadcast. On 23 July 2012, a segment of that evening's episode was screened live as Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) carried the Olympic Flame around Walford in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics. In February 2015, for the soap's 30th anniversary, five episodes in a week featured live inserts throughout them. Episodes airing on Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 (which featured an hour long episode and a second episode) all featured at least one live insert. The show revealed that the killer of Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) was her younger brother, Bobby (Eliot Carrington), during the second episode on Thursday, after a ten month mystery regarding who killed her. In a flashback episode which revisited the night of the murder, Bobby was revealed to have killed his sister. The aftermath episode, which aired on Friday 20, was completely live and explained in detail Lucy's death. Carrington was told he was Lucy's killer on Monday 16, while Laurie Brett (who plays Bobby's adoptive mother, Jane) was informed in November, due to the character playing a huge role in the cover-up of Lucy's murder. Bywater only discovered Bobby was responsible for Lucy's death on the morning of Thursday, 19 February, several hours before they filmed the scenes revealing Bobby as Lucy's killer.

Each episode should run for 27 minutes and 15 seconds, however, if any episode runs over or under then it is the job of post-production to cut or add scenes where appropriate. As noted in the 1994 behind-the-scenes book, "EastEnders: The First 10 Years", after filming, tapes were sent to the videotape editor, who then edited the scenes together into an episode. The videotape editor used the director's notes so they knew which scenes the director wanted to appear in a particular episode. The producer might have asked for further changes to be made. The episode was then copied onto D3 video. The final process was to add the audio which included background noise such as a train or a jukebox music and to check it met the BBC's technical standard for broadcasting.

Since 2010, "EastEnders" no longer uses tapes in the recording or editing process. After footage is recorded, the material is sent digitally to the post production team. The editors then assemble all the scenes recorded for the director to view and note any changes that are needed. The sound team also have the capability to access the edited episode, enabling them to dub the sound and create the final version.

According to the book "How to Study Television", in 1995 "EastEnders" cost the BBC £40,000 per episode on average. A 2012 agreement between the BBC, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the Personal Managers' Association set out the pay rate for "EastEnders" scripts as £137.70 per minute of transmission time (£4,131 for 30 minutes), which is 85 per cent of the rate for scripts for other BBC television series. The writers would be paid 75 per cent of that fee for any repeats of the episode. In 2011, it was reported that actors receive a per-episode fee of between £400 and £1,200, and are guaranteed a certain number of episodes per year, perhaps as few as 30 or as many as 100, therefore annual salaries could range from £12,000 to £200,000 depending on the popularity of a character. Some actors' salaries were leaked in 2006, revealing that Natalie Cassidy (Sonia Fowler) was paid £150,000, Cliff Parisi (Minty Peterson) received £220,000, Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell) and Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell) each received £360,000 and Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) had a salary of £370,000. In 2017, it was revealed that Danny Dyer (Mick Carter) and Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) were the highest-paid actors in "EastEnders", earning between £200,000 and £249,999, followed by Laurie Brett (Jane Beale), Letitia Dean (Sharon Watts), Tameka Empson (Kim Fox), Linda Henry (Shirley Carter), Scott Maslen (Jack Branning), Diane Parish (Denise Fox), Gillian Taylforth (Kathy Beale) and Lacey Turner (Stacey Slater), earning between £150,000 and £199,999.

A 2011 report from the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that "EastEnders" had an annual budget of £29.9 million. Of that, £2.9 million was spent on scripts and £6.9 million went towards paying actors, extras and chaperones for child actors. According to the NAO, BBC executives approved £500,000 of additional funding for the 25th anniversary live episode (19 February 2010). With a total cost of £696,000, the difference was covered from the 2009–2010 series budget for "EastEnders". When repeats and omnibus editions are shown, the BBC pays additional fees to cast and scriptwriters and incurs additional editing costs, which in the period 2009–2010, amounted to £5.5million. According to a Radio Times article for 212 episodes it works out at £141,000 per episode or 3.5p per viewer hour.

In 2014, two new studios were built and they were equipped with low-energy lighting which has saved approximately 90,000 kwh per year. A carbon literacy course was run with Heads of Departments of "EastEnders" attending and as a result, representatives from each department agreed to meet quarterly to share new sustainability ideas. The paper usage was reduced by 50 per cent across script distribution and other weekly documents and 20 per cent across all other paper usage. The production team now use recycled paper and recycled stationery.

Also changes to working online has also saved transportation cost of distribution 2,500 DVDs per year. Sets, costumes, paste pots and paint are all recycled by the design department. Cars used by the studio are low emission vehicles and the production team take more efficient energy efficient generators out on location. Caterers no longer use polystyrene cups and recycling on location must be provided.

As a result of "EastEnders" sustainability, it was awarded albert+, an award that recognises the production's commitment to becoming a more eco-friendly television production. The albert+ logo was first shown at the end of the "EastEnders" titles for episode 5281 on 9 May 2016.

Since 1985, "EastEnders" has remained at the centre of BBC One's primetime schedule. Since 2001, it has been broadcast at 7:30pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and 8pm on Monday and Friday. "EastEnders" was originally broadcast twice weekly at 7:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 19 February 1985. However, in September 1985 the two episodes were moved to 7:30pm as Michael Grade did not want the soap running in direct competition with "Emmerdale Farm", and this remained the same until 7 April 1994. The BBC had originally planned to take advantage of the'summer break' that "Emmerdale Farm" usually took to capitalise on ratings, but ITV1 added extra episodes and repeats so that "Emmerdale Farm" was not taken off the air over the summer. Realising the futility of the situation, Grade decided to move the show to the later 7:30pm slot, but to avoid tabloid speculation that it was a "panic move" on the BBC's behalf, they had to "dress up the presentation of that move in such a way as to protect the show" giving "all kinds of reasons" for the move.

"EastEnders" output then increased to three times a week on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursdays from 11 April 1994 until 2 August 2001.
From 10 August 2001, "EastEnders" then added its fourth episode (shown on Fridays). This caused some controversy as it clashed with "Coronation Street", which at the time was moved to 8pm to make way for an hour-long episode of rural soap "Emmerdale" at 7pm. The move immediately provoked an angry response from ITV insiders, who argued that the BBC's last-minute move—only revealed at 3.30pm on the day—broke an unwritten scheduling rule that the two flagship soaps would not be put directly against each other. In this first head-to-head battle, "EastEnders" claimed victory over its rival.

In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of "EastEnders" on digital channel BBC Three before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped BBC Three break the one million viewers mark for the first time with 1.03 million who watched to see Mark Fowler's departure. According to the "EastEnders" website, there are on average 208 episodes outputted each year.

"EastEnders" was regularly repeated at 10pm on BBC Choice from the channel's launch in 1998, a practice continued by BBC Three for many years until mid-2012 with the repeat moving to 10:30pm. From 25 December 2010 to 29 April 2011 the show was repeated on BBC HD in a Simulcast with BBC Three. In 2015, the BBC Three repeat moved back to 10pm. In February 2016, the repeat moved to W, the rebranded Watch, after BBC Three became an online-only channel. W stopped showing "EastEnders" in April 2018. Episodes of "EastEnders" are available on-demand through BBC iPlayer for 30 days after their original screening.

The omnibus edition, a compilation of the week's episodes in a continuous sequence, originally aired on BBC One on Sunday afternoons, until 1 April 2012 when it was changed to a late Friday night or early Saturday morning slot, commencing 6 April 2012, though the exact time differed. It reverted to a weekend daytime slot as from January 2013 on BBC Two. In 2014, the omnibus moved back to around midnight on Friday nights, and in April 2015, the omnibus was axed, following detailed audience research and the introduction of 30-day catch up on BBC iPlayer and the planning of BBC One +1. The last omnibus on the BBC was shown on 24 April 2015. While W was showing same-day repeats of "EastEnders", they also returned the weekend omnibus, starting on 20 February 2016.

From 20 February to 26 May 1995, as part of the programme's 10th Anniversary celebrations, episodes from 1985 were repeated each weekday morning at 10am, starting from episode one. Four specially selected episodes from 1985, 1986 and 1987 were also repeated on BBC1 on Friday evenings at 8pm under the banner "The Unforgettable EastEnders". These included the wedding of Michelle Fowler and Lofty Holloway, the revelation of the father of Michelle's baby, a two-hander between Dot Cotton and Ethel Skinner and the 1986 Christmas episode featuring Den Watts presenting Angie Watts with divorce papers.

"EastEnders" reruns began on UKTV Gold when the channel launched in 1992. The series ran from the first episode and followed its original broadcast order until August 1996 when the channel looped back to the first episode. In October 2008, UKTV Gold ceased showing "EastEnders". The last episode shown was from January 2006. Watch launched in October 2008 and resumed "EastEnders" reruns from 5 January 2009 to 22 October 2009, finishing with episodes originally broadcast in December 2006.

On 1 December 2012, the BBC uploaded the first 54 episodes of "EastEnders" to YouTube, and on 23 July 2013 they uploaded a further 14 episodes bringing the total to 68. These have since been taken down.

In April 2018 it was announced that Drama would be showing repeats starting 6 August 2018 during weekdays and they are also available on-demand on the UKTV Play catch-up service for 30 days after the broadcast.

"EastEnders" is broadcast around the world in many English-speaking countries. New Zealand became the first to broadcast "EastEnders" overseas, the first episode being shown on 27 September 1985. This was followed by the Netherlands on 8 December 1986, Australia on 5 January 1987, Norway on 27 April, and Barcelona on 30 June (dubbed into Catalan). On 9 July 1987, it was announced that the show would be aired in the United States on PBS. BBC Worldwide licensed 200 hours of "EastEnders" for broadcast in Serbia on RTS (dubbed into Serbian); it began airing the first episode in December 1997. The series was broadcast in the United States until BBC America ceased broadcasts of the serial in 2003, amidst fan protests. In June 2004, the satellite television provider Dish Network picked up "EastEnders", broadcasting episodes starting at the point where BBC America had ceased broadcasting them, offering the series as a pay-per-view item. Episodes air two months behind the UK schedule. Episodes from prior years are still shown on various PBS stations in the US. Since 7 March 2017, "EastEnders" has been available in the United States on demand, 24 hours after it has aired in the United Kingdom via BritBox, a joint venture between BBC and ITV.

The series was screened in Australia by ABC TV from 1987 until 1991. It is aired in Australia on Satellite & Streaming services on BBC UKTV, from Mondays to Thursdays 7:50pm–8:30pm with two advertisement breaks of five minutes each. Episodes are shown roughly one week after their UK broadcast. In New Zealand, it was shown by TVNZ on TVNZ 1 for several years, and then on Prime each weekday afternoon. It is shown on BBC UKTV from Mondays to Thursdays at 8pm. Episodes are roughly two weeks behind the UK.

"EastEnders" is shown on BBC Entertainment (formerly BBC Prime) in Europe and in Africa, where it is approximately six episodes behind the UK. It was also shown on BBC Prime in Asia, but when the channel was replaced by BBC Entertainment, it ceased broadcasting the series. In Canada, "EastEnders" was shown on BBC Canada until 2010, at which point it was picked up by VisionTV. In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, the show is now cancelled but was for decades shown on BBC Nordic channels with local subtitles.

In Ireland, "EastEnders" was shown on TV3 from September 1998 until March 2001, when it moved over to RTÉ One, after RTÉ lost to TV3 the rights to air rival soap "Coronation Street". The series is simulcast with BBC One, which is widely available in the Republic, but has carried advertising since its 1998 debut on Irish television. Additionally, episodes of "EastEnders" are available on-demand through RTÉ Player for seven days after their original screening.

HM Forces and their families stationed overseas can watch "EastEnders" on BBC One, carried by the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which is also available to civilians in the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha. It was previously shown on BFBS1.

In 1991 the BBC sold the programme's format rights to a Dutch production company IDTV, the programme was renamed "Het Oude Noorden" (Translation: Old North). The Dutch version was re-written from already existing "EastEnders" scripts. The schedule remained the same as "EastEnders" twice weekly episodes, however some notable changes included the programme is now set in Rotterdam rather than London, characters are given Dutch names (Den and Angie became Ger and Ankie) and The Queen Victoria pub is renamed "Cade Faas".

According to Barbara Jurgen who re-wrote the scripts for a Dutch audience he said "The power of the show is undeniable. The Scripts are full of hard, sharp drama, plus great one-liners which will translate well to Holland." The Dutch version began broadcasting on VARA 13 March 1993 but was cancelled after 20 episodes.

On 26 December 1988, the first "EastEnders" "bubble" was shown, titled "CivvyStreet". Since then, "Return of Nick Cotton" (2000), "Ricky & Bianca" (2002), "Dot's Story" (2003), "Perfectly Frank" (2003) and "Pat and Mo" (2004) have all been broadcast, each episode looking into lives of various characters and revealing part of their backstories or lives since leaving "EastEnders". In 1993, the two-part story "Dimensions in Time", a charity cross-over with "Doctor Who", was shown.

In 1998, "EastEnders Revealed" was launched on BBC Choice (now BBC Three). The show takes a look behind the scenes of the "EastEnders" and investigates particular places, characters or families within "EastEnders". An episode of "EastEnders Revealed" that was commissioned for BBC Three attracted 611,000 viewers. As part of the BBC's digital push, "EastEnders Xtra" was introduced in 2005. The show was presented by Angellica Bell and was available to digital viewers at 8:30pm on Monday nights. It was also shown after the Sunday omnibus. The series went behind the scenes of the show and spoke to some of the cast members. A new breed of behind-the-scenes programmes have been broadcast on BBC Three since 1 December 2006. These are all documentaries related to current storylines in "EastEnders", in a similar format to "EastEnders Revealed", though not using the "EastEnders Revealed" name.

In October 2009, a 12-part Internet spin-off series entitled "" was announced. The series was conceived by executive producer Diederick Santer "as a way of nurturing new, young talent, both on- and off-screen, and exploring the stories of the soaps' anonymous bystanders." "E20" features a group of sixth-form characters and targets the ""Hollyoaks" demographic". It was written by a team of young writers and was shown three times a week on the "EastEnders" website from 8 January 2010. A second 10-part series started in September 2010, with twice-weekly episodes available online and an omnibus on BBC Three. A third series of 15 episodes started in September 2011.

"EastEnders" and rival soap opera "Coronation Street" took part in a crossover episode for Children in Need on 19 November 2010 called "East Street". On 4 April 2015, "EastEnders" confirmed plans for a BBC One series featuring Kat and Alfie Moon. The six-part drama, "", was created by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and his team. In the spin-off, the Moons visit Ireland where they "search for answers to some very big questions."

Until its closure, BBC Store released 553 "EastEnders" episodes from various years, including the special episode "CivvyStreet", available to buy as digital downloads.

An example of "EastEnders" popularity is that after episodes, electricity use in the United Kingdom rises significantly as viewers who have waited for the show to end begin boiling water for tea, a phenomenon known as TV pickup. Over five minutes, power demand rises by three GW, the equivalent of 1.5 to 1.75 million kettles. National Grid personnel watch the show to know when closing credits begin so they can prepare for the surge, asking for additional power from France if necessary.

"EastEnders" is the BBC's most consistent programme in terms of ratings. It has proved highly popular and Appreciation Indexes reflected this, rising from 55–60 at the launch to 85–95 later on, a figure which was nearly 10 points higher than the average for a British soap opera. Research suggested that people found the characters true to life, the plots believable and, importantly in the face of criticism of the content, people watched as a family and regarded it as viewing for all the family. Based on market research by BBC commissioning in 2003, "EastEnders" is most watched by 60- to 74-year-olds, closely followed by 45- to 59-year-olds. An average "EastEnders" episode attracts a total audience share between 35 and 40 per cent. The same-day repeat showing on BBC Three attracted an average of 500,000 viewers, whilst the Sunday omnibus generally attracted 3 million. "EastEnders" is one of the more popular programmes on British television and while the show's ratings have fallen since its initial surge in popularity and the advent of multichannel digital television, the programme continues to be successful for the BBC. "EastEnders" two main rivals are ITV soaps "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale".
The launch show in 1985 attracted 17.35 million viewers. 25 July 1985 was the first time the show's viewership rose to first position in the weekly top 10 shows for BBC One. The highest rated episode of "EastEnders" is the Christmas Day 1986 episode, which attracted a combined 30.15 million viewers who tuned into either the original transmission or the omnibus to see Den Watts hand over divorce papers to his wife Angie. This remains the highest rated episode of a soap in British television history.

In 2001, "EastEnders" clashed with "Coronation Street" for the first time. "EastEnders" won the battle with 8.4 million viewers (41% share) whilst "Coronation Street" lagged behind with 7.3 million viewers (34 per cent share). On 21 September 2004, Louise Berridge, the then executive producer, quit following criticism of the show. The following day the show received its lowest ever ratings at that time (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour-long episode of "Emmerdale" against it. "Emmerdale" was watched by 8.1 million people. The poor ratings motivated the press into reporting viewers were bored with implausible and ill-thought-out storylines. Under new producers, "EastEnders" and "Emmerdale" continued to clash at times, and "Emmerdale" tended to come out on top, giving "EastEnders" lower than average ratings. In 2006, "EastEnders" regularly attracted between 8 and 12 million viewers in official ratings. "EastEnders" received its second lowest ratings on 17 May 2007, when 4.0 million viewers tuned in. This was also the lowest ever audience share, with just 19.6 per cent. This was attributed to a conflicting one-hour special episode of "Emmerdale" on ITV1. However, ratings for the 10pm "EastEnders" repeat on BBC Three reached an all-time high of 1.4 million. However, there have been times when "EastEnders" had higher ratings than "Emmerdale" despite the two going head-to-head.

The ratings increased in 2010, thanks to the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline and second wedding of Ricky Butcher and Bianca Jackson, and the show's first live episode on 19 February 2010. The live-episode averaged 15.6 million viewers, peaking at 16.6 million in the final five minutes of broadcast. In January 2010, the average audience was higher than that of "Coronation Street" for the first time in three years. During the 30th anniversary week in which there were live elements and the climax of the Who Killed Lucy Beale? storyline, 10.84 million viewers tuned in for the 30th anniversary episode itself in an hour long special on 19 February 2015 (peaking with 11.9 million). Later on in the same evening, a special flashback episode averaged 10.3 million viewers, and peaked with 11.2 million. The following day, the anniversary week was rounded off with another fully live episode (the second after 2010) with 9.97 million viewers watching the aftermath of the reveal, the Beale family finding out the truth of Lucy's killer and deciding to keep it a secret.

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"EastEnders" is the most complained about programme on the BBC. It has received both praise and criticism for most of its storylines, which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape, murder and child abuse.

Mary Whitehouse, social critic, argued at the time that "EastEnders" represented a violation of "family viewing time" and that it undermined the watershed policy. She regarded "EastEnders" as a fundamental assault on the family and morality itself. She made reference to representation of family life and emphasis on psychological and emotional violence within the show. She was also critical of language such as "bleeding", "bloody hell", "bastard" and "for Christ's sake". However, Whitehouse also praised the programme, describing Michelle Fowler's decision not to have an abortion as a "very positive storyline". She also felt that "EastEnders" had been cleaned up as a result of her protests, though she later commented that "EastEnders" had returned to its old ways. Her criticisms were widely reported in the tabloid press as ammunition in its existing hostility towards the BBC. The stars of "Coronation Street" in particular aligned themselves with Mary Whitehouse, gaining headlines such as "STREETS AHEAD! RIVALS LASH SEEDY EASTENDERS" and "CLEAN UP SOAP! Street Star Bill Lashes 'Steamy' EastEnders".

"EastEnders" has been criticised for being too violent, most notably during a domestic violence storyline between Little Mo Morgan and her husband Trevor Morgan. As "EastEnders" is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that some scenes in this storyline were too graphic for its audience. Complaints against a scene in which Little Mo's face was pushed in gravy on Christmas Day were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls. Erin Pizzey, who became internationally famous for having started one of the first women's refuges, said that "EastEnders" had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in 25 years. The character of Phil Mitchell (played by Steve McFadden since early 1990) has been criticised on several occasions for glorifying violence and proving a bad role model to children. On one occasion following a scene in an episode broadcast in October 2002, where Phil brutally beat his godson, Jamie Mitchell (Jack Ryder), 31 complaints came from viewers who watched the scenes.

In 2003, cast member Shaun Williamson, who was in the final months of his role of Barry Evans, said that the programme had become much grittier over the past 10 to 15 years, and found it "frightening" that parents let their young children watch.

In 2005, the BBC was accused of anti-religious bias by a House of Lords committee, who cited "EastEnders" as an example. Dr. Indarjit Singh, editor of the Sikh Messenger and patron of the World Congress of Faiths, said: ""EastEnders" Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly from the Bible and it ridicules religion to some extent." In July 2010, complaints were received following the storyline of Christian minister Lucas Johnson committing a number of murders that he believed was his duty to God, claiming that the storyline was offensive to Christians.

In 2008, "EastEnders", along with "Coronation Street", was criticised by Martin McGuinness, then Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, for "the level of concentration around the pub" and the "antics portrayed in the [...] Queen Vic".

In 2017, viewers complained on Twitter about scenes implying that Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) is the father of his 15-year-old sister Bernadette Taylor's (Clair Norris) unborn baby, with the pair agreeing to keep the pregnancy secret from their mother, Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley). However, the baby's father is revealed as one of Bernadette's school friends.

In 1997 several episodes were shot and set in Ireland, resulting in criticisms for portraying the Irish in a negatively stereotypical way. Ted Barrington, the Irish Ambassador to the UK at the time, described the portrayal of Ireland as an "unrepresentative caricature", stating he was worried by the negative stereotypes and the images of drunkenness, backwardness and isolation. Jana Bennett, the BBC's then director of production, later apologised for the episodes, stating on BBC1's news bulletin: "It is clear that a significant number of viewers have been upset by the recent episodes of "EastEnders", and we are very sorry, because the production team and programme makers did not mean to cause any offence." A year later BBC chairman Christopher Bland admitted that as result of the Irish-set EastEnders episodes, the station failed in its pledge to represent all groups accurately and avoid reinforcing prejudice.

In 2008, the show was criticised for stereotyping their Asian and Black characters, by having a black single mum, Denise Wicks, and an Asian shopkeeper, Zainab Masood. There has been criticism that the programme does not authentically portray the ethnic diversity of the population of East London, with the programme being 'twice as white' as the real East End.

Some storylines have provoked high levels of viewer complaints. In August 2006, a scene involving Carly Wicks (Kellie Shirley) and Jake Moon (Joel Beckett) having sex on the floor of Scarlet nightclub, and another scene involving Owen Turner violently attacking Denise Fox, prompted 129 and 128 complaints, respectively. Carly and Jake's sex scenes were later removed from the Sunday omnibus edition. The showdown of Rob, Dawn and May's storyline where May stated to Dawn she could give her an elective caesarean (Dawn being handcuffed to the bed) prompted 200 complaints. The 2007 domestic abuse storyline involving Ben Mitchell and Stella Crawford attracted 60 complaints from viewers, who found scenes where Ben was attacked by bullies as Stella looked on "upsetting".

In March 2008, scenes showing Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and boyfriend, Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky), burying Tanya's husband Max (Jake Wood) alive, attracted many complaints. The UK communications regulator Ofcom later found that the episodes depicting the storyline were in breach of the 2005 Broadcasting Code. They contravened the rules regarding protection of children by appropriate scheduling, appropriate depiction of violence before the 9 p.m. watershed and appropriate depiction of potentially offensive content. In September 2008, "EastEnders" began a grooming and paedophilia storyline involving characters Tony King (Chris Coghill), Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), Lauren Branning (Madeline Duggan) and Peter Beale (Thomas Law). The storyline attracted over 200 complaints.

In December 2010, Ronnie swapped her newborn baby, who died in cot, with Kat Moon's living baby. Around 3,400 complaints were received, with viewers branding the storyline "insensitive", "irresponsible" and "desperate". Roz Laws from the "Sunday Mercury" called the plot "shocking and ridiculous" and asked "are we really supposed to believe that Kat won't recognise that the baby looks different?" The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) praised the storyline, and its director Joyce Epstein explained, "We are very grateful to "EastEnders" for their accurate depiction of the devastating effect that the sudden death of an infant can have on a family. We hope that this story will help raise the public's awareness of cot death, which claims 300 babies' lives each year." By 7 January, that storyline had generated the most complaints in show history: the BBC received about 8,500 complaints, and media regulator Ofcom received 374. Despite the controversy however, "EastEnders" pulled in rating highs of 9–10 million throughout the duration of the storyline.

In October 2014, the BBC defended a storyline, after receiving 278 complaints about 6 October 2014 episode where pub landlady Linda Carter was raped. On 17 November 2014 it was announced that Ofcom will investigate over the storyline. On 5 January 2015, the investigation was cleared by Ofcom. A spokesman of Ofcom said: "After carefully investigating complaints about this scene, Ofcom found the BBC took appropriate steps to limit offence to viewers. This included a warning before the episode and implying the assault, rather than depicting it. Ofcom also took into account the programme's role in presenting sometimes challenging or distressing social issues."

In 2010, "EastEnders" came under criticism from the police for the way that they were portrayed during the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline. During the storyline, DCI Jill Marsden and DC Wayne Hughes talk to locals about the case and Hughes accepts a bribe. The police claimed that such scenes were "damaging" to their reputation and added that the character DC Deanne Cunningham was "irritatingly inaccurate". In response to the criticism, "EastEnders" apologised for offending real life detectives and confirmed that they use a police consultant for such storylines.

In October 2012, a storyline involving Lola Pearce, forced to hand over her baby Lexi Pearce, was criticised by the charity The Who Cares? Trust, who called the storyline an "unhelpful portrayal" and said it had already received calls from members of the public who were "distressed about the "EastEnders" scene where a social worker snatches a baby from its mother's arms". The scenes were also condemned by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), calling the BBC "too lazy and arrogant" to correctly portray the child protection process, and saying that the baby was taken "without sufficient grounds to do so". Bridget Robb, acting chief of the BASW, said the storyline provoked "real anger among a profession well used to a less than accurate public and media perception of their jobs.. "EastEnders" shabby portrayal of an entire profession has made a tough job even tougher."

Since its premiere in 1985, "EastEnders" has had a large impact on British popular culture. It has frequently been referred to in many different media, including songs and television programmes.

Many books have been written about "EastEnders". Notably, from 1985 to 1988, author and television writer Hugh Miller wrote 17 novels, detailing the lives of many of the show's original characters before 1985, when events on screen took place.

Kate Lock also wrote four novels centred on more recent characters; Steve Owen, Grant Mitchell, Bianca Jackson and Tiffany Mitchell. Lock also wrote a character guide entitled "Who's Who in EastEnders" () in 2000, examining main characters from the first 15 years of the show.

Show creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland also wrote a book about the show in 1987, entitled "EastEnders: The Inside Story" (), telling the story of how the show made it to screen. Two special anniversary books have been written about the show; "EastEnders: The First 10 Years: A Celebration" () by Colin Brake in 1995 and "EastEnders: 20 Years in Albert Square" () by Rupert Smith in 2005.

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since 1985. Set in Albert Square in the East End of London in the fictional Borough of Walford, the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Initially there were two 30-minute episodes per week, later increasing to three, but since 2001 episodes have been broadcast every weekday apart from Wednesdays.

Within eight months of the show's launch, it reached the number-one spot in BARB's TV ratings and has consistently remained among the top-rated TV programmes in Britain. In 2013, the average audience share for an episode was around 30 per cent. Today, "EastEnders" remains a significant programme in terms of the BBC's success and audience share, and also in the history of British television drama, tackling many dilemmas that are considered to be controversial and taboo issues in British culture and social life previously unseen on United Kingdom mainstream television.

, "EastEnders" has won nine BAFTA Awards and the Inside Soap Award for Best Soap for 14 years running (from 1997 to 2012), as well as twelve National Television Awards for Most Popular Serial Drama and 11 awards for Best Soap at the British Soap Awards. It has also won 13 TV Quick and TV Choice Awards for Best Soap, six TRIC Awards for Soap of The Year, four Royal Television Society Awards for Best Continuing Drama and has been inducted into the Rose d'Or Hall of Fame.

In March 1983, under two years before "EastEnders" first episode was broadcast, the show was a vague idea in the mind of a handful of BBC executives, who decided that what BBC1 needed was a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences that ITV was getting with "Coronation Street". The first people to whom David Reid, then head of series and serials, turned were Julia Smith and Tony Holland, a well established producer/script editor team who had first worked together on "Z-Cars". The outline that Reid presented was vague: two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year. After the concept was put to them on 14 March 1983, Smith and Holland then went about putting their ideas down on paper; they decided it would be set in the East End of London. Granada Television gave Smith unrestricted access to the "Coronation Street" production for a month so that she could get a sense how a continuing drama was produced.

There was anxiety at first that the viewing public would not accept a new soap set in the south of England, though research commissioned by lead figures in the BBC revealed that southerners would accept a northern soap, northerners would accept a southern soap and those from the Midlands, as Julia Smith herself pointed out, did not mind where it was set as long as it was somewhere else. This was the beginning of a close and continuing association between "EastEnders" and audience research, which, though commonplace today, was something of a revolution in practice.

The show's creators were both Londoners, but when they researched Victorian squares, they found massive changes in areas they thought they knew well. However, delving further into the East End of London, they found exactly what they had been searching for: a real East End spirit—an inward looking quality, a distrust of strangers and authority figures, a sense of territory and community that the creators summed up as "Hurt one of us and you hurt us all".

When developing "EastEnders", both Smith and Holland looked at influential models like "Coronation Street", but they found that it offered a rather outdated and nostalgic view of working-class life. Only after "EastEnders" began, and featured the characters of Tony Carpenter and Kelvin Carpenter, did "Coronation Street" start to feature black characters, for example. They came to the conclusion that "Coronation Street" had grown old with its audience, and that "EastEnders" would have to attract a younger, more socially extensive audience, ensuring that it had the longevity to retain it for many years thereafter. They also looked at "Brookside" but found there was a lack of central meeting points for the characters, making it difficult for the writers to intertwine different storylines, so "EastEnders" was set in Albert Square.

A previous UK soap set in an East End market was ATV's "Market in Honey Lane" between 1967 and 1969. However this show, which graduated from one showing a week to two in three separate series (the latter series being shown in different time slots across the ITV network) was very different in style and approach to "EastEnders". The British Film Institute described "Market In Honey Lane" thus: "It was not an earth-shaking programme, and certainly not pioneering in any revolutionary ideas in technique and production, but simply proposed itself to the casual viewer as a mildly pleasant affair." "EastEnders", while also featuring an East End street market, would be very different in its approach and impact.

The target launch date was originally January 1985. Smith and Holland had eleven months in which to write, cast and shoot the whole thing. However, in February 1984, they did not even have a title or a place to film. Both Smith and Holland were unhappy about the January 1985 launch date, favouring November or even September 1984 when seasonal audiences would be higher, but the BBC stayed firm, and Smith and Holland had to concede that, with the massive task of getting the Elstree Studios operational, January was the most realistic date. However, this was later to be changed to February.

The project had a number of working titles—"Square Dance", "Round the Square", "Round the Houses", "London Pride" and "East 8". It was the latter that stuck (E8 is the postcode for Hackney) in the early months of creative process. However, the show was renamed after many casting agents mistakenly thought the show was to be called "Estate", and the fictional postcode E20 was created, instead of using E8. Julia Smith came up with the name "Eastenders" after she and Holland had spent months telephoning theatrical agents and asking "Do you have any real East Enders on your books?" However, Smith thought ""Eastenders"" "looked ugly written down" and was "hard to say", so decided to capitalise the second 'e'.

Once they had decided on their 23 characters, they returned to London for a meeting with the BBC. Everyone agreed that "EastEnders" would be tough, violent on occasion, funny and sharp—set in Margaret Thatcher's Britain—and it would start with a bang (namely the death of Reg Cox). They decided that none of their existing characters were wicked enough to have killed Reg, so a 24th character, Nick Cotton was added to the line-up. He was a racist thug, who often tried to lead other young characters astray. When all the characters had been created, Smith and Holland set about casting the actors for the show.

Through the next few months, the set was growing rapidly at Elstree, and a composer and designer had been commissioned to create the title sequence. Simon May wrote the theme music and Alan Jeapes created the visuals. The visual images were taken from an aircraft flying over the East End of London at 1000 feet. Approximately 800 photographs were taken and pieced together to create one big image. The credits were later updated when the Millennium Dome was built.

Press coverage of "EastEnders", which was already intense, went into overdrive once the show was broadcast. With public interest so high, the media began investigating the private lives of the show's popular stars. Within days, a scandalous headline appeared —"EASTENDERS STAR IS A KILLER". This referred to Leslie Grantham, and his prison sentence for the murder of a taxi driver in an attempted robbery nearly 20 years earlier. This shocking tell-all style set the tone for relations between Albert Square and the press for the next 20 years.

The show's first episode attracted some 17million viewers, and it continued to attract high viewing figures from then on. By Christmas 1985, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the show. 'Exclusives' about "EastEnders" storylines and the actors on the show became a staple of tabloid buyers daily reading.

Writer Colin Brake suggested that 1989 was a year of big change for "EastEnders", both behind the cameras and in front of them. Original production designer, Keith Harris, left the show, and Holland and Smith both decided that the time had come to move on too; their final contribution coinciding with the exit of one of "EastEnders" most successful characters, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). Producer Mike Gibbon was given the task of running the show and he enlisted the most experienced writers to take over the storylining of the programme, including Charlie Humphreys, Jane Hollowood and Tony McHale.

According to Brake, the departure of two of the soap's most popular characters, Den and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), left a void in the programme, which needed to be filled. In addition, several other long-running characters left the show that year including Sue and Ali Osman (Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih) and their family; Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler); Carmel Jackson (Judith Jacob) and Colin Russell (Michael Cashman). Brake indicated that the production team decided that 1989 was to be a year of change in Walford, commenting, "it was almost as if Walford itself was making a fresh start".

By the end of 1989 "EastEnders" had acquired a new executive producer, Michael Ferguson, who had previously been a successful producer on ITV's "The Bill". Brake suggested that Ferguson was responsible for bringing in a new sense of vitality and creating a programme that was more in touch with the real world than it had been over the previous year.

Hollingworth's contributions to the soap were awarded in 1997 when "EastEnders" won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. Hollingworth shared the award with the next Executive Producer, Jane Harris. Harris was responsible for the critically panned Ireland episodes and Cindy Beale's attempted assassination of Ian Beale, which brought in an audience of 23 million in 1996, roughly four million more than "Coronation Street". In 1998 Matthew Robinson was appointed as the Executive Producer of "EastEnders". During his reign, "EastEnders" won the BAFTA for "Best Soap" in consecutive years 1999 and 2000 and many other awards. Robinson also earned tabloid soubriquet "Axeman of Albert Square" after sacking a large number of characters in one hit, and several more thereafter. In their place, Robinson introduced new long-running characters including Melanie Healy, Jamie Mitchell, Lisa Shaw, Steve Owen and Billy Mitchell.

John Yorke became the Executive Producer of "EastEnders" in 2000. Yorke was given the task of introducing the soap's fourth weekly episode. He axed the majority of the Di Marco family and helped introduce popular characters such as the Slater family. As what Mal Young described as "two of "EastEnders" most successful years", Yorke was responsible for highly rated storylines such as "Who Shot Phil?", Ethel Skinner's death, Jim Branning and Dot Cotton's marriage, Trevor Morgan's domestic abuse of his wife Little Mo Morgan, and Kat Slater's revelation to her daughter Zoe Slater that she was her mother.

In 2002, Louise Berridge succeeded Yorke as the Executive Producer. During her time at "EastEnders", Berridge introduced popular characters such as Alfie Moon, Dennis Rickman, Chrissie Watts, Jane Beale, Stacey Slater and the critically panned Indian Ferreira family.

Berridge was responsible for some ratings success stories, such as Alfie and Kat Slater's relationship, Janine Butcher getting her comeuppance, Trevor Morgan and Jamie Mitchell's death storylines and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, Den Watts, who had been presumed dead for 14 years. His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting "EastEnders" back at number one in the rating war with the "Coronation Street". However, other storylines, such as one about a kidney transplant involving the Ferreiras, were not well received, and although Den Watts's return proved to be a ratings success, the British press branded the plot unrealistic and felt that it questioned the show's credibility. A severe press backlash followed after Den's actor, Leslie Grantham, was outed in an internet sex scandal, which coincided with a swift decline in viewer ratings. The scandal led to Grantham's departure from the soap, but the occasion was used to mark the 20th anniversary of "EastEnders", with an episode showing Den's murder at the Queen Vic pub.

On 2 March 2007, BBC signed a deal with Google to put videos on YouTube. A behind the scenes video of "EastEnders", hosted by Matt Di Angelo, who played Deano Wicks on the show, was put on the site the same day, and was followed by another on 6 March 2007. In April 2007, "EastEnders" became available to view on mobile phones, via 3G technology, for 3, Vodafone and Orange customers. On 21 April 2007, the BBC launched a new advertising campaign using the slogan "There's more to "EastEnders"". The first television advert showed Dot Branning with a refugee baby, Tomas, whom she took in under the pretence of being her grandson. The second and third featured Stacey Slater and Dawn Swann, respectively. There have also been adverts in magazines and on radio.

In 2009, producers introduced a limit on the number of speaking parts in each episode due to budget cuts, with an average of 16 characters per episode. The decision was criticised by Martin McGrath of Equity, who said: "Trying to produce quality TV on the cheap is doomed to fail." The BBC responded by saying they had been working that way for some time and it had not affected the quality of the show.

From 4 February 2010, CGI was used in the show for the first time, with the addition of computer-generated trains.

In November 2011, a storyline showed character Billy Mitchell, played by Perry Fenwick, selected to be a torch bearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics. In reality, Fenwick carried the torch through the setting of Albert Square, with live footage shown in the episode on 23 July 2012. This was the second live broadcast of "EastEnders". In 2012, Kirkwood chose to leave his role as executive producer and was replaced by Lorraine Newman. The show lost many of its significant characters during this period. Newman stepped down as executive producer after 16 months in the job in 2013 after the soap was criticised for its boring storylines and its lowest-ever figures pointing at around 4.8 million. Dominic Treadwell-Collins was appointed as the new executive producer on 19 August 2013 and was credited on 9 December. He axed multiple characters from the show and introduced the extended Carter family. He also introduced a long-running storyline, "Who Killed Lucy Beale?", which peaked during the show's 30th anniversary in 2015 with a week of live episodes. Treadwell-Collins announced his departure from "EastEnders" on 18 February 2016.

Walford East is a fictional tube station for Walford, and a tube map that was first seen on air in 1996 showed Walford East between Bow Road and West Ham, in the actual location of Bromley-by-Bow on the District and Hammersmith & City lines.

Walford has the postal district of E20. The postcode district was selected as if it were part of the actual E postcode area which covers much of east London although the next unused postcode district in the area was, and still is (), E19. The "E" stands for "Eastern". In 1917 the postal districts in London were assigned alphabetically according to the name of the main sorting office for each district. If Walford had been assigned in this scheme it would have been given E17, which is the postcode district for Walthamstow. In March 2011, Royal Mail allocated the E20 postal district to the 2012 Olympic Park. The postal district in "EastEnders" was entirely fictional up to that point, as London East postal districts stopped at E18 at that time. The show's creators opted for E20 instead of E19 as it was thought to sound better. In September 2011, the postcode for Albert Square was revealed in an episode as E20 6PQ.

"EastEnders" is built around the idea of relationships and strong families, with each character having a place in the community. This theme encompasses the whole Square, making the entire community a family of sorts, prey to upsets and conflict, but pulling together in times of trouble. Co-creator Tony Holland was from a large East End family, and such families have typified "EastEnders". The first central family was the combination of the Fowler family, consisting of Pauline Fowler, her husband Arthur, and teenage children Mark and Michelle. Pauline's family, the Beales, consisted of Pauline's twin brother Pete Beale, his wife Kathy and their teenage son Ian. Pauline and Pete's domineering mother Lou Beale lived with Pauline and her family. Holland drew on the names of his own family for the characters.

"EastEnders" has an emphasis on strong family matriarchs, with examples including Pauline Fowler and Peggy Mitchell, helping to attract a female audience. John Yorke, then the BBC's head of drama production, put this down to Tony Holland's "gay sensibility, which showed a love for strong women". The matriarchal role is one that has been seen in various reincarnations since the programme's inception, often depicted as the centre of the family unit. The original matriarch was Lou Beale, though later examples include Mo Harris, Pat Butcher, Zainab Masood and Cora Cross. These characters are seen as being loud and interfering but most importantly, responsible for the well-being of the family and usually stressing the importance of family, reflecting on the past.

The show often includes strong, brassy, long-suffering women who exhibit diva-like behaviour and stoically battle through an array of tragedy and misfortune. Such characters include Angie Watts, Kathy Beale, Sharon Watts, Pat Butcher, Denise Fox and Tanya Branning. Conversely there are female characters who handle tragedy less well, depicted as eternal victims and endless sufferers, who include Sue Osman, Little Mo Mitchell, Laura Beale, Lisa Fowler, Ronnie Mitchell and Linda Carter. The 'tart with a heart' is another recurring character, often popular with viewers. Often their promiscuity masks a hidden vulnerability and a desire to be loved. Such characters have included Pat Butcher (though in her latter years, this changed), Tiffany Mitchell, Kat Slater, Stacey Slater, Dawn Swann, Roxy Mitchell and Whitney Dean.

Over the years "EastEnders" has typically featured a number of elderly residents, who are used to show vulnerability, nostalgia, stalwart-like attributes and are sometimes used for comedic purposes. The original elderly residents included Lou Beale, Ethel Skinner and Dot Cotton. Over the years they have been joined by the likes of Mo Butcher, Jules Tavernier, Marge Green, Nellie Ellis, Jim Branning, Charlie Slater, Mo Harris, Patrick Trueman, Cora Cross, Les Coker, Rose Cotton, Pam Coker, Stan Carter, Babe Smith, Claudette Hubbard, Sylvie Carter, Ted Murray and Joyce Murray. Focus on elderly characters has decreased since the show's inception. The programme has more recently included a higher number of teenagers and successful young adults in a bid to capture the younger television audience. This has spurred criticism, most notably from the actress Anna Wing, who played Lou Beale in the show. She commented, "I don't want to be disloyal, but I think you need a few mature people in a soap because they give it backbone and body... if all the main people are young it gets a bit thin and inexperienced. It gets too lightweight."

"EastEnders" has been praised for its portrayal of characters with disabilities, including Adam Best (spina bifida), Noah Chambers (deaf), Jean Slater and her daughter Stacey (bipolar disorder), Janet Mitchell (Down syndrome) and Jim Branning (stroke). The show also features a large number of gay, lesbian and bisexual characters (see list of soap operas with LGBT characters), including Colin Russell, Barry Clark, Simon Raymond, Tony Hills, Sonia Fowler, Naomi Julien, Tina Carter, Tosh Mackintosh, Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker. Kyle Slater, a transgender character, was introduced in 2015.

"EastEnders" has a high cast turnover and characters are regularly changed to facilitate storylines or refresh the format. The show has also become known for the return of characters after they have left the show. Sharon Rickman returned in August 2012 for her third stint on the show. Den Watts returned 14 years after he was believed to have died, a feat repeated by Kathy Beale in 2015. Speaking extras, including Tracey the barmaid (who has been in the show since the first episode in 1985), have made appearances throughout the show's duration, without being the focus of any major storylines. The character of Nick Cotton gained a reputation for making constant exits and returns since the programme's first year, until the character's death in 2015.

, Adam Woodyatt, Leonard Fenton, Gillian Taylforth and Letitia Dean are the only members of the original cast remaining in the show, in their roles of Ian Beale, Harold Legg, Kathy Beale and Sharon Mitchell (Nee Watts) respectively. However, Fenton has only returned for a guest stint and will make his departure in the coming months. Ian Beale is the only character to have appeared continuously from the first episode without officially leaving, and is the longest-serving character in "EastEnders".

"EastEnders" programme makers took the decision that the show was to be about "everyday life" in the inner city "today" and regarded it as a "slice of life". Creator/producer Julia Smith declared that "We don't make life, we reflect it". She also said, "We decided to go for a realistic, fairly outspoken type of drama which could encompass stories about homosexuality, rape, unemployment, racial prejudice, etc., in a believable context. Above all, we wanted realism". In 2011, the head of BBC drama, John Yorke, said that the real East End had changed significantly since "EastEnders" started, and the show no longer truly reflected real life, but that it had an "emotional truthfulness" and was partly "true to the original vision" and partly "adapt[ing] to a changing world", adding that "If it was a show where every house cost a fortune and everyone drove a Lexus, it wouldn't be "EastEnders". You have to show shades of that change, but certain things are immutable, I would argue, like The Vic and the market."

As the show progressed into the 1990s, "EastEnders" still featured hard-hitting issues such as Mark Fowler revealing he was HIV positive in 1991, the death of his wife Gill from an AIDS-related illness in 1992, murder, adoption, abortion, Peggy Mitchell's battle with breast cancer, and Phil Mitchell's alcoholism and violence towards wife Kathy. Mental health issues were confronted in 1996 when 16-year-old Joe Wicks developed schizophrenia following the off-screen death of his sister in a car crash. The long-running storyline of Mark Fowler's HIV was so successful in raising awareness that in 1999, a survey by the National Aids Trust found teenagers got most of their information about HIV from the soap, though one campaigner noted that in some ways the storyline was not reflective of what was happening at the time as the condition was more common among the gay community. Still, heterosexual Mark struggled with various issues connected to his HIV status, including public fears of contamination, a marriage breakdown connected to his inability to have children and the side effects of combination therapies.

Aside from this, soap opera staples of youthful romance, jealousy, domestic rivalry, gossip and extramarital affairs are regularly featured, with high-profile storylines occurring several times a year. Whodunits also feature regularly, including the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline in 2001 that attracted over 19 million viewers and was one of the biggest successes in British soap television, the "Who Killed Archie?" story, which was revealed in a special live episode of the show that drew a peak of 17 million viewers, and "Who Killed Lucy Beale?".

The walls were intentionally built crooked to give them an aged appearance. The drains around the set are real so rainwater can naturally flow from the streets. The square was built in two phases with only three sides being built, plus Bridge Street, to begin with in 1984, in time to be used for the show's first episode. Then in 1986, Harris added an extension to the set, building the fourth side of Albert Square, and in 1987, Turpin Road began to be featured more, which included buildings such as The Dagmar.

In February 2008, it was reported that the set would transfer to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, where a new set would be built as the set was looking "shabby", with its flaws showing up on high-definition television broadcasts. However, by April 2010 a follow-up report confirmed that Albert Square would remain at Elstree Studios for at least another four years, taking the set through its 25th anniversary. The set was consequently rebuilt for high definition on the same site, using mostly real brick with some areas using a new improved plastic brick. Throughout rebuilding filming would still take place, and so scaffolding was often seen on screen during the process, with some storylines written to accommodate the rebuilding, such as the Queen Vic fire.

In 2014, then executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said that he wanted Albert Square to look like a real-life east London neighbourhood so that the soap would "better reflect the more fashionable areas of east London beloved of young professionals" giving a flavour of the "creeping gentrification" of east London. He added: "It should feel more like London. It's been frozen in aspic for too long." The BBC announced that they would rebuild the "EastEnders" set to secure the long-term future of the show, with completion expected to be in 2018. The set will provide a modern, upgraded exterior filming resource for "EastEnders", and will copy the appearance of the existing buildings. However, it will be 20 per cent bigger, in order to enable greater editorial ambition and improve working conditions for staff. A temporary set will be created on-site to enable filming to continue while the permanent structure is rebuilt.

In May 2016 the rebuild was delayed until 2020 and forecast to cost in excess of £15 million, although the main part of the set is scheduled to be able to start filming in May 2019. In December 2018, it was revealed that the new set was now planned to cost £59 million but a National Audit Office (NAO) report stated that it would actually cost £86.7 million and be completed two-and-a-half years later than planned, in 2023; the NAO concluded that the BBC "could not provide value for money on the project". The NAO's forecast cost is more than the annual combined budget for BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2. The BBC said the new set would allow for HD filming and better reflect the modern East End of London.

"EastEnders" is often filmed on location, away from the studios in Borehamwood. Sometimes an entire quartet is filmed on location, which has a practical function and are the result of "EastEnders" making a "double bank", when an extra week's worth of episodes are recorded at the same time as the regular schedule, enabling the production of the programme to stop for a two-week break at Christmas. These episodes often air in late June or early July and again in late October or early November. The first time this happened was in December 1985 when Pauline (Wendy Richard) and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) travelled to the Southend-on-Sea to find their son Mark, who had run away from home. In 1986, "EastEnders" filmed overseas for the first time, in Venice, and this was also the first time it was not filmed on videotape, as a union rule at the time prevented producers taking a video crew abroad and a film crew had to be used instead. In 2011, it was reported that eight per cent of the series is filmed on location.

If scenes during a normal week are to be filmed on location, this is done during the normal recording week. Off-set locations that have been used for filming include Clacton (1989), Devon (September 1990), Hertfordshire (used for scenes set in Gretna Green in July 1991), Portsmouth (November 1991), Milan (1997), Ireland (1997), Amsterdam (December 1999), Brighton (2001) and Portugal (2003). In 2003, filming took place at Loch Fyne Hotel and Leisure Club in Inveraray, The Arkinglass Estate in Cairndow and Grims Dyke Hotel, Harrow Weald, north London, for a week of episodes set in Scotland. 9 April 2007 episode featured scenes filmed at St Giles Church and The Blacksmiths Arms public house in Wormshill, the Ringlestone Inn, two miles away and Court Lodge Farm in Stansted, Kent. and the Port of Dover, Kent..

Other locations have included the court house, a disused office block, Evershed House, and St Peter's Church, all in St Albans, an abandoned mental facility in Worthing, Carnaby Street in London, and a wedding dress shop in Muswell Hill, north London. A week of episodes in 2011 saw filming take place on a beach in Thorpe Bay and a pier in Southend-on-Sea—during which a stuntman was injured when a gust of wind threw him off balance and he fell onto rocks— with other scenes filmed on the Essex coast. In 2012, filming took place in Keynsham, Somerset. In January 2013, on-location filming at Grahame Park in Colindale, north London, was interrupted by at least seven youths who threw a firework at the set and threatened to cut members of the crew. In October 2013, scenes were filmed on a road near London Southend Airport in Essex.

The two-handers (when only two actors appear in an episode) were originally done for speed; while a two-hander is being filmed, the rest of the cast can be making another episode.

Each episode should run for 27 minutes and 15 seconds, however, if any episode runs over or under then it is the job of post-production to cut or add scenes where appropriate. As noted in the 1994 behind-the-scenes book, "EastEnders: The First 10 Years", after filming, tapes were sent to the videotape editor, who then edited the scenes together into an episode. The videotape editor used the director's notes so they knew which scenes the director wanted to appear in a particular episode. The producer might have asked for further changes to be made. The episode was then copied onto D3 video. The final process was to add the audio which included background noise such as a train or a jukebox music and to check it met the BBC's technical standard for broadcasting.

Since 2010, "EastEnders" no longer uses tapes in the recording or editing process. After footage is recorded, the material is sent digitally to the post production team. The editors then assemble all the scenes recorded for the director to view and note any changes that are needed. The sound team also have the capability to access the edited episode, enabling them to dub the sound and create the final version.

A 2011 report from the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that "EastEnders" had an annual budget of £29.9 million. Of that, £2.9 million was spent on scripts and £6.9 million went towards paying actors, extras and chaperones for child actors. According to the NAO, BBC executives approved £500,000 of additional funding for the 25th anniversary live episode (19 February 2010). With a total cost of £696,000, the difference was covered from the 2009–2010 series budget for "EastEnders". When repeats and omnibus editions are shown, the BBC pays additional fees to cast and scriptwriters and incurs additional editing costs, which in the period 2009–2010, amounted to £5.5million. According to a Radio Times article for 212 episodes it works out at £141,000 per episode or 3.5p per viewer hour.

In 2014, two new studios were built and they were equipped with low-energy lighting which has saved approximately 90,000 kwh per year. A carbon literacy course was run with Heads of Departments of "EastEnders" attending and as a result, representatives from each department agreed to meet quarterly to share new sustainability ideas. The paper usage was reduced by 50 per cent across script distribution and other weekly documents and 20 per cent across all other paper usage. The production team now use recycled paper and recycled stationery.

Also changes to working online has also saved transportation cost of distribution 2,500 DVDs per year. Sets, costumes, paste pots and paint are all recycled by the design department. Cars used by the studio are low emission vehicles and the production team take more efficient energy efficient generators out on location. Caterers no longer use polystyrene cups and recycling on location must be provided.

As a result of "EastEnders" sustainability, it was awarded albert+, an award that recognises the production's commitment to becoming a more eco-friendly television production. The albert+ logo was first shown at the end of the "EastEnders" titles for episode 5281 on 9 May 2016.

Since 1985, "EastEnders" has remained at the centre of BBC One's primetime schedule. Since 2001, it has been broadcast at 7:30pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and 8pm on Monday and Friday. "EastEnders" was originally broadcast twice weekly at 7:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 19 February 1985. However, in September 1985 the two episodes were moved to 7:30pm as Michael Grade did not want the soap running in direct competition with "Emmerdale Farm", and this remained the same until 7 April 1994. The BBC had originally planned to take advantage of the'summer break' that "Emmerdale Farm" usually took to capitalise on ratings, but ITV1 added extra episodes and repeats so that "Emmerdale Farm" was not taken off the air over the summer. Realising the futility of the situation, Grade decided to move the show to the later 7:30pm slot, but to avoid tabloid speculation that it was a "panic move" on the BBC's behalf, they had to "dress up the presentation of that move in such a way as to protect the show" giving "all kinds of reasons" for the move.

"EastEnders" output then increased to three times a week on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursdays from 11 April 1994 until 2 August 2001.
From 10 August 2001, "EastEnders" then added its fourth episode (shown on Fridays). This caused some controversy as it clashed with "Coronation Street", which at the time was moved to 8pm to make way for an hour-long episode of rural soap "Emmerdale" at 7pm. The move immediately provoked an angry response from ITV insiders, who argued that the BBC's last-minute move—only revealed at 3.30pm on the day—broke an unwritten scheduling rule that the two flagship soaps would not be put directly against each other. In this first head-to-head battle, "EastEnders" claimed victory over its rival.

In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of "EastEnders" on digital channel BBC Three before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped BBC Three break the one million viewers mark for the first time with 1.03 million who watched to see Mark Fowler's departure. According to the "EastEnders" website, there are on average 208 episodes outputted each year.

"EastEnders" was regularly repeated at 10pm on BBC Choice from the channel's launch in 1998, a practice continued by BBC Three for many years until mid-2012 with the repeat moving to 10:30pm. From 25 December 2010 to 29 April 2011 the show was repeated on BBC HD in a Simulcast with BBC Three. In 2015, the BBC Three repeat moved back to 10pm. In February 2016, the repeat moved to W, the rebranded Watch, after BBC Three became an online-only channel. W stopped showing "EastEnders" in April 2018. Episodes of "EastEnders" are available on-demand through BBC iPlayer for 30 days after their original screening.

The omnibus edition, a compilation of the week's episodes in a continuous sequence, originally aired on BBC One on Sunday afternoons, until 1 April 2012 when it was changed to a late Friday night or early Saturday morning slot, commencing 6 April 2012, though the exact time differed. It reverted to a weekend daytime slot as from January 2013 on BBC Two. In 2014, the omnibus moved back to around midnight on Friday nights, and in April 2015, the omnibus was axed, following detailed audience research and the introduction of 30-day catch up on BBC iPlayer and the planning of BBC One +1. The last omnibus on the BBC was shown on 24 April 2015. While W was showing same-day repeats of "EastEnders", they also returned the weekend omnibus, starting on 20 February 2016.

From 20 February to 26 May 1995, as part of the programme's 10th Anniversary celebrations, episodes from 1985 were repeated each weekday morning at 10am, starting from episode one. Four specially selected episodes from 1985, 1986 and 1987 were also repeated on BBC1 on Friday evenings at 8pm under the banner "The Unforgettable EastEnders". These included the wedding of Michelle Fowler and Lofty Holloway, the revelation of the father of Michelle's baby, a two-hander between Dot Cotton and Ethel Skinner and the 1986 Christmas episode featuring Den Watts presenting Angie Watts with divorce papers.

"EastEnders" reruns began on UKTV Gold when the channel launched in 1992. The series ran from the first episode and followed its original broadcast order until August 1996 when the channel looped back to the first episode. In October 2008, UKTV Gold ceased showing "EastEnders". The last episode shown was from January 2006. Watch launched in October 2008 and resumed "EastEnders" reruns from 5 January 2009 to 22 October 2009, finishing with episodes originally broadcast in December 2006.

On 1 December 2012, the BBC uploaded the first 54 episodes of "EastEnders" to YouTube, and on 23 July 2013 they uploaded a further 14 episodes bringing the total to 68. These have since been taken down.

In April 2018 it was announced that Drama would be showing repeats starting 6 August 2018 during weekdays and they are also available on-demand on the UKTV Play catch-up service for 30 days after the broadcast.

The series was screened in Australia by ABC TV from 1987 until 1991. It is aired in Australia on Satellite & Streaming services on BBC UKTV, from Mondays to Thursdays 7:50pm–8:30pm with two advertisement breaks of five minutes each. Episodes are shown roughly one week after their UK broadcast. In New Zealand, it was shown by TVNZ on TVNZ 1 for several years, and then on Prime each weekday afternoon. It is shown on BBC UKTV from Mondays to Thursdays at 8pm. Episodes are roughly two weeks behind the UK.

"EastEnders" is shown on BBC Entertainment (formerly BBC Prime) in Europe and in Africa, where it is approximately six episodes behind the UK. It was also shown on BBC Prime in Asia, but when the channel was replaced by BBC Entertainment, it ceased broadcasting the series. In Canada, "EastEnders" was shown on BBC Canada until 2010, at which point it was picked up by VisionTV. In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, the show is now cancelled but was for decades shown on BBC Nordic channels with local subtitles.

In Ireland, "EastEnders" was shown on TV3 from September 1998 until March 2001, when it moved over to RTÉ One, after RTÉ lost to TV3 the rights to air rival soap "Coronation Street". The series is simulcast with BBC One, which is widely available in the Republic, but has carried advertising since its 1998 debut on Irish television. Additionally, episodes of "EastEnders" are available on-demand through RTÉ Player for seven days after their original screening.

HM Forces and their families stationed overseas can watch "EastEnders" on BBC One, carried by the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which is also available to civilians in the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha. It was previously shown on BFBS1.

In 1991 the BBC sold the programme's format rights to a Dutch production company IDTV, the programme was renamed "Het Oude Noorden" (Translation: Old North). The Dutch version was re-written from already existing "EastEnders" scripts. The schedule remained the same as "EastEnders" twice weekly episodes, however some notable changes included the programme is now set in Rotterdam rather than London, characters are given Dutch names (Den and Angie became Ger and Ankie) and The Queen Victoria pub is renamed "Cade Faas".

According to Barbara Jurgen who re-wrote the scripts for a Dutch audience he said "The power of the show is undeniable. The Scripts are full of hard, sharp drama, plus great one-liners which will translate well to Holland." The Dutch version began broadcasting on VARA 13 March 1993 but was cancelled after 20 episodes.

On 26 December 1988, the first "EastEnders" "bubble" was shown, titled "CivvyStreet". Since then, "Return of Nick Cotton" (2000), "Ricky & Bianca" (2002), "Dot's Story" (2003), "Perfectly Frank" (2003) and "Pat and Mo" (2004) have all been broadcast, each episode looking into lives of various characters and revealing part of their backstories or lives since leaving "EastEnders". In 1993, the two-part story "Dimensions in Time", a charity cross-over with "Doctor Who", was shown.

In 1998, "EastEnders Revealed" was launched on BBC Choice (now BBC Three). The show takes a look behind the scenes of the "EastEnders" and investigates particular places, characters or families within "EastEnders". An episode of "EastEnders Revealed" that was commissioned for BBC Three attracted 611,000 viewers. As part of the BBC's digital push, "EastEnders Xtra" was introduced in 2005. The show was presented by Angellica Bell and was available to digital viewers at 8:30pm on Monday nights. It was also shown after the Sunday omnibus. The series went behind the scenes of the show and spoke to some of the cast members. A new breed of behind-the-scenes programmes have been broadcast on BBC Three since 1 December 2006. These are all documentaries related to current storylines in "EastEnders", in a similar format to "EastEnders Revealed", though not using the "EastEnders Revealed" name.

In October 2009, a 12-part Internet spin-off series entitled "" was announced. The series was conceived by executive producer Diederick Santer "as a way of nurturing new, young talent, both on- and off-screen, and exploring the stories of the soaps' anonymous bystanders." "E20" features a group of sixth-form characters and targets the ""Hollyoaks" demographic". It was written by a team of young writers and was shown three times a week on the "EastEnders" website from 8 January 2010. A second 10-part series started in September 2010, with twice-weekly episodes available online and an omnibus on BBC Three. A third series of 15 episodes started in September 2011.

"EastEnders" and rival soap opera "Coronation Street" took part in a crossover episode for Children in Need on 19 November 2010 called "East Street". On 4 April 2015, "EastEnders" confirmed plans for a BBC One series featuring Kat and Alfie Moon. The six-part drama, "", was created by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and his team. In the spin-off, the Moons visit Ireland where they "search for answers to some very big questions."

Until its closure, BBC Store released 553 "EastEnders" episodes from various years, including the special episode "CivvyStreet", available to buy as digital downloads.

An example of "EastEnders" popularity is that after episodes, electricity use in the United Kingdom rises significantly as viewers who have waited for the show to end begin boiling water for tea, a phenomenon known as TV pickup. Over five minutes, power demand rises by three GW, the equivalent of 1.5 to 1.75 million kettles. National Grid personnel watch the show to know when closing credits begin so they can prepare for the surge, asking for additional power from France if necessary.

The ratings increased in 2010, thanks to the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline and second wedding of Ricky Butcher and Bianca Jackson, and the show's first live episode on 19 February 2010. The live-episode averaged 15.6 million viewers, peaking at 16.6 million in the final five minutes of broadcast. In January 2010, the average audience was higher than that of "Coronation Street" for the first time in three years. During the 30th anniversary week in which there were live elements and the climax of the Who Killed Lucy Beale? storyline, 10.84 million viewers tuned in for the 30th anniversary episode itself in an hour long special on 19 February 2015 (peaking with 11.9 million). Later on in the same evening, a special flashback episode averaged 10.3 million viewers, and peaked with 11.2 million. The following day, the anniversary week was rounded off with another fully live episode (the second after 2010) with 9.97 million viewers watching the aftermath of the reveal, the Beale family finding out the truth of Lucy's killer and deciding to keep it a secret.

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"EastEnders" is the most complained about programme on the BBC. It has received both praise and criticism for most of its storylines, which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape, murder and child abuse.

Mary Whitehouse, social critic, argued at the time that "EastEnders" represented a violation of "family viewing time" and that it undermined the watershed policy. She regarded "EastEnders" as a fundamental assault on the family and morality itself. She made reference to representation of family life and emphasis on psychological and emotional violence within the show. She was also critical of language such as "bleeding", "bloody hell", "bastard" and "for Christ's sake". However, Whitehouse also praised the programme, describing Michelle Fowler's decision not to have an abortion as a "very positive storyline". She also felt that "EastEnders" had been cleaned up as a result of her protests, though she later commented that "EastEnders" had returned to its old ways. Her criticisms were widely reported in the tabloid press as ammunition in its existing hostility towards the BBC. The stars of "Coronation Street" in particular aligned themselves with Mary Whitehouse, gaining headlines such as "STREETS AHEAD! RIVALS LASH SEEDY EASTENDERS" and "CLEAN UP SOAP! Street Star Bill Lashes 'Steamy' EastEnders".

"EastEnders" has been criticised for being too violent, most notably during a domestic violence storyline between Little Mo Morgan and her husband Trevor Morgan. As "EastEnders" is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that some scenes in this storyline were too graphic for its audience. Complaints against a scene in which Little Mo's face was pushed in gravy on Christmas Day were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls. Erin Pizzey, who became internationally famous for having started one of the first women's refuges, said that "EastEnders" had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in 25 years. The character of Phil Mitchell (played by Steve McFadden since early 1990) has been criticised on several occasions for glorifying violence and proving a bad role model to children. On one occasion following a scene in an episode broadcast in October 2002, where Phil brutally beat his godson, Jamie Mitchell (Jack Ryder), 31 complaints came from viewers who watched the scenes.

In 2003, cast member Shaun Williamson, who was in the final months of his role of Barry Evans, said that the programme had become much grittier over the past 10 to 15 years, and found it "frightening" that parents let their young children watch.

In 2005, the BBC was accused of anti-religious bias by a House of Lords committee, who cited "EastEnders" as an example. Dr. Indarjit Singh, editor of the Sikh Messenger and patron of the World Congress of Faiths, said: ""EastEnders" Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly from the Bible and it ridicules religion to some extent." In July 2010, complaints were received following the storyline of Christian minister Lucas Johnson committing a number of murders that he believed was his duty to God, claiming that the storyline was offensive to Christians.

In 2008, "EastEnders", along with "Coronation Street", was criticised by Martin McGuinness, then Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, for "the level of concentration around the pub" and the "antics portrayed in the [...] Queen Vic".

In 2017, viewers complained on Twitter about scenes implying that Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) is the father of his 15-year-old sister Bernadette Taylor's (Clair Norris) unborn baby, with the pair agreeing to keep the pregnancy secret from their mother, Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley). However, the baby's father is revealed as one of Bernadette's school friends.

In 1997 several episodes were shot and set in Ireland, resulting in criticisms for portraying the Irish in a negatively stereotypical way. Ted Barrington, the Irish Ambassador to the UK at the time, described the portrayal of Ireland as an "unrepresentative caricature", stating he was worried by the negative stereotypes and the images of drunkenness, backwardness and isolation. Jana Bennett, the BBC's then director of production, later apologised for the episodes, stating on BBC1's news bulletin: "It is clear that a significant number of viewers have been upset by the recent episodes of "EastEnders", and we are very sorry, because the production team and programme makers did not mean to cause any offence." A year later BBC chairman Christopher Bland admitted that as result of the Irish-set EastEnders episodes, the station failed in its pledge to represent all groups accurately and avoid reinforcing prejudice.

In 2008, the show was criticised for stereotyping their Asian and Black characters, by having a black single mum, Denise Wicks, and an Asian shopkeeper, Zainab Masood. There has been criticism that the programme does not authentically portray the ethnic diversity of the population of East London, with the programme being 'twice as white' as the real East End.

Some storylines have provoked high levels of viewer complaints. In August 2006, a scene involving Carly Wicks (Kellie Shirley) and Jake Moon (Joel Beckett) having sex on the floor of Scarlet nightclub, and another scene involving Owen Turner violently attacking Denise Fox, prompted 129 and 128 complaints, respectively. Carly and Jake's sex scenes were later removed from the Sunday omnibus edition. The showdown of Rob, Dawn and May's storyline where May stated to Dawn she could give her an elective caesarean (Dawn being handcuffed to the bed) prompted 200 complaints. The 2007 domestic abuse storyline involving Ben Mitchell and Stella Crawford attracted 60 complaints from viewers, who found scenes where Ben was attacked by bullies as Stella looked on "upsetting".

In March 2008, scenes showing Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and boyfriend, Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky), burying Tanya's husband Max (Jake Wood) alive, attracted many complaints. The UK communications regulator Ofcom later found that the episodes depicting the storyline were in breach of the 2005 Broadcasting Code. They contravened the rules regarding protection of children by appropriate scheduling, appropriate depiction of violence before the 9 p.m. watershed and appropriate depiction of potentially offensive content. In September 2008, "EastEnders" began a grooming and paedophilia storyline involving characters Tony King (Chris Coghill), Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), Lauren Branning (Madeline Duggan) and Peter Beale (Thomas Law). The storyline attracted over 200 complaints.

In December 2010, Ronnie swapped her newborn baby, who died in cot, with Kat Moon's living baby. Around 3,400 complaints were received, with viewers branding the storyline "insensitive", "irresponsible" and "desperate". Roz Laws from the "Sunday Mercury" called the plot "shocking and ridiculous" and asked "are we really supposed to believe that Kat won't recognise that the baby looks different?" The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) praised the storyline, and its director Joyce Epstein explained, "We are very grateful to "EastEnders" for their accurate depiction of the devastating effect that the sudden death of an infant can have on a family. We hope that this story will help raise the public's awareness of cot death, which claims 300 babies' lives each year." By 7 January, that storyline had generated the most complaints in show history: the BBC received about 8,500 complaints, and media regulator Ofcom received 374. Despite the controversy however, "EastEnders" pulled in rating highs of 9–10 million throughout the duration of the storyline.

In October 2014, the BBC defended a storyline, after receiving 278 complaints about 6 October 2014 episode where pub landlady Linda Carter was raped. On 17 November 2014 it was announced that Ofcom will investigate over the storyline. On 5 January 2015, the investigation was cleared by Ofcom. A spokesman of Ofcom said: "After carefully investigating complaints about this scene, Ofcom found the BBC took appropriate steps to limit offence to viewers. This included a warning before the episode and implying the assault, rather than depicting it. Ofcom also took into account the programme's role in presenting sometimes challenging or distressing social issues."

In 2010, "EastEnders" came under criticism from the police for the way that they were portrayed during the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline. During the storyline, DCI Jill Marsden and DC Wayne Hughes talk to locals about the case and Hughes accepts a bribe. The police claimed that such scenes were "damaging" to their reputation and added that the character DC Deanne Cunningham was "irritatingly inaccurate". In response to the criticism, "EastEnders" apologised for offending real life detectives and confirmed that they use a police consultant for such storylines.

In October 2012, a storyline involving Lola Pearce, forced to hand over her baby Lexi Pearce, was criticised by the charity The Who Cares? Trust, who called the storyline an "unhelpful portrayal" and said it had already received calls from members of the public who were "distressed about the "EastEnders" scene where a social worker snatches a baby from its mother's arms". The scenes were also condemned by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), calling the BBC "too lazy and arrogant" to correctly portray the child protection process, and saying that the baby was taken "without sufficient grounds to do so". Bridget Robb, acting chief of the BASW, said the storyline provoked "real anger among a profession well used to a less than accurate public and media perception of their jobs.. "EastEnders" shabby portrayal of an entire profession has made a tough job even tougher."

Since its premiere in 1985, "EastEnders" has had a large impact on British popular culture. It has frequently been referred to in many different media, including songs and television programmes.

Many books have been written about "EastEnders". Notably, from 1985 to 1988, author and television writer Hugh Miller wrote 17 novels, detailing the lives of many of the show's original characters before 1985, when events on screen took place.

Kate Lock also wrote four novels centred on more recent characters; Steve Owen, Grant Mitchell, Bianca Jackson and Tiffany Mitchell. Lock also wrote a character guide entitled "Who's Who in EastEnders" () in 2000, examining main characters from the first 15 years of the show.

Show creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland also wrote a book about the show in 1987, entitled "EastEnders: The Inside Story" (), telling the story of how the show made it to screen. Two special anniversary books have been written about the show; "EastEnders: The First 10 Years: A Celebration" () by Colin Brake in 1995 and "EastEnders: 20 Years in Albert Square" () by Rupert Smith in 2005.

When "EastEnders" began in 1985, the soap focused primarily around the affairs of three families: the Beales, Fowlers, and Watts. However, much of the show's early success stemmed from the drama surrounding the Watts, especially the antics of Den, who as owners of the Queen Vic pub (the show's most prominent set) were usually in the limelight. This prominence, at a time when "EastEnders" was at its most prolific in terms of both the media and audience, meant the Watts became perhaps "EastEnders" most eminent family and the characters known even to those who did not watch the show. Such was their success that producers went ahead with an experimental episode format centring on just Den and Angie, during which Angie lied about having cancer; so successful was the airing that it has since been repeated, and the format expanded to include "three" and "four-handers" (between 3 and 4 characters). Such episodes are highly prestigious and feature only the most popular and prominent characters in the show; thus, all the Watts, aside from Vicki, have featured in such episodes.

Watts family

The Watts are a fictional family in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". The family consists of Den, Angie, Sharon, Dennis, Chrissie, and Vicki. Most recently, Dennis Jnr was born in July 2006 and made his first appearance in 2012.

The Watts have been a critical part of "EastEnders" over the years, anchoring its early success in the late 1980s and then again dominating the action with their return in the mid-2000s. Their longstanding "feud" with the Mitchell family has become a hallmark of the show, as has their warring for the Queen Vic pub, the original and traditional home of the Watts family. Over the years the fractured family has centred largely on Den and his "princess", Sharon, with familial affairs also being marked by Den's tumultuous marriages with his long-suffering first wife, Angie, and scheming second wife, Chrissie.

The Watts are one of "EastEnders"' original families (together with the Fowlers and Beales) and have been involved in many memorable storylines, have brought the show its biggest ratings, and have included some of its most iconic characters.

The Watts family were one of the central families introduced to viewers when "EastEnders" began in 1985, created by the show's co-creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Holland and Smith had correctly anticipated the importance the Queen Vic setting would have to "EastEnders" and therefore intended the Watts to be highly dynamic and vibrant characters fuelling the drama of the show, something that has largely been a hallmark of the family ever since, even as new members have been added, with the character of Dennis a popular favourite among audiences, winning various soap and television awards, and Chrissie largely the "centrepiece" of the show during her tenure. The Watts were originally composed of Den and Angie and their adopted daughter Sharon. The early focus of the family was on the tempestuous marriage between Den and Ange, rooted in Den's womanising. Indeed, Den's wandering eye is a central element in the family affairs of the Watts and would frame many of their storylines over the years, leading him into affairs with women including Jan Hammond, Kate Mitchell, and finally Zoe Slater. In 1986, Sharon's 17-year-old friend Michelle Fowler gave birth to Vicki, the product of an illicit relationship with Den, whilst in 2003 Dennis Rickman was introduced as Den's son from an affair he had in 1974.

In April 1988, Anita Dobson made her last appearance as Angie Watts, and soon afterwards Leslie Grantham expressed his desire to step down from the role of Den Watts. However, the show's producers did not want to suffer the double blow of losing both characters so close together, so Den's last appearance was aired in February 1989, although he had left the set of EastEnders in the autumn of 1988. Letitia Dean remained in the role as Sharon until 1995, her character helping to facilitate the introduction of a new family - the Mitchells, who were one of the central families in the show from 1990 - through her marriage to Grant and her affair with Phil. The revelation of her affair and the breakdown of her marriage is widely held to be "EastEnders"' most notable storyline of the 1990s and is seen by many as the show's finest moment, dubbed “Sharongate” by the press and fans alike. It is also the culminating point to Sharon’s original run in "EastEnders", and in 1995 Dean announced her intention to leave and Sharon departed Walford.

However, the popularity of the Watts to viewers and the importance of the family to the show meant that successive producers and executives continually asked Dean, Dobson, and Grantham to reprise their roles. In 2001 John Yorke succeeded where others had failed, and Sharon made a triumphant return as the new secret owner of the Queen Vic, Yorke having "first floated the idea of Sharon's return" the previous year. The return was part of a highly successful year for "EastEnders", and to build upon that success it was decided by Yorke, his successor Louise Berridge and Head of Drama Serials Mal Young to expand Sharon's familial connections and bring the Watts back to Walford. In the coming months producers and executives began work on reconstituting the family; although Anita Dobson finally rejected attempts to bring Angie back, Grantham finally agreed to return as Den in 2003, to accompany the re-introduction of his family, with Den's unknown son Dennis being introduced at the beginning of that year. At the same time, a teenage Vicki Fowler was brought back into the show, having left with her mother Michelle in 1995. Although a Fowler, Vicki maintained a close relationship with Sharon, with her storylines centring mainly around the Watts saga. The return of Den reunited the fractured Watts family, creating "a real buzz to the show".

Den's return was widely regarded as a coup and seen as instrumental to "EastEnders"' success at the time, which was facing tight competition from the ITV soaps, with Coronation Street enjoying one of its most successful years ever, and Emmerdale in the midst of a ratings revival. With Den set to stay, the last of the on-screen Watts was introduced in the shape of his second wife Chrissie, who entered the show in 2004. Although similar to Angie in many ways, Chrissie was intended to be more actively independent and as devious and conniving as her husband.

Again, the family was to be increasingly dominated by the volatile relationship between husband and wife, culminating in Den's death in February 2005, after Leslie Grantham decided not to extend his current contract. This followed the departure of actress Scarlett Johnston from the programme with Vicki being written out two months earlier during Christmas 2004. However, the importance of the Watts family to the dramatic action of the show took its toll on the actors, especially Tracy Ann Oberman, who played Chrissie, with the actress noting how "in 18 months I knocked up four years of acting experience". By the end of 2005, it had been announced that all three actors who played the remaining on-screen Watts family members would not be seeking to renew their contracts. All three had exited the show by January 2006, with Dennis being sensationally killed off in the episode aired on 30 December 2005 and Sharon departing to America in the new year.

Despite an official BBC report in 2005 stating that Letitia Dean was taking a scheduled break and would return to EastEnders later in 2006, this did not happen and she was away from the show for more than six years. Sharon finally returned to Walford in August 2012 after her son, Dennis Rickman Jnr (born in July 2006) was kidnapped. After she had rescued him, she moved to Albert Square to help her lifelong friend Ian Beale who was suffering a mental breakdown. Two years into her return, Sharon discovered that Phil, her fiancé, ordered an attack on her bar, the Albert, that saw her hospitalised and suffering from anxiety for many months. Sharon then plotted with one of the Mitchells' old adversaries, Marcus Christie, to bring down Phil and the Mitchell empire.

The Watts are a notably fractured family; it is a condition that has made them strong-willed, independent, yet also volatile and vulnerable (especially to each other). Unlike most of the other main families in "EastEnders", the Watts have each lived a large portion of their lives without the comfort of a traditional family, and are deliberately represented as highly individualized characters who are yet in need of, and searching for, that sense of family which seems so elusive to them. For Vicki and Dennis, they are looking for the absent father figure; for Angie and Chrissie it is reflected in their desire to be loved by Den as they love him; Sharon longs for the calm, stable family she never knew as a child. Den wants the perfect family – but only on his terms. He does his best to love his family but at the same time does not fully understand what love is. The story of the Watts is largely that of a man who is easy to love and yet just as easy to hate, and the impact this has on those closest to him.

The Watts centre on the figure of Den, who casts a strong shadow over the family. All members have a direct tie to him as either offspring or spouses, and it is their relationship to him that often colours their relationship to each other and also to themselves. His first wife, Angie, was driven to alcoholism because of his womanising, whilst the relationship between Sharon and Dennis was greatly hindered by the strong personality of their father. Dennis in particular was greatly affected by his love–hate relationship with Den, who was unable to be the father he always wanted.

Much of the drama in the Watts household centres on responses to Den's selfish actions and manipulative ways. Angie constantly tried to play games and tricks in the hopes of securing Den's affections or arousing his jealousy, and later the strife between Sharon and Dennis directly resulted from Den's manipulation and Machiavellian family politics. In 2004, when Sharon and Dennis planned to elope behind their father's back on Christmas Day, Den learned the truth and tried to force Dennis into leaving Sharon and staying with his girlfriend, Zoe Slater. Den manipulated Zoe into pretending she was pregnant by Dennis, declaring: “He’s going nowhere and neither is Sharon. I didn’t come back to Walford to be alone.” Indeed, no one knew how to play games like Den, as pretenders like Phil Mitchell found out. Because of this, Dennis seemed never quite sure what he was to Den, and even Vicki ultimately found out how little she could mean to him. Only Chrissie could play Den at his own game and keep up with his conniving, something intended by writers to be a deliberate feature of their marriage, and a quality Den openly found attractive in her: “I know we’ve got a great relationship even when we’re tearing lumps out of each other, you give as good as you get and that’s the sort of marriage I’ve always wanted”.

Although Den's first and second wives only appeared on-screen for a combined total of 5 years (Angie from 1985–88; Chrissie from 2004–2005), they had an immense impact on the show and on the Watts family. Dealing with the antics of Den, his womanising and manipulation, was a perpetual source of drama for the two women and the show's audience. The relationship between husband and wife also provided an opportunity for writers to directly explore the familial implications of the complex Watts dynamic. Growing up in her late-teens, Sharon was often seen to bemoan the marital discord between her mother and father, which over the years caused her to flee to the Fowlers which she came to see as a second home. Later, Dennis, Sharon, and Vicki berated Den for his treatment of Chrissie, especially his affair with Kate Mitchell. The revelation was particularly upsetting to Vicki who viewed Chrissie as a mother-figure, but Sharon and Dennis were also dismayed at Den's inability to deal honestly with his wife.

As adopted mother and stepmother, both Angie and Chrissie were fiercely protective of their charges. Angie often showed concern over the effects her rows with Den had on Sharon, whilst Chrissie actively took on the role of mother to Vicki, helping her apply to art college and watching over her romantic relationships. Yet motherliness was never strongly delineated in the characterisations of either Mrs Watts, unlike figures such as Pauline Fowler, Peggy Mitchell, or Rosa di Marco, who primarily saw themselves as mothers and were cast in that mould. Hence, whilst Angie expressed regret over Sharon's predicament – being caught between warring parents – she was not above using Sharon to score points against her husband. Similarly, although Chrissie had come to love her stepchildren, as she declared during their Christmas meal in 2004, and sympathised with the difficulties they had with their father, she could also use them in her schemes against Den, particularly his princess, Sharon. Speaking of Den's first wife, the show's creators wrote that she saw Sharon "as something of a rival", a sentiment that became even more pronounced for Den's second wife.

Rather, the two Mrs Watts were highly individual and volatile figures, dominated by their relationship to Den. Angie's need to be loved by Den often led her to extreme action, at one time attempting to commit suicide and later pretending to have cancer. In trying to play games with Den, as he did with her, she failed, ultimately leading her to take solace in drink. Angie did manage to get some revenge on Den during the year of their separation, where Angie's absence from the Vic caused business to struggle for Den with lack of customer support. But years of alcohol abuse got the better of her by the end and she nearly died in 1988 as a result of kidney failure. Despite his ill treatment of Angie, Den did suffer with guilt for what his actions drove his wife to do, as viewers saw when he helped a desperate Lisa Fowler who was close to going down the same path as Angie did. It should also be noted that Den continued to carry a picture of Angie in his wallet along with one of Sharon, despite having his wallet lost before his exit in 1989. Unlike Angie, Chrissie was as intelligent and manipulative as Den, as he would come to fatally realise when she destroyed him through Sharon – his only weakness. Although Den bore affection for both Angie (as he found out when he began to miss her in 1987, calling her his 'one in a million') and Chrissie (going so far as to wanting to renew their wedding vows) it was only Sharon that he ever loved unconditionally.

It is the relationship between Den and his "princess" that is the central dynamic of the Watts family. Even when he was out-of-the-picture, he remained a fixture in Sharon's life. Indeed, Sharon was the only person who truly viewed Den in a softened light, and certainly she did not seem to see him in the way that Angie, Chrissie or Dennis did – something which became a source of contention between Sharon and Dennis, the latter seeing more plainly the darker, manipulative side to Den.

Inextricably linked to the Watts is the Queen Victoria pub. It is, in many ways, the family's ancestral home and the site of their most memorable events: the place where Den and Angie raised Sharon, and to which Den returned with his second wife Chrissie. For Sharon, it was her home for the first 26 years of her life and where "her roots" lie; the place most strongly associated with her father and mother; and the place where she and Dennis lived as man and wife.

For many viewers and fans, the Vic is synonymous with the Watts; in particular Den, Angie, Chrissie, and Sharon, and Den and Angie often remain its most favoured landlords. Indeed, such is the strong association between the Vic and Den that it was constantly and prematurely reported in the media of his imminent return to ownership, and upon his death he vowed: “You’ll never get me out of the Vic!” With the exception of Vicki and Dennis Jnr, all the Watts have served behind the bar of the Vic, with Den, Angie, Sharon, and Chrissie all at one time or another landlords of the pub.

The link between the Watts and the Vic is reinforced by the fact that only two other families have owned the pub in "EastEnders" first 25 years, and that the Watts have secured possession on three separate occasions (Sharon in 1991, 2001, and Den and Chrissie in 2004) in addition to their original run in-charge (1985–88).

One of the most prominent aspects of "EastEnders" over the years has been the conflict between the show's two greatest families, the Watts and Mitchells, even becoming the subject of a special EastEnders Revealed, entitled "Blood Feud: The Watts vs. The Mitchells". The familial contention is rooted in Sharon's tempestuous relationship with the Mitchell brothers Grant and Phil, which began after Den's disappearance and the departure of Angie. After the breakdown of her marriage to Grant, Sharon's position became untenable: Grant was capable of violence towards her, and his loud-mouth mother Peggy was constantly hounding her. The last of the Watts left in 1995, and the Mitchells took over the Vic.

The importance of the Vic to the Watts became obvious when Sharon returned to lay claim to the pub after a 6-year absence. Indeed, the Vic was to become a central battlefield in the war between the contending families: the returning Watts seeking to reclaim what now belonged to the Mitchells. Even when Sharon was forced out of the pub, the rivalry with Phil, Peggy, and Sam Mitchell heated up with the appearance of Sharon's half-sister Vicki and Den's long-lost son, Dennis, who particularly clashed against Phil Mitchell after punching him when they first met.

The return of Den (after 14 years) took the conflict between the two families to another level. Den threatened Phil's position as top dog and quickly became Phil's "arch enemy", whilst Den developed a hatred for Phil upon learning of the rivalry between Dennis and Phil, and of the way the Mitchells had treated his “princess”, Sharon. In 2003, Den successfully framed Phil for armed robbery, enabling Lisa Fowler, the estranged mother of Phil's daughter, Louise, to flee the country with their child. Phil had completely underestimated Den who quickly put the great Mitchell family in their place.

Soon after, Den was joined by his second wife Chrissie, and the pair proceeded to bring down the whole Mitchell financial empire, bankrupting the family in a scam and retaking control of the Vic. In an episode airing soon after Den's death, Sam confronted Chrissie claiming that "the Mitchell name should be above the [Vic] door; you know it and I know it!" to which Chrissie replied: "Not while I've got breath in my body", chucking Sam out of the pub and firing her.

In August 2012, Sharon sought out Phil's help after her son Dennis (Harry Hickles) had been kidnapped by her fiancé John Hewland (Jesse Birdsall). Phil's family fell apart when it was discovered that his son Ben had killed Heather Trott and in an attempt to rebuild his family and win custody of his granddaughter Lexi Pearce, Sharon has agreed to help Phil by faking an engagement between the two.

In November 2015, Gavin Sullivan (Paul Nicholas) revealed that both he and Den Watts were in a gang with Eric Mitchell during the 1960s when they were growing up together in Walford. It was membership of the gang that led Gavin to give Den to Sharon. However, fans criticised this as an example of retconning because Den knew nothing about the Mitchells when he returned to Walford in 2003 and Ted Hills (who was also mentioned as another gang member) also did not know the Mitchells and was not friendly with Den at the time.

The Watts are closely connected to the Fowlers. The Fowler family was a second home for Sharon growing up, her best friend being Michelle Fowler. Indeed, the connection between the two families resulted in the affair between Den and Michelle, which in turn produced Vicki Fowler. Later, Pauline Fowler and Chrissie bonded (to an extent) over their desire to look out for Vicki, and indeed Chrissie would do Pauline the honour of killing Den with her doorstop.

The Watts family are also very strongly connected to the Beale family. Den grew up with Pete Beale and was his best friend since childhood. Angie was a best friends with both Pat Butcher and Kathy Beale, who were both married to Pete. Sharon was a former girlfriend of Ian Beale and they remain very close friends. Den was also the godfather of Bobby Beale, Ian's youngest son. Bobby also befriended Sharon's son Dennis Rickman Jnr, who was also close to Bobby's father, calling him 'Uncle Ian.' Den and Angie also were very close to Pauline and Arthur, Angie was the godmother of Martin Fowler (though relations between Pauline and Den turned sour after she found out that Den was the father of Vicki Fowler). Sharon is also best friends with Michelle Fowler and was also very close to Mark Fowler.

On 13 August 2012, Sharon returned to Walford with Dennis Jnr and became instantly involved with the prominent Branning family; she shared a flirtatious relationship with Jack and soon befriended his brother Max and ultimately his partner Tanya Cross, whom she initially feuded. Dennis also attended school with and befriended Max and Tanya's son, Oscar Branning.

Throughout their years on-screen, the Watts have been one of "EastEnders" most tried and tested sources of drama and tragedy. Indeed, many of the biggest and most significant storylines produced by show have focused around them: Den and Angie's tempestuous relationship; Sharon's affair with Phil Mitchell and later her illicit love for Dennis; and Chrissie's manipulation and scheming are all high-points of the programme's history. Similarly, the Watts have produced many of "EastEnders" most memorable moments, including Den divorcing Angie, the returns of Sharon and Den, and Chrissie killing Den. Although largely few in number, they are among the most iconic figures of the show, and are responsible for its biggest ratings.

When "EastEnders" began in 1985, the soap focused primarily around the affairs of three families: the Beales, Fowlers, and Watts. However, much of the show's early success stemmed from the drama surrounding the Watts, especially the antics of Den, who as owners of the Queen Vic pub (the show's most prominent set) were usually in the limelight. This prominence, at a time when "EastEnders" was at its most prolific in terms of both the media and audience, meant the Watts became perhaps "EastEnders" most eminent family and the characters known even to those who did not watch the show. Such was their success that producers went ahead with an experimental episode format centring on just Den and Angie, during which Angie lied about having cancer; so successful was the airing that it has since been repeated, and the format expanded to include "three" and "four-handers" (between 3 and 4 characters). Such episodes are highly prestigious and feature only the most popular and prominent characters in the show; thus, all the Watts, aside from Vicki, have featured in such episodes.

The 1986 Christmas Day episode during which Den delivered Angie divorce papers is the highest rated airing of any British soap in television history. Den and Angie became perennial favourites of audiences, with many fearing "EastEnders" would not survive their departures. However, the popularity of their daughter, Sharon, helped to ease the transition to the Watts-less era of the show when her involvement in a love-triangle with the Mitchell brothers became must-see TV. As The Guardian media critic mused six years later:
The return of Sharon six years later in 2001 became a seminal moment for the show, eclipsed only by the intense media scrutiny surrounding Den's return two years later. Den's return provided "EastEnders" with a ratings boost, attracting a 'whooping' 62% of the television audience. Indeed, such was the lure of the Watts, over 17 million people tuned in two years later to see Chrissie finally put an end to Dirty Den's philandering ways. The storyline of Den's death and the scheming aftermath of Chrissie dominated the show for 2005, being popular among viewers, and winning best soap storyline and ensured the show won Best Soap at the Inside Soap Awards.

However, the Watts family have also received criticism from the press and viewers. In particular, although Den's return was meant to crystallise the return of the Watts family, many felt his re-introduction affected credibility, with Diederick Santer, executive producer of "EastEnders" after the Watts had left, saying that it "damaged the show". Grantham's off-air antics also affected the soap's profile, with tabloids like The Daily Mirror predicting the end of the show and blaming Den's return for its demise. Many in the media were also critical of Mal Young, who was a strong supporter of the Watts family, arguing his overly-melodramatic and popularising tastes alienated viewers and especially the media. The sensationalist relationship between Sharon and Dennis was seen to epitomise the tone of the show at the time.

The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders" in 1985, by order of first appearance. They were all introduced by executive producer Julia Smith. The first episode of "EastEnders" was broadcast on 19 February 1985, and twenty-three main characters were already created for their first appearance. The first character to be seen was Den Watts, followed by Ali Osman and then Arthur Fowler, all of whom find Reg Cox dying in his flat. Ethel Skinner, Harold Legg and Pauline Fowler appear, after Den alerts them of Reg's death. With Ethel is her pug Willy along with Lou Beale. Saeed and Naima Jeffery are seen working in the local shop whilst Angie Watts is seen in The Queen Victoria, Walford's local pub. Nick Cotton and Sue Osman are next seen, whilst Pete and Kathy Beale work at the fruit and veg stall and Hassan Osman is seen with his parents in the café. Sharon Watts, Ian Beale and Michelle Fowler are next seen and Mark Fowler is seen going into the bookies. Lastly, Roly the dog is seen in the pub when a fight breaks out.

List of EastEnders characters (1985)

Lofty Holloway is introduced on 26 February along with Terry Rich, and Tony Carpenter is introduced on 28 February. Mary Smith and her daughter Annie are introduced on 5 March. Tony's son Kelvin is introduced on 12 March. Andy O'Brien is introduced on 21 March along with Debbie Wilkins. Chris Smith was introduced on 7 May and Mehmet Osman was introduced on 13 June as a recurring character. Hannah Carpenter arrived on 25 June as Tony's wife and Dot Cotton was introduced on 4 July followed by Ernie Mears on 16 July. Detective Sergeant Roy Quick was introduced on 20 August as Walford's detective. Martin Fowler was born on 30 July and Simon Wicks arrived on 5 October. Lastly, the wife of Mehmet, Guizin Osman arrived on 22 October, and Cassie Carpenter arrived as the daughter of Hannah and Tony.

Den Watts, played by actor Leslie Grantham, is the original landlord of The Queen Victoria. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den". He perhaps is best remembered for his stormy love-hate relationship with his alcoholic first wife Angie (Anita Dobson). After nearly 20 years of marriage, he hands divorce papers to her in the 1986 Christmas Day episode that was watched by a record-breaking 30.15 million viewers, more than half of the UK population at the time. He is also well known for his later involvement with the criminal gang known as The Firm that eventually leads to an attempt on his life in 1989. For 14 years, it was believed that he had been killed, but he returns to Walford in September 2003. Seventeen months later, his character is killed off again, this time for good, at the hands of his manipulative second wife Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman). Den was described by "EastEnders" executive producer Louise Berridge as being arguably one of the most iconic soap characters ever.

Ali Osman, played by Nejdet Salih, is a happy-go-lucky, easy going chap, which is in stark contrast to his highly strung wife, Sue (Sandy Ratcliff). He has a compulsive addiction to gambling, which gets him into trouble on more than one occasion and his marriage ends in disaster after he has his wife sectioned. He is a member of the original "EastEnders" cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remains with the show for nearly five years afterwards, making his final appearance on 10 October 1989. Ali Osman was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Ali, a Turkish Cypriot, was originally intended to be named Chris. His name was changed to Ali when it dawned on Holland that he had given a Christian name to a Muslim. Ali was a well-intentioned attempt to represent the proportion of Turkish Cypriots who had immigrated to England and settled in the East End of London. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with.

Arthur Fowler, played by Bill Treacher, is the father of the Fowler family. Arthur is essentially a good man, but makes some foolish choices and always ends up paying dearly for them. Bossed to the brink of insanity by his wife Pauline (Wendy Richard) and mother-in-law Lou Beale (Anna Wing), Arthur falls into the arms of another woman. During his time in Albert Square he suffers with a mental disorder, is sent to prison twice and eventually dies of a brain haemorrhage in 1996. Arthur Fowler was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Arthur is a member of the first family of "EastEnders", the Beales and Fowlers, and Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Arthur's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, "EastEnders: The Inside Story".

Reg Cox, played by Johnnie Clayton, is a resident of Albert Square. The first episode of "EastEnders" on 19 February 1985 centres upon pensioner Reg's death. According to scriptwriter Colin Brake, the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith, wanted to start the serial "with a bang, throwing the audience into the middle of life in [the fictional setting of] Walford". The Reg Cox storyline was deemed as a good starting point, allowing various members of the community to be involved with or comment on the circumstances of the old man's murder.

In the first ever scene of the programme, the characters of Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher), and Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih) are shown breaking down the door of Reg's flat. In Holland and Smith's book, "The Inside Story", the authors have outlined their original interpretation of the scene: "[EastEnders] starts with a bang, as a size ten boot kicks down the door that's locked from the inside. The tiny, dirty and foul-smelling council-flat behind the battered door belongs to Reg Cox (known locally as "the-old-boy", and a cantankerous bastard at the best of times) who hasn't been seen around [Albert Square] for days... Once the door's down, three men rush into the gloomy main-room... They find the old boy sitting in his favourite armchair beside the gas fire (which isn't on) – and he's very nearly dead... By the end of the episode the old boy will have been removed from the square and taken to Intensive Care, and the entire community will be rife with gossip, which spreads round the houses like the plague. Via the gossip we're able to piece together the events leading up to the discovery of Reg"

Reg lived alone at 23b Albert Square. On the morning of 19 February 1985, Naima Jeffery (Shreela Ghosh), who runs the shop on Bridge Street, became concerned about Reg after he had failed to make his daily milk purchase for the past three days and her husband, Saeed Jeffery (Andrew Johnson), mentions this to Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), publican of the pub next door. Den and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) roused Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), who lived downstairs from Reg, to let them into the house and the three of them kick in the door to Reg's room when he fails to answer their knocking. Den speaks the opening lines of the first episode, "Stinks in here, dunnit?", followed by the discovery of an unconscious Reg slumped in his armchair in the lounge of his neglected house. Den runs to get the local doctor, Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton), and calls for an ambulance. On 21 February 1985, they learn that Reg had been severely beaten and died from injuries which had gone unnoticed when he was found. It is eventually revealed that Nick Cotton (John Altman) was behind the beating when he was attempting to steal Reg's war medals.

Reg, who was 59 years old when he died, was not a popular figure in Albert Square. He is referred to as a 'cantankerous old git' by Arthur, called a'miserable so and so' by Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) and a 'nasty old man' by his downstairs neighbour, Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff). But despite this, Lou Beale (Anna Wing) causes havoc around the Square, accusing Sue of neglect for allowing him to lie dying in his flat for days, without checking up on him. The character also appears in the Christmas special "CivvyStreet", set during World War II, shown on 22 December 1988. The teenage Reg is played by Marc Tufano. He has gone AWOL and sells dodgy gear during the Second World War.

In 2014, Reg's murderer, Nick, used the name 'Reg Cox' as an alias after he faked his death. In 2015, Nick died in the same place that Reg died 30 years earlier after admitting to his mother, Dot Branning (June Brown), that he killed Reg.

Ethel Skinner played by Gretchen Franklin, is an elderly resident of Walford. Ethel Skinner also features in a 1988 "EastEnders" special, entitled "CivvyStreet", set on Albert Square during the Second World War, where the character is played by Alison Bettles. Ethel is an "EastEnders" original character and in the early years she can often be found wandering the square with her adored pug Willy. She and Dot Cotton (June Brown) are lifelong friends and although they wind each other up, they are completely dependent on each other. In fact Ethel trusts Dot so much that she even asks her to help her die in 2000, after she is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Ethel's original character outline states that she was born in 1920. However, during the series this was altered to 1916 and for many years her birthday fell on 19 February. When Ethel comes back to Walford to die in 2000, she reveals to Dot that she had lied about her age for many years.

Pauline Fowler played by Wendy Richard between 1985 and 2006 is the wife of Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher). Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer Julia Smith as one of "EastEnders" original characters. She makes her debut in the soap's first episode on 19 February 1985, and remains for twenty-one years and ten months, making her the second longest-running original character, surpassed only by Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). Pauline was a staple in the UK press during her time in "EastEnders", representative of the symbiosis between Britain's soaps and tabloid newspapers. Widely read tabloids, such as "The Sun" and "Daily Mirror", would routinely publish articles about forthcoming developments in Pauline's storylines. Critical opinion on the character differs. She has been described as a "legend" and a television icon, but was also voted the 35th "most annoying person of 2006" (being the only fictional character to appear on the list). The character is well known even outside the show's viewer-base, and away from the on-screen serial, Pauline has been the subject of television documentaries, behind-the-scenes books, tie-in novels and comedy sketch shows.

Dr Harold Legg, played by Leonard Fenton, is Walford's original GP. He is widely trusted within the community, and is always on hand to dish out advice. Dr Legg appears as a regular character between 1985 and 1989, but continues to appear in a recurring role until 1997. He was officially retired in 1999 by executive producer Matthew Robinson, though he has made cameos since this time in 2000, 2004 and 2007. Dr. Harold Legg is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Dr. Legg is an attempt to represent the successive wave of Jewish immigrants that had settled in the East End of London between 1881 and 1914 in order avoid the persecution that they were being subjected to in Europe. The second generation of East End born Jews (as Dr. Legg was meant to represent) prospered in the area until the 1930s when Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists was formed, and used violence to instil fear in the Jewish population. As the Jewish community grew wealthier, many moved out of the East End to more affluent areas of London, just as the character of Dr. Legg had done on-screen when the show began; living in Islington, but commuting to his practice in Walford.

Saeed Jeffery, played by Andrew Johnson, is the original owner of the First til Last grocery store. He is never truly accepted in Walford, and his arranged marriage ends in divorce after it is discovered that he had been making obscene phone calls to women. He leaves Walford in disgrace, leaving his business to his wife. Saeed Jeffery is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Saeed and his wife Naima (Shreela Ghosh) are the first Asian characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before "EastEnders" aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with.

Pete Beale, played by Peter Dean, makes his first appearance in the programme's first episode, on 19 February 1985. The character was created by Tony Holland, one of the creators of "EasEnders"; he was based on a member of Holland's family. Pete features in the soap for eight years as the local fruit and veg trader of Albert Square; he is a member of the original focal clan in the serial, the Beales and Fowlers. Pete is portrayed as a macho and somewhat insensitive individual who struggles to cope with emotion. Pete was axed from the soap in 1993 and departed in May that year after over eight years on-screen. The character was killed off-screen later that year following Peter Dean's public criticism of the BBC.

Lou Beale played by Anna Wing, is the matriarch of the Beale family. The character is played by Karen Meagher in the 1988 "EastEnders" special, "CivvyStreet", set during the Second World War. Lou Beale was the first "EastEnders" character to be created by series co-creator Tony Holland, taking the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Lou is the archetypal East End matriarch throughout "EastEnders" first three years. An intimidating force within the local community, she is the dowager of Albert Square's central family, the Beales and Fowlers. Never afraid to speak her mind, and woe betide anyone who manages to get on her wrong side, Lou has the respect of her friends and family, even if they do find her a bit of a nuisance at times. Born in the East End, Lou lived in Walford all her life. Albert and Lou came to their house on the corner of Albert Square, number forty-five, on getting married during the 1930s. Lou remained in the house throughout the Second World War and brought up her children there. Her affinity and ties with the area mean that she tends to view Albert Square as her own and that gives her an excuse to intrude into people's business as she sees fit.

Naima Jeffery, played by Shreela Ghosh, is the wife of Saeed Jeffery (Andrew Johnson). Naima tries to embrace Western culture, but this is not easy since her family constantly try to force her to adhere to their ancient customs. Sick of being forced to live in an arranged marriage with a husband she loathes, Naima makes a stand and shames her family by filing for a divorce. Naima Jeffery is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Naima and her husband are the first Asian characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before "EastEnders" aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with.

Angie Watts played by Anita Dobson, appears from the first episode of the show until 1988 when the actress decided to quit and the character was written out. Angie is well known for her cheeky banter, her huge shaggy perm and turning to alcohol during her stormy marriage to cheating Den (Leslie Grantham) which ends when he hands her divorce papers on Christmas Day, in an episode watched by a record-breaking 30.1 million viewers. Despite being the loud and feisty lady of Walford, and having a close relationship with her beloved adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean), she has little real happiness during her time in Albert Square and alcoholism finally claims her life in 2002 when she dies of cirrhosis of the liver. Angie Watts is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. The character of Angie was originally going to be named Pearl and she, her husband and adopted daughter were to be the occupants of the soap's local pub, now famously known as The Queen Vic. Holland, who had worked as a barman in his youth, called upon his own personal experiences to invent the Watts family and the pub they lived in. Holland and Smith had always been critical of the way pubs had been portrayed on television feeling they lacked vitality and life, so they were determined that their pub and occupants were going to be more'real'. The Watts were seen by Holland as integral to the show's success, partly because he had already guessed that the pub was going to be a monstrous battleground where emotions would run high on a regular basis, and also because the occupants would be providing the majority of the drama.

Willy is a Pug, who appears in the first episode of the programme and remained in the show until 1992. He belongs to Ethel Skinner who loves him dearly. Willy was cast less than a week before the filming of "EastEnders" began. From the beginning it was decided that the pensioner Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) was to have a Yorkshire Terrier named Willy (after her dead husband). The company Janimals, who specialised in providing and training animals for television and films, was contacted by "EastEnders" co-creator/producer Julia Smith, and informed her that they could provide an experienced Pug for the part (he had previously starred in an adaptation of "Swallows and Amazons"). The dog was brought to the studio to meet Gretchen Franklin, the actress who played Ethel. She took a shine to him straight away and so the pug was cast as Willy. Willy and Roly the poodle shared a dressing room at Elstree Studios.

Roly is an apricot coloured Standard Poodle, who appears in the first episode of the programme and remains in the show until 1993. Roly was cast less than a week before the filming of "EastEnders" began. From the beginning it was decided that the occupants of The Queen Victoria pub, Den, Angie and Sharon Watts, were to have an Alsatian named Prince. However, finding an Alsatian that was light enough in colour not to merge into the background of the set proved to be difficult. Eventually, the co-creator/producer of the show, Julia Smith, was contacted by a company named Janimals, who specialised in providing and training animals for television and films. They had found a seven-month-old Poodle, called Roly, who might still be young enough to be trained. Training was said to take three weeks, and as the Poodle was a similar size to an Alsatian, Roly got the part. Roly was made the property of the BBC, given an ID card, and taken to live with Julia Smith at her home in London. Roly and Willy the pug shared a dressing room at Elstree studios.

Tracey (known to fans as Tracey the barmaid) is played by Jane Slaughter. She has appeared as a background character since the first episode on 19 February 1985, where she is seen working on the flower stall in Bridge Street Market. Slaughter is not credited in the role until episode 126 (1 May 1986), which is the first episode in which she speaks. She is the longest-serving female member of the cast in terms of continuous appearances, as other original female cast members who are still in the cast have taken long-term breaks from the show.

Tracey starts working as a barmaid at The Queen Victoria (The Queen Vic) public house, in 1989. Her existence is largely to provide somebody to man the bar while one of the main characters resolves disputes, arguments or disagreements, or tends to the main plot of the episode. Despite featuring on the television programme frequently and occasionally having a line to say, her surname and most of her details are unknown. She has also featured in a few minor storylines. As well as being a barmaid, Tracey owns a flower stall on Bridge Street market. Her stall is regularly robbed by new characters who steal flowers for people they are meeting. She employs workers whilst she does shifts in the pub, including Ina Foot (Ina Clare) and Jean Slater (Gillian Wright). Tracey becomes good friends with Debbie Bates (Nicola Duffett), and is godmother to her daughter Clare Bates (Gemma Bissix). Tracey is often seen to be pleased at the prospect of additional overtime in The Queen Victoria when a Mitchell family wedding or other event is planned as she can always do with extra money.

On 14 April 2003, Tracey has a one-night stand with Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), the adoptive half-brother of former pub owner Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), when he arrives in Albert Square, despite the fact that she is married. The day after, he returns her knickers to her publicly over the bar. In 2005, Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) breaks into the pub with a crowbar and Tracey discovers her, asking her to leave. Sam knocks Tracey out with the crowbar and drags her, unconscious, into the bathroom, locking her in. She goes downstairs to unearth the body of Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) who is buried in the basement, and when the police arrive, Tracey is comforted by Little Mo Mitchell (Kacey Ainsworth). After Sam is released from prison on bail she apologises to Tracey, but Tracey appears shaken by the ordeal and scared of Sam.

On 7 August 2008, Tracey opens up when Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky) questions why she is so quiet. She says she wants to keep herself to herself because she thinks that the Mitchells are all "stark raving mad" and that she does not fear any new barmaids as she had seen them come and go but she knows that she will always be behind the bar. She goes on to say that whoever lives in the pub is "cursed" in her opinion and that they will never be able to live happily together.

In March 2009, Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb) makes Tracey a cleaner at The Queen Vic, and she is pleased for the extra money. She attends Peggy Mitchell's (Barbara Windsor) hen party and Peggy and Archie's wedding on 2 April. On 16 April 2009, Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) accuses Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) of drinking again. However, Phil denies this, saying that he had broken a bottle of alcohol earlier, and Tracey backs him up. On 28 April 2009, Tracey answers the phone to Minty Peterson (Cliff Parisi) questioning Phil's whereabouts from the night before. Tracey tells Phil about having to talk to the bank about some money issues. Following that, Phil pressures Tracey into talking about her feelings, supposedly for him, mentioning her husband in the process. Finally, she appears again towards the end of the episode wanting to help Ben Mitchell (Charlie Jones) get to school as Phil is too drunk to assist him. Phil, flirting with Tracey, tells her that her husband will not mind.

On 30 April 2009, she finds Heather Trott's (Cheryl Fergison) lost inhaler. On 30 July, she phones in with a back injury, and Peggy says it was unlike her to skive so it must be serious. Dot Branning (June Brown) describes Tracey as the person who "sees everything but says very little". On 8 September 2009, Peggy tells Sam (now Danniella Westbrook) that Tracey still holds a grudge against her. On 26 November Tracey covers for both Peggy and Phil when bailiffs ask for them, by pretending she is just a barmaid from an agency and does not know them. She then informs Ben he needs to tell Phil that the bailiffs are looking for him and want to repossess his car. On 24 December, Archie Mitchell and Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) take over the pub, ousting Peggy and her family. Tracey is unhappy with the way Archie and Janine treated Peggy and the rest of the Mitchell family, and the straw that broke the camel's back comes the next day when Janine tells Tracey to put some tinsel in her hair and asks her to keep an eye on the Christmas dinner. Tracey leaves a note saying "Gone fishing", implying that she resigned. The next day, Tracey is present when Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack) is arrested on suspicion of Archie's murder, and looks shocked. She also attends Jean's birthday party on 11 January 2010. When Mo Harris (Laila Morse) opens a betting circle on the identity of Archie's killer, she lists Tracey as the rank outsider, giving her the nickname "Silent Assassin".

On 18 January 2010, Tracey appears behind the bar in a non-speaking capacity for The Queen Vic's reopening. On 22 January, the pub's new owner, Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons), gives Tracey a warning for arriving two hours late, but Peggy explains that she asked her to come in late as she has done a lot of unpaid overtime recently. Later, Roxy sacks Tracey because she wants the pub to have younger bar staff. Peggy demands that Roxy beg Tracey to come back for the evening shift as workers like Tracey are "gold dust". Peggy tells Tracey on the phone that she is not sacked but Tracey hangs up. Tracey decides to take Roxy to an unfair dismissal tribunal, so Roxy says she will audition a new barmaid, giving Tracey a chance but making sure she loses. However, when Roxy realises she does not know how to run a pub, she gives Tracey her job back. Tracey suggests a curry night, and Roxy is happy to leave Tracey in charge of it, saying it is the most she has ever heard her speak. On that same day, viewers find out that Tracey and Shirley Carter are good friends. In March 2010, Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson) holds up The Queen Vic, asking Tracey for cash and saying he has a gun. She fills his bag with cash but Phil takes it off her. In September 2010, following the fire at The Queen Vic, Tracey starts working at Ian Beale's (Adam Woodyatt) fish and chip shop. The next month, Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) offers Tracey her old job back at The Queen Vic, along with Stacey Branning (Lacey Turner), after he reopens the pub.

In January 2011, during a conversation with Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace), it is revealed that Tracey has a son who lives with his father, as she and her husband have split up. When David Wicks (Michael French) returned for his mother, Pat Evans' (Pam St. Clement), funeral, he comments to his daughter Bianca Butcher (Patsy Palmer) that he was amazed Tracey was still working in The Queen Vic, which prompted Bianca to say that Tracey was one of the few things in the world that was reliable. Tracey's next appearance in speech was on Thursday 14 June 2012, she gave Jean her job back on the flower stall. However Tracey later sacks Jean after she rows with customers Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) and Janine Butcher. In August 2012, after Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) announces to the customers in The Queen Vic that Sharon has returned, only Tracey greets her and meets her son Dennis Rickman Jr (Harry Hickles).

In December 2013, Phil sells the pub to Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) and when Tracey arrives to work her shift, Mick's wife, Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) tells her that she is not wanted any more. Shirley witnesses this and tells Linda that Tracey is like part of the furniture at The Queen Vic and she is then later seen when she and Linda become friends and she resumes her job at The Queen Vic. In April 2014, the market merges with "Spring Lane Market" and this brings in a new florist, Pam Coker (Lin Blakley), however when discussing the competition with Alfie, Pam states she has no competition. This implies Tracey no longer runs a flower stall. In September 2015, Tracey is shocked when she answers The Queen Vic telephone to Kathy Sullivan (Gillian Taylforth), who is believed to be dead. Kathy asks Tracey to pass on an address to Phil. After being confronted by Mick, she finds Phil. Phil tries to persuade her it was a joke but Tracey is not convinced and knows it was Kathy. She gives him Kathy's whereabouts. The following month, Tracey finally meets Kathy again and welcomes her home. Eight months later, Tracey welcomes another old friend back to Walford as she greets Peggy, when she rides around the square in a milk float. In April 2017, the freehold of The Queen Vic is sold after the Carters get into debt. Business consultant Fi Browning (Lisa Faulkner) advises that the pub is overstaffed and suggests two members of staff need to go. The Carter family refuse to sack Tracey, who they describe as "an institution", but new bar manager Woody Woodward (Lee Ryan) insists Tracey has to go. An upset Tracey runs from the room after Woody sacks her. A farewell party for Tracey is thrown, but she decides not to show up to it and everyone decides to boycott The Queen Vic. Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood) then offers Tracey a job at his bar, The Albert. When Linda returns from Watford, Fi is annoyed when Linda gives Tracey her job back without consulting her.

Being one of the only four remaining original cast members in the show, Slaughter said that when she joined the show "she recognised that EastEnders could run and be something very exciting" and that she 'never dreamed [that it would last] 25 years' but she 'certainly knew it was special.' When asked to pick her favourite storyline she said, "In terms of actually watching and seeing scenes, I've been lucky being in The Vic. I've seen so many good ones – with the Mitchells, with Phil, with Peggy – I've been very, very lucky to see so many, that it's nigh on impossible to single any out. They've all involved different people – I could go on and on and on!" She's always there whereas other cast members such as Adam [Woodyatt] – who's been there as long as I have – wouldn't necessarily have a storyline that puts him in The Vic at all." She also added, "For me as a character, it has to be Tracey speaking to Sean Slater. It was hysterical. For someone who never says anything, she suddenly had an opinion about everything, which I just loved. It was written by Christopher Reason and done so well. To get someone who only occasionally says things like 'out the back' and make what she says make sense – he did a fantastic job. That was very memorable because everyone was so supportive.

A 2010 video on the official website of "EastEnders" spin-off "" features the character Fatboy (Ricky Norwood) giving his "Survival Tips in Walford!", one of which is to not talk to Tracey, as "she goes on, and on, and on, and on." In 2010, Slaughter said that it would not make sense to make Tracey into "this talkative, all-singing, all-dancing person with a fully-fledged family and surname." Slaughter described her character as 'lovely', 'clever', 'loyal but strong' and 'opinionated'. Jane Simons from "The Mirror" described her as'silent'.

In May 2009, "Digital Spy" asked producer Diederick Santer what's in store for Tracey, he said, "You just have to watch out for any script that Christopher Reason writes. Chris is obsessed with Tracey and with Jane Slaughter, who plays her. He gives her loads to do, which is fantastic. When we give her more to do, she absolutely delivers. We think she's fab." When it was announced that Bryan Kirkwood was taking over from Santer, Slaughter was asked what she hoped Kirkwood would do to Tracey saying, "I would just be happy if he knows the character and likes the character and thinks he could use her. I think there is potential to use her but like I said, not in a ridiculously nonsensical way, but I think it's also down to the public. It sounds like I'm deferring my opinion but I'm not, I think the public actually would like to know."

Tracey was one of the 'outsiders' in the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline with many viewers thinking it could be her. In a poll with "Digital Spy" 7.9% thought Tracey killed Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb) and in a second poll, 7.1% thought it was her. When asked if she thought Tracey could kill she said, "I wouldn't think she's that dark but who knows – she could be. I've heard there are odds at the bookies to be had for her but why? Why would she have killed him? Because he's threatening The Vic? Is it The Vic she protects or the family?". It was later revealed that bookmakers, William Hill had slashed the odds on Tracey being the killer, with 7/1 thinking she killed Archie. The killer was later revealed to be Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).

Dek Hogan from "Digital Spy" hailed Tracey when she said a line and said it was'such a rare event that it's always worthy of a celebration. Fair play, she did mumble it a bit and it was so unmemorable that I've forgotten what it was she actually said but it was a line nonetheless.' He also said that she, Winston (Ulric Browne) and other background characters should have a daytime soap, saying it would be a ratings winner. Kris Green also from "Digital Spy" said he wants to ask scriptwriters to give more lines to Tracey, as well as calling Tracey's scenes with Sean Slater (Rob Kazinsky) 'iconic'.

Speaking of the reaction viewers have to the character of Tracey, she said, My son was telling me the other day there's a [Facebook group] that says 'Let Tracey Speak' with 47,000 members. It just blows my head. I said, 'Oh, Ollie – I think you mean 4,700' and he went, 'No mum, forty seven thousand!' It makes me go a bit 'Woah!'". It has become a point of amusement amongst "EastEnders" fans that so little is known about the character and speculation is ongoing as to whether she will take a lead role in any future storylines. Weekly magazine "Inside Soap" ran a regular feature commenting on Tracey's brief appearances, dubbed 'Tracey Watch'. They refer to her as "our fave barmaid", making observations such as: "The drinks are on Trace this week – she had an actual line! Ker-ching! Screen time: A brief, but intensely powerful, two seconds." Jane Simon from "The Mirror" said that whenever Tracey speaks, 'it's worth listening to'.

Nick Cotton, played by John Altman, was a recurring character who appears in the soap's debut episode in February 1985, through to his last appearance where he died in 2015. Nick is the son of characters Charlie (Christopher Hancock) and Dot Cotton (June Brown), and the father of Charlie Cotton Ashley and Dotty Cotton (Molly Conlin). His storylines have seen him twice commit murder of Reg Cox and Eddie Royle respectively, succumb to a heroin addiction, and attempt to poison his own mother, causing the death of his son Ashley amongst numerous other misdemeanours. Nick is also the subject of a special spin-off episode, "The Return of Nick Cotton", which aired in October 2000. He has been voted one of television's all-time most villainous characters in a Channel 4 poll. He is seen as the shows original villain. Nick died of a heroin overdose on 13 February 2015 in the house he killed Reg Cox 30 years previous.

Sue Osman, played by Sandy Ratcliff, is the wife of Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih). Sue is one of the serial's original characters, appearing in its first episode on 19 February 1985 and departing on-screen in May 1989. Created by Tony Holland and Julia Smith, Sue is portrayed as argumentative, insecure and tragic. A pivotal storyline in the character's narrative is the cot-death of her son, which is one of the show's first controversial plots. During her four years on-screen, the character contends with a phantom pregnancy, marital breakdown and finally insanity. Ratcliff left the role in 1989 after press stories began circulating about her private life.

Kathy Beale (also Mitchell and Sullivan), played by Gillian Taylforth between 1985 and 2000, and then from 2015 onwards, is the mother of Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). Though it was never used on screen, in 2010 the BBC website named the character as Kathy Sullivan due to a marriage after she left the show in 2000. Kathy Beale is one of the serial's original characters, appearing in the first episode of "EastEnders" on 19 February 1985. One of the longest-running original characters, Kathy remains in a prominent role, covering issues such as rape and domestic violence until April 1998, when Taylforth quit. A year later, in 1999, Taylforth returned for a temporary stint to aid the departure of actor Ross Kemp who played her brother-in-law Grant Mitchell, and later in December 1999 for the wedding of her screen son Ian. She made her final appearance in January 2000. Despite various rumours of a possible return for Kathy in the press, this did not occur and the character was supposedly killed off-screen in a road accident in late February 2006 in a storyline to facilitate the return of her son Ben to his father Phil (Steve McFadden). In tribute to the character, the soap's café is named "Kathy's". Kathy returned for the 30th anniversary episode in February 2015, when it was revealed that Kathy never died in a surprise showdown with her ex-husband, Phil.

Hassan Osman, played by Michael Evangelou, is the first son of Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih) and Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff), who is only a baby during his short time in "EastEnders". Hassan dies in his sleep on 20 June 1985; no official causes of death are given. Sue is left in a state of shock after her son's death. She remains in a trance-like state for weeks and refuses to eat, sleep, cry or acknowledge her grief. She later begins blaming herself unfairly for her son's sudden death. Her mental health continues to deteriorate and she becomes despondent towards Ali and their marriage disintegrates in a welter of depression. Sue eventually manages to come to terms with Hassan's death with the help of Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton), who takes the drastic measure of placing Mary Smith's (Linda Davidson) baby, Annie Smith (Zara Posener), in her lap, finally allowing her to acknowledge her pent-up sadness.

Before "EastEnders" initially aired, creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith had already decided that Sue and Ali Osman would be parents to a young baby named Hassan. However, as further characters were invented they realised that there would be a total of four babies in the show: Annie Smith (Zara Posener), Martin Fowler (Jon Peyton Price), Vicki Fowler (Emma Herry) and Hassan. It was decided that it would be impossible for the studios to cope with four babies and so they invented a storyline to eliminate one from the cast. During this time, the topic of sudden infant death syndrome was prominent in the British press, partly due to an increase in casualties, but also because a doctor had gone public with the accusation that parents were to blame for the tragic occurrence. Holland and Smith decided that covering this issue in the soap would be a good way of'setting the record straight', and so it was decided that Sue and Ali's baby would die from cot death in the early months of the show. This was the first of many controversial storylines in "EastEnders"' history. After the storyline aired in June 1985, the show was praised by audience and press alike for the sensitive and unsensational way this harrowing subject was treated. The sudden tragedy came as a surprise to the audience, especially since the bereaved parents were a couple whose feuding, fighting ways had made them appear rather comic in the early episodes of the show. The British Cot Death Foundation initially feared that a soap opera would trivialise the subject and frighten new parents. They tried to stop the episodes from airing, but in the end they were pleased with the way the subject was handled, and provided back-up support after transmission to many viewers who wanted more information on the subject.

Sharon Mitchell (also Watts and Rickman), played by Letitia Dean, is the daughter of Den (Leslie Grantham) and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson). Sharon is a regular character in the first 10 years of the programme, after which she leaves and returns several times. Sharon is the adoptive daughter of the popular'supercouple'; Den and Angie. She was known to Den as his "princess" and he made sure suitors watched their step around the teenage Sharon. Even though she disapproved of her father's dodgy deals and his constant fighting with binge-drinker Angie, she loved them both nonetheless. She made a permanent return to the show in 2012 and is married to Phil Mitchell.

Ian Beale, played by Adam Woodyatt, is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985. The character appeared in his 2,000th episode in the show on 26 March 2007. Ian Beale is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Ian is a member of the first family of "EastEnders", the Beales and Fowlers, and Holland took the inspiration for some of the series' earliest characters from his own London family and background. Ian's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, "EastEnders: The Inside Story".

Michelle Fowler (also Holloway), played by Susan Tully from 1985 to 1995 and Jenna Russell since 2016, is the daughter of Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) and Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). Although she is one of the brighter people in Walford, that does not stop Michelle making some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square. Michelle has a habit of choosing the wrong men and her stubborn nature means that she rarely accepts anyone's help or listens to good advice. She is tough, feisty, determined, outspoken and never afraid to defend herself or her beliefs. Early on in the series, the character of Michelle becomes central to the programme and is the focus of a controversial storyline involving her teenage pregnancy. Press interest in the show escalated to "record levels" as journalists continuously tried to predict who had fathered Michelle's baby. In whodunnit fashion, the audience had been kept in the dark as to the real identity of the father and were given teasers implicating several residents on The Square. The audience finally discovered the culprit in episode 66 of the programme, October 1985. The episode was written by series co-creator/script editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith, and was considered to be a landmark episode in the show's history. Four possible suspects are seen leaving the Square in the early half of the episode: Tony Carpenter (Oscar James), Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson) and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). As Michelle waits by their rendezvous point a car pulls up and finally the fluffy white legs of Roly the poodle bound out of the car, and give it all away: Den Watts is the man meeting Michelle and it was he who had fathered her baby. The rest of the episode consists of just one long scene, where Den and Michelle discuss whether or not to keep the baby. Up to that time it was the longest scene ever done in a soap-opera, lasting fifteen minutes.

Mark Fowler is an original regular character in the series starting February 1985 but becomes a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the role in April 1985. Scarboro made brief returns to the role in 1986 and 1987. Scarboro committed suicide in April 1988. The role was recast in 1990, with Todd Carty taking the role. From this point the character is a permanent fixture in the series and Carty remained in the role until the character was written out of the series in early 2003. Mark starts out as a delinquent teenager, but returns to Walford a changed man when he was 22. Contracting HIV forces him to grow up fast and accept his responsibilities. He frequently finds it difficult to accept the restrictions of the illness, which finally claims his life in April 2004.

Lofty Holloway, played by Tom Watt, is one of the serial's original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, 26 February 1985. Lofty is generally depicted as a meek, luckless and hapless victim. A long running storyline concerns his relationship with the character Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully). Their unhappy marriage finally disintegrates after Michelle has an abortion, and Lofty leaves Walford for a new start. The character's final appearance is in the episode first aired on 19 April 1988. Lofty was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Both felt that to help complete the community there was a need for a character in his early twenties. He had to be someone a bit different. Not brash and confident like a lot of the older men, and not boisterous like the younger ones. A loner, maybe someone forced to be a loner. A person who "stuck out like a sore thumb". Someone that was happiest in a group but still could not find one that he fit in with. Tony Holland had previously been in the army and found that ex-soldiers had these problems when they tried to reintegrate as civilians. So they decided that Lofty would be an ex-soldier, forced to quit because of his asthma. He was happiest in the army and felt incomplete without the group setting, the all-male camaraderie and even the security of the uniformity that the army provides.

DS Terry Rich, played by Gary Whelan, first appears in the series on 26 February 1985 and makes his last appearance on 14 May 1987. He investigates the death of Reg Cox (Johnnie Clayton), who died the previous week, and his death is believed to be a murder. Rich, of the Walford CID, arrives in Albert Square to conduct an inquiry.

The following week, a badge that Lofty Holloway (Tom Watt) is wearing on his jumper catches the eye of Dr Legg (Leonard Fenton), who recognises it as one that he saw in Reg's collection of Nazi badges from the war. A few hours later, Rich arrives at The Queen Victoria where Lofty is tending bar and questions him about how he got the badge. Lofty reluctantly admits that he bought it from Mark Fowler (David Scarboro) for five pounds. When questioned by Rich, Mark insists that he found the badge on the street. However, a month into the investigation, Rich learns that Mark had obtained the badge from Nick Cotton (John Altman) and ransacked Nick's home to find the remains of Reg's collection along with other incriminating evidence. Nick then flees Walford, but is arrested the following month for Reg's murder, although he is never charged.

Rich returns in 1987 to investigate the case of the 'Walford attacker', who has assaulted several female inhabitants of Albert Square. In April of that year, Debbie Wilkins (Shirley Cheriton), averts an attack using self-defence, which leads to the attacker, [[O's arrest. Rich is impressed with the way Debbie conducted herself so he asks her if she would help him out on some police business. Rich asks Debbie to go to a French restaurant with him on an undercover operation to expose French restaurants using English waiters. Debbie agrees, but whilst on their mock date they bond and when they return to The Queen Victoria they make a dinner date for the next night to a Chinese restaurant and they are soon inseparable. Debbie's flatmate, [[Naima Jeffery]] ([[Shreela Ghosh]]), seems to dislike Rich immensely, but this does not perturb Debbie, and when Rich asks her to marry him, she gleefully accepts. The following month Rich is transferred to another division in [[Crawley, Sussex|Crawley]], so Debbie decides to leave Walford with him.

Tony Carpenter, played by [[Oscar James]], is a jovial character, who tries to establish a successful business and steady home for his family, but nothing he does is ever good enough for his nagging wife. Tony is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", [[Tony Holland]] and [[Julia Smith]]. Tony was originally intended to be named Alan, and his son [[Kelvin Carpenter]] was originally named Kevin. They are the first [[Black (people)|black]] characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before "EastEnders" aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically.

Mary Smith, played by [[Linda Davidson]], is a [[Punk subculture|punk]], and is [[Walford]]'s original wild child. She often makes life difficult for herself due to her stubborn, defensive nature and she tends to feel that everyone around her is out to get her. In fact, Mary is her own worst enemy and most of her misfortune is down to her irresponsible behaviour and her inability to heed good advice. Mary Smith is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", [[Tony Holland]] and [[Julia Smith]]. Mary's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, "[[EastEnders books|EastEnders: The Inside Story]]". As Holland and Smith wanted a diverse cross-section from the East End community, it was decided that one of the main cast had to be a young, single mother, and as [[punk rock|punk music]] was prominent in British culture at the time, they decided to use a [[punk fashion|punk image]] for the character. Holland and Smith decided to cast an unknown actress in the role. They chose [[Linda Davidson]], who was the right age and had been brought up in northern England and therefore had an accent that would befit the character's background.

Annie Smith, played by Zara Posener and Jenna Alembick from 1985 to 1986 and by Samantha Crown from 1986 to 1988, is the young daughter of [[Punk subculture|punk]] [[Mary Smith (EastEnders)|Mary Smith]] ([[Linda Davidson]]). Her father was a member of a punk group of which Mary was a groupie, and had no contact with her.

Annie, who was born prematurely, is three months old when she arrives, along with Mary, on 5 March 1985 and initially resides with her mother at 23b [[Albert Square]]. Mary is an incredibly irresponsible mother and Annie is always getting lumbered on neighbours when Mary gets tired of looking after her. [[Dot Cotton]] ([[June Brown]]) and [[Sue Osman]] ([[Sandy Ratcliff]]) are the usual victims, but almost everyone on [[Albert Square]] has a turn of looking after Annie. Sue, in particular, grows extremely fond of Annie following the death of her son, [[Hassan Osman]]. After bottling up her grief for months, she is forced to hold little Annie, which finally allows her to acknowledge her pent-up sadness.

Annie is once left alone in the launderette by accident while Mary goes drinking in [[The Queen Victoria]] pub. [[Debbie Wilkins]] ([[Shirley Cheriton]]) finds her and returns her to her mother, along with a few choice words for Mary. Mary also has a tendency to leave Annie home alone whilst she goes out to prostitute herself at night. On one such occasion, Annie throws her blanket at the electric fan heater, causing a fire. [[Arthur Fowler]] ([[Bill Treacher]]) rescues her but as a result, Annie is removed from Mary's care and given to her grandparents, [[Chris Smith (EastEnders)|Chris Smith]] ([[Allan O'Keefe]]) and [[Edie Smith]] ([[Eileen O'Brien (actress)|Eileen O'Brien]]), who live in [[Stockport]]. With the help of Mary's boyfriend, [[Rod Norman]] ([[Christopher McHallem]]), and [[Carmel Jackson]] ([[Judith Jacob]]), Annie is eventually reunited with her mother, although it takes a lot of persuading to make Edie return her, as she feels that Mary is not capable of caring for a young child. Annie spends Christmas Day 1987 in hospital after Chris, who is drunk, abducts her in an attempt to take her back to Stockport and crashes his car into a wall, though Annie is unharmed. Eventually, Mary decides to leave Albert Square for good with Annie in May 1988.

Kelvin Carpenter, played by [[Paul J. Medford]], is an original "EastEnders" character. A bright spark and full of initiative, he opens several businesses in [[Albert Square]] and even forms a band. He is a bit of a heartbreaker in "EastEnders" early years, but he eventually has his heart broken in return, when his middle-aged girlfriend jilts him. Always a bit too intelligent for [[Walford]], Kelvin eventually leaves for university and has since married a model wife and has become a songwriter. Kelvin Carpenter was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", [[Tony Holland]] and [[Julia Smith]]. Kelvin was originally intended to be named Kevin, and his father [[Tony Carpenter]] was originally named Alan. They are the first [[Black (people)|black]] characters to appear in the soap.

Andy O'Brien, played by [[Ross Davidson]], is one of the original characters created for the series. Andy makes his appearance one month after the show first broadcast in March 1985. Portrayed as altruistic and middle-classed, Andy and his partner [[Debbie Wilkins|Debbie]] ([[Shirley Cheriton]]) are an attempt to represent gentrification of the East End. Despite Davidson claiming that there had been plans for his character, Andy became the first regular character in "EastEnders" to be killed off. Davidson claims this was due to an altercation between himself and Executive Producer and show creator, [[Julia Smith]]. His death scene aired in August 1986.

Debbie Wilkins, played by [[Shirley Cheriton]] is [[Walford]]'s first upwardly mobile character. She has an on/off relationship with her ill-fated boyfriend [[Andy O'Brien (EastEnders)|Andy O'Brien]] ([[Ross Davidson]]). Andy and she tend to be a bit too pretentious for the working class locals of [[Albert Square]]. Debbie Wilkins is one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of "EastEnders", [[Tony Holland]] and [[Julia Smith]]. The character of Debbie along with her boyfriend Andy are an attempt by Holland and Smith to represent the influx of upwardly mobile people that were opting to move to the usually working-class areas of the [[East End of London]]. [[Gentrification]] of the East End was on the increase in the 1980s, and in Holland's experience, the new, wealthier residents were never welcomed or truly accepted within the community, and this was what he hoped to convey on-screen with these two characters.

Big Ron, played by [[Ron Tarr]], works in [[Walford]] market and appears as a background character from 1985 to 1997. Ron's first line in the series is, "All right, Den?", said to [[Den Watts]] ([[Leslie Grantham]]), five months after Ron first appears. His first credited appearance is episode 177, dated 28 October 1986, when he witnesses [[Ali Osman]] and his brother, [[Mehmet Osman]], arguing and asks Ali's wife, [[Sue Osman]], if she needs any help. He is credited in the episode as "stall holder" and this is also the first time he is named as Ron in dialogue. Ron is involved in a few storylines, including one where he has a heart attack after he is pushed by a mugger in the market.

The actor Ron Tarr died of cancer in October 1997 and was appearing in pre-recorded episodes several weeks after his death. To explain the character's absence, he was given an off-screen storyline in early 1998 where he wins [[Pound sterling|£]]500,000 on the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]] and emigrates to Spain. In a report about Tarr's death in the "[[Daily Mirror]]", journalist Chris Hughes stated the character had "a cult following". Ron could have appeared in a special episode of the popular science fiction series, "[[Doctor Who]]", entitled "[[Dimensions in Time]]" (1993). The episode was specially created as part of BBC's annual fund-raising event, [[Children in Need]]. Viewers were asked to phone in and vote which "EastEnders" character, [[Mandy Salter]] ([[Nicola Stapleton]]) or Ron, would appear in the show and save [[Doctor (Doctor Who)|The Doctor]] from certain death. Two versions were filmed for each voting outcome, but the Mandy version won with 56% of the vote.

Chris Smith (initially credited as 'Man', then as Mary's father), played by [[Allan O'Keefe]], is the father of [[Mary Smith (EastEnders)|Mary Smith]] ([[Linda Davidson]]). A haulage driver from [[Stockport]], he is first seen in [[Walford]] in May 1985 when he comes to visit his wayward daughter. Mary (or Theresa as she was known to Chris) had left Stockport to escape her family, so she is not pleased when Chris arrives and tries to persuade her to return with him so he can help bring up her young daughter. After several ill-fated attempts, Mary sends him away.

In 1987, Mary begins prostituting herself. She leaves her young baby, [[#Annie Smith|Annie Smith]], at home alone while she works. On one occasion, Annie throws a blanket out of her cot straight on to an electric fan heater, causing a fire. Annie is rescued but Mary's neighbour, [[Dot Cotton]] ([[June Brown]]), phones Chris, who returns to Walford and takes Annie to live with him and his wife, [[Edie Smith]] ([[Eileen O'Brien (actress)|Eileen O'Brien]]), in Stockport.

Mary's boyfriend, [[Rod Norman]] ([[Christopher McHallem]]), tries to help Mary sort her life out so she can get her daughter back. Even though Mary seems to be better, Edie has grown so attached to Annie that she is unwilling to relinquish care. By December, Chris finally decides that Annie should be reunited with Mary. Edie is unhappy about this and tells Chris that he can only come home when he brings Annie back. On Christmas Eve 1987, after desperately trying to convince Mary to return to Stockport, a very drunk Chris abducts Annie and tries to drive her home, only to crash into a wall at the local [[bed and breakfast]] on Bridge Street. Mary is forced to spend Christmas Day in hospital so Annie can be monitored. Chris desperately tries to make amends for his mistake, but she cannot forgive him until Annie is given the all clear later that day, so a jubilant Mary accepts her father's apology.

In early 1988, Chris makes plans to open up a haulage company at a disused tyre shop in [[Albert Square]], but finds out that his driving licence is to be suspended for 18 months following his drink driving accident. Nevertheless, he contacts his friend, [[Harry Jameson]] ([[Anthony Dutton (actor)|Anthony Dutton]]) to go into partnership and even manages to persuade [[Ali Osman]] ([[Nejdet Salih]]) to provide some capital. However, Ali pulls out of the deal and Chris turns to alcohol, regularly drinking himself into a stupor to drown his sorrows. A concerned Mary then decides to contact her mother, who returns to Walford to help her husband. By May, Chris succeeds in opening the haulage company open by borrowing money from Walford Investments – the money lending organisation of [[The Firm (EastEnders)|The Firm]] – but the antics of his daughter, who starts to use drugs again and neglect Annie, cause further family strife. In a bid to help Mary out, Chris offers her a job at the haulage company but Mary gets annoyed by her parents' interference, and after sabotaging her father's office with red paint, she and Annie leave Walford.

Chris stays in Walford to run his business, employing Rod as a bookkeeper and [[Charlie Cotton]] ([[Christopher Hancock]]) as lorry driver, although he is extremely unreliable. However, Chris is still short of drivers, so he starts doing deliveries himself, despite having a suspended licence. [[Darren Roberts (EastEnders)|Darren Roberts]] ([[Gary McDonald (actor)|Gary McDonald]]), who had had several run-ins with Chris regarding the theft of his [[Backhoe|JCB]] earlier that year, informs the police that he is driving illegally and Chris is fined [[pound sterling|£]]1000. This severely cripples his business and he is unable to repay his loan. [[Gregory Mantel]] ([[Pavel Douglas]]), a member of The Firm, then arrives on the Square, looking for Chris and forces him to sign the business over to The Firm, leaving Chris no choice but to return to Stockport. His last appearance is in August 1988. The premises of the haulage company are eventually bought by [[Frank Butcher]] ([[Mike Reid (actor)|Mike Reid]]), who converts it into the car lot.

Mehmet Osman, played by [[Haluk Bilginer]], is a recurring character appearing from 1985 to 1989. Mehmet is portrayed as a charmer, rogue and a serial womaniser. He was conceptualised by the creators of "EastEnders", [[Tony Holland]] and [[Julia Smith]]. Mehmet, the brother of original character [[Ali Osman]] ([[Nejdet Salih]]), is part of a well-intentioned attempt to represent the proportion of [[Turkish Cypriot]]s who had immigrated to England and settled in the [[East End of London]]. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their social contacts to relay information about their own origins and lifestyles, which they say allowed them to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically.

Hannah Carpenter, played by [[Sally Sagoe]], is the former wife of [[Tony Carpenter]] ([[Oscar James]]). She is a religious woman who is active in the [[Pentecostal Church]] but lost all tolerance for her fun-loving husband. After they agreed to divorce, their son, [[Kelvin Carpenter]] ([[Paul J. Medford]]), moves to the Square to live with his father in February 1985, while their daughter, [[Cassie Carpenter]] ([[Delanie Forbes]]), stays with her mother. Hannah's first appearance in [[Walford]] is in June 1985 and throughout the year she shows up occasionally to converse with Tony about issues concerning their children. Hannah constantly looks down on Tony's lifestyle and career, so their meetings are never pleasant.

When Hannah meets the smooth talking corporate lawyer, [[Neville Agard]] (Gordon Case), she invites him to move into her house. Eventually, Neville buys the house and they announce their intention to wed. However, when she discovers that Neville has a violent temper and has beaten her daughter with a riding [[whip]], she confronts him and after a row results in violence she leaves him and turns up on Tony's doorstep at number 3 [[Albert Square]] in April 1986. Tony is furious and goes to confront Neville, returning later covered in blood. Hannah is adamant that she will not return to Neville, so she and Cassie come to live with Tony and they decide to try to give their marriage another chance.

Their reconciliation is not a happy one and it is not long before Hannah had returns to her nagging ways. She is unhappy to be living in a house that is in the throes of renovation and she constantly harangues Tony to do better and try harder. She also manages to upset her children by trying to put a stop to her son's relationship with [[Carmel Roberts]] ([[Judith Jacob]]) and forcing Cassie to go to [[boarding school]].

In 1987 Hannah begins to become disillusioned with Walford after getting accosted by both [[Rezaul Kabir (EastEnders)|Rezaul Kabir]] ([[Tanveer Ghani]]) and [[Mehmet Osman]] ([[Haluk Bilginer]]). She is also stalked one night by a man known as the Walford attacker, who is guilty of assaulting several female inhabitants of the Square. Hannah is shaken but unharmed. She later relays to Tony that she fears that Mehmet is the culprit, because he had made a pass at her previously. Tony is furious, and he along with [[Den Watts]] ([[Leslie Grantham]]) and [[Pete Beale]] ([[Peter Dean (actor)|Peter Dean]]) go to track Mehmet down and teach him a lesson. After Hannah witnesses her husband attacking Mehmet, she takes the moral high-ground and denounces his barbaric actions (Despite previously being happy for Tony to resort to violence against Neville). Hannah then decides that their marriage is over and so she leaves Walford in February that year to go and live with her sister in another part of London. She is not seen again.

Dorothy "Dot" Cotton (later Branning), played by [[June Brown]], is the mother of original character [[Nick Cotton]] ([[John Altman (actor)|John Altman]]). In a special episode entitled "[[Dot's Story]]" (2003), a young Dot is played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. Dot first appears in "EastEnders" in July 1985, and has worked as a launderette assistant for most of that time along with original character [[Pauline Fowler]] ([[Wendy Richard]]). Dot moved away with her son and his family in 1993. In reality, June Brown left the show in 1993, unhappy with the direction of Dot's characterisation. Brown returned to the role in 1997, and Dot is shown moving back to Albert Square, and has continued since that time. However, in April 2012, Brown took a six-month break from the show to write her memoirs.

Ernie Mears, portrayed by Ken Wynne, wooed [[Ethel Skinner]] ([[Gretchen Franklin]]) during the [[Second World War]] but after she married his good friend [[William Skinner (EastEnders)|William Skinner]] (Ian Brimble), he disappeared from their lives. Many years later, Ernie confesses to Ethel that he fled because he feared that he would either go insane being around an unobtainable Ethel, or that they would do something to hurt William if their association had continued.

When [[Ian Beale]] ([[Adam Woodyatt]]) becomes interested in learning to [[boxing|box]] in July 1985, Ethel joins him on his first trip to the gym, as boxing is her favourite sport. Ian's boxing coach, a retired light heavyweight champion, turns out to be Ernie, who at first thinks Ethel was Ian's mother.

Upon learning that it is Ethel and that she is now [[widow]]ed, Ernie asks her on a date and a few weeks later asks her to marry him. However, the offer is conditional. Ernie is [[allergy|allergic]] to dogs and [[Willy (EastEnders)|Willy]] the [[pug]], Ethel's constant companion for the past 9 years, would have to go. Ethel seriously considers Ernie's offer but gently declines, after which Ernie departs broken hearted again. His last appearance is on 15 August 1985.

Martin Fowler, played by [[Jon Peyton Price]] from 1985 to 1996, [[James Alexandrou]] from 1996 to 2007 and [[James Bye (actor)|James Bye]] since 2014, is the younger son of [[Pauline Fowler]] ([[Wendy Richard]]) and [[Arthur Fowler]] ([[Bill Treacher]]), born in July 1985. His considerably older siblings are [[Mark Fowler]] ([[David Scarboro]] and [[Todd Carty]]) and [[Michelle Fowler]] ([[Susan Tully]] and [[Jenna Russell]]). Martin is the first baby to be born in the serial. His grandmother [[Lou Beale|Lou]] ([[Anna Wing]]) is extremely fond of him, and insists that he is named after her late husband [[Albert Beale|Albert]]. Pauline and Arthur are against this, and for several months the baby remains unnamed, although Lou continues to refer to him as Albert. The baby's name is finally revealed as Martin Albert Fowler at his christening in October 1985, which satisfies Lou. Martin grows up facing numerous family upsets, including his father's mental breakdown and imprisonment and his parents' temporary separation in 1993, which Martin takes badly. As Martin ages he becomes surly and increasingly troublesome.

Detective Sergeant Roy Quick, played by [[Douglas Fielding]], is a police detective who appears in 51 episodes from episode 53, first shown on 20 August 1985, to episode 146, originally broadcast on 10 July 1986.

He arrives in [[Albert Square]] to put his old adversary, [[Nick Cotton]] ([[John Altman (actor)|John Altman]]), in prison. He fails at this, but finds the woman he wants to marry, [[Debbie Wilkins]] ([[Shirley Cheriton]]), who is seeing [[Andy O'Brien (EastEnders)|Andy O'Brien]] ([[Ross Davidson]]) in an [[open relationship]]. Quick tries to woo Debbie, sending her bouquets of flowers. Andy becomes jealous of their friendship and tries to make them feel as uncomfortable as possible.

After a few months of platonic dating, Quick asks Debbie to marry him. Wanting to stay independent, Debbie turns the him down, but Quick continues to pester her, saying that if he was married, it would improve his career. Eventually, Debbie ends the relationship and reunites with Andy. Quick then investigates a burglary at [[Dr Legg]]'s surgery, for which he blames the victim for leaving a window open, and he angers the locals when he appears to be accusing innocent people, especially teenagers, of taking drugs. Debbie's rejection adds to Quick's dissatisfaction with the course his life has taken. He feels he is in a dead-end career with the police force and so he decides to leave to work for a security firm. Dr Legg then questions Quick's priorities, pointing out that the crime rate never went down since he arrived, so Quick accuses them of not helping the police, and his parting remarks to the citizenry in [[The Queen Victoria]] pub are, "You lot deserve each other, and you deserve what you've got, and what you've got is only the start!" His last appearance is in July 1986.

Simon Wicks, played by [[Nick Berry]], appears between 1985 and 1990. Wicksy was introduced to take on some of the more adult storylines that had been scripted for another character, [[Mark Fowler]]; Mark's actor [[David Scarboro]] had left the serial prematurely due to personal problems. Wicksy was the soap's first male, pin-up and proved extremely popular with female fans. An early storyline sees Wicksy perform a song in the serial, "[[Every Loser Wins]]", which was subsequently released as a single in 1986 and reached number one in the [[UK singles chart]]. One of Wicksy's most prominent storylines is his adultery with [[Cindy Beale]] ([[Michelle Collins]]), and a subsequent feud with Cindy's husband [[Ian Beale|Ian]] ([[Adam Woodyatt]]). Nick Berry quit the role in 1990, fearful of typecasting, and after five years on-screen, Wicksy departed in December that year.

Sheena Mennell, played by [[Dulice Liecier]], first appears on 15 October 1985 when her taxicab breaks down in Bridge Street and she wanders into the café and asks [[Sue Osman]] ([[Sandy Ratcliff]]) where she might find another one. Sue tells her that her husband, [[Ali Osman|Ali]] ([[Nejdet Salih]]), might be able to take her where she needs to go and so [[Mary Smith (EastEnders)|Mary Smith]] ([[Linda Davidson]]), who is in the café at the time, offers to show her the way to Number 23 [[Albert Square]] in search of Ali.

When Ali cannot be found, Mary invites Sheena to wait in her flat above and they quickly become friends. Sheena had once been in a similar situation to Mary when she found herself pregnant and alone, although she opted to abort the baby, which she had always regretted. Mary is impressed that Sheena earned £150 per week as a [[stripper]]. Weary of trying to live on the [[Department of Social Security|DSS]] payments she receives, Mary eagerly accepts Sheena's offer to help her find work as a stripper. Sheena also gives Mary dancing lessons.

Whilst out working, Mary leaves her daughter, [[Annie Smith (EastEnders)|Annie]], in Sheena's care, but she is caught by Sue 'entertaining' a man in Mary's room with Annie in close proximity. Sheena then leaves Annie alone while she goes for a drink in [[The Queen Vic]] with her guest. When Mary finds out about Sheena's behaviour she calls her a "sluttish bitch" and tells her that Annie could end up in care because of her irresponsible actions. This is the last time Sheena was seen.

Guizin Osman, played by [[Ishia Bennison]], is the long suffering wife of the philandering [[Turkish Cypriot]], [[Mehmet Osman]] ([[Haluk Bilginer]]). She first arrives in [[Albert Square]] in October 1985 when she comes to inform her sister-in-law, [[Sue Osman|Sue]] ([[Sandy Ratcliff]]), that her husband, [[Ali Osman|Ali]] ([[Nejdet Salih]]), had [[gambling|gambled]] away the [[Mortgage loan|mortgage]] money for the home they were planning to buy.

Guizin and her three children, [[Emine Osman|Emine]] (Pelin Ahmet), Rayif and Murat, later move in with her brother-in-law and his family in 1987, after her husband gambles away their home and deserts them. She works for Ali and Sue in the café for a few months until her husband returns and she becomes a partner in the business. As part owner of the café, she hires [[Ian Beale]] ([[Adam Woodyatt]]), who later becomes the sole owner.

Guizin and Mehmet's marriage is highly turbulent and they are always involved in intense arguments, mainly concerning money and gambling. Guizin is well aware of Mehmet's flaws and [[adultery]], but unlike Sue, she is willing to turn a blind eye to most of her husband's dealings to keep the marriage together because, in her community, that's what a wife is expected to do. Guizin may put up with a lot from Mehmet, but she is certainly no pushover, and is more than willing to defend herself and her family if anyone should cross her. She has numerous rows with Sue over the years and she nearly comes to blows with [[Donna Ludlow]] ([[Matilda Ziegler]]) after she informs her that Mehmet had been trying to seduce her on New Year's Eve 1987. Yet more animosity arises when she discovers that Mehmet has been sleeping with prostitute [[Mary Smith (EastEnders)|Mary Smith]] ([[Linda Davidson]]), but although Guizin gets extremely angry, she ends up forgiving Mehmet for the sake of the family. However, there is one affair that Guizin is not willing to forgive Mehmet for, and it happens to be the only one that he did not actually have. After Sue discovers that Ali had slept with Donna Ludlow, she kisses Mehmet in front of Ali for revenge, causing a huge fight between the brothers. Ali tells Guizin about Sue and Mehmet's suspected affair, making Guizin furious. She viciously attacks Mehmet in the middle of the Square and leaves for [[Northern Cyprus]], taking her children with her. Her last appearance is in March 1989. Mehmet leaves England soon after to attempt to patch up their relationship.

Bennison has "mixed memories" about her role in "EastEnders", commenting in 2003: "it was the start of the soap and the fame was very instant for everybody. You're in everybody's front room and everyone feels they own a bit of you. I'll never forget having to sign people's sickbags on the hovercraft to France. My daughter wouldn't walk down the street with me at the time. She would stay 10 paces behind. I still get recognised from "EastEnders". I can't believe it."

Cassie Carpenter, played by [[Delanie Forbes]], made her first appearance on 14 November 1985. She is the daughter of [[Hannah Carpenter]] ([[Sally Sagoe]]) and [[Tony Carpenter]] ([[Oscar James]]) and the younger sister of [[Kelvin Carpenter]] ([[Paul J. Medford]]). In an early episode, before Cassie appears, she is referred to as being 14 years old, but when Cassie is introduced, she is 11 years old.

Cassie's parents are separated and she initially resides with her mother and her mother's new boyfriend, a corporate lawyer named [[Neville Agard]] ([[Gordon Case]]). Cassie first appears in November 1985 when she comes to visit her father in [[Albert Square]]. Cassie loves her father and finds her parents' separation difficult, particularly as she does not get on with Neville.

In April 1986, Hannah and Cassie arrive on Tony's doorstep with the disturbing news that Neville has been beating Cassie with a riding whip. After Tony fights with Neville, both Hannah and Cassie then come to live in [[Walford]] with Tony and Kelvin, and Cassie is delighted when her parents have decided to give their marriage another chance.

Cassie is a mischievous youngster who, like her brother, is bright. In May 1986 she gets into trouble with her school for bullying another girl, and is in even more trouble with her parents for trying to hide it from them. Tony later catches her smoking [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]], which she has stolen from [[Owen Hughes (EastEnders)|Owen Hughes]] (Philip Brook), a friend of [[Mark Fowler]]'s ([[David Scarboro]]). Tony is furious and the Carpenters refuse to speak to any of the Fowler family because of it. After a subsequent meeting with Cassie's headmaster, Hannah decides that the only solution is to send Cassie away to boarding school. Cassie is against the idea but nevertheless, she is sent away in September that year. A few weeks later the Carpenters hear news that Cassie has run away from school and is nowhere to be found. She is discovered the following day, stealing food from [[Michelle Fowler]] ([[Susan Tully]]) and [[Lofty Holloway]]'s ([[Tom Watt (actor)|Tom Watt]]) kitchen in Albert Square, and returns to the school.

Cassie appears infrequently after this, and plays a Herald Angel in the Walford Nativity play on Christmas Eve 1986 and the following day when she, Kelvin and his friends play charades. This is her last appearance, but after her parents attempt at a reconciliation fails, Hannah leaves Walford and Cassie goes to live with her. Tony visits her occasionally, before leaving Walford too in 1987.

Winston is an extra character who is portrayed by [[Ulric Browne]], with his first on-screen appearance being in episode 81, originally shown on 26 November 1985. However, he is not credited for his role until later on in the series. His first line is "Bloody pedestrians", said to [[Den Watts]] ([[Leslie Grantham]]), who gets in Winston's way when he is riding a bicycle. Winston owns the music stall in [[Walford]]'s Bridge Street Market and over the years proves to be a great friend to his fellow long-standing stall-holder, [[Mark Fowler]] ([[Todd Carty]]). His highlights include shaving his tuft of hair off for charity and helping [[Ethel Skinner]] ([[Gretchen Franklin]]) arrive at her birthday party on the night she dies. He is angry when [[Ian Beale]]'s ([[Adam Woodyatt]]) car crashes into his stall in October 2006.

Winston is always willing to help when other market traders are called away, for example, to appear in a key development of a current plot, e.g. when [[Stacey Slater]] ([[Lacey Turner]]) needs someone to guard her clothing stall while she and [[Max Branning]] ([[Jake Wood]]) slip into an unguarded bedroom to continue the next episode in their illicit affair. Winston generally appears at events held by other Walford residents, such as weddings, funerals and parties or briefly in the background of a scene. He attends the funerals of [[Pauline Fowler]] ([[Wendy Richard]]), [[Pat Butcher|Pat Evans]] ([[Pam St. Clement]]) and [[Archie Mitchell]] ([[Larry Lamb (actor)|Larry Lamb]]), stag parties for [[Garry Hobbs]] ([[Ricky Groves]]), [[Lucas Johnson]] ([[Don Gilet]]) and [[Ricky Butcher]] ([[Sid Owen]]), [[Jean Slater]]'s ([[Gillian Wright]]) birthday party and Ricky and [[Bianca Jackson]]'s ([[Patsy Palmer]]) wedding. Sometimes characters steal DVDs or CDs from his stall, including [[Jay Brown]] ([[Jamie Borthwick]]).

In April 2008, Winston's niece [[List of EastEnders characters (2008)#Keisha|Keisha]] (Suzie McGrath) arrives in Walford, and leaves a month later with [[Gus Smith]] ([[Mohammed George]]). Winston wins a [[Children in Need]] raffle in [[The Queen Victoria]] in November 2008, and in July 2009, Stacey Slater offers him a flower but he refuses. He also appears with [[Shirley Carter]] ([[Linda Henry]]) getting drunk in Ian's chip shop in June 2009 and is seen drunk again in August 2009. He is seen with [[#Tracey|Tracey]] ([[Jane Slaughter (actress)|Jane Slaughter]]) in August 2009 talking about Max and [[Tanya Branning]] ([[Jo Joyner]]), and in November 2009 Ian invites him for drinks at The Queen Victoria but he refuses.

On 15 June 2010 Winston has a rare speaking role as he is seen engaging in a minor conversation with Max. On 2 November 2010 he has another minor speaking role asking for 3 drinks at the newly reopened Queen Vic. In April 2011, during the screening of the [[Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton|wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton]] in The Queen Victoria, Winston accidentally rips the cord from the television electrical plug, much to the dismay of the patrons. In January 2012, Winston is distracted by [[Kim Fox]] ([[Tameka Empson]]) in a bright outfit and accidentally knocks over a ladder, which nearly hits her. In May 2012, [[Lauren Branning]] ([[Jacqueline Jossa]]) buys a CD from Winston for her mother [[Tanya Jessop]] ([[Jo Joyner]]). He allows her to smell some of his [[absinthe]] but Lauren's grandmother [[Cora Cross]] ([[Ann Mitchell]]) misinterprets the exchange and believes that Lauren is buying alcohol from Winston. In July 2012, Winston is chosen as the defender in [[The Queen Victoria]]'s football team. In August 2013 he locks market inspector [[Tamwar Masood]] ([[Himesh Patel]]) in a portable toilet as a joke, but [[Kat Moon]] ([[Jessie Wallace]]) and Bianca are blamed. He has another speaking role in April 2014 when he asks [[Alfie Moon]] ([[Shane Richie]]) for a black armband, as a mark of respect for the recently deceased [[Lucy Beale]] ([[Hetti Bywater]]).

[[Category:Lists of EastEnders characters|1985]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1985|*, EastEnders]]
[[Category:1985 in British television|EastEnders]]