EastEnders is a popular British soap opera that has aired on BBC One since 19 February 1985. Several spin-off shows have been made, some of which are episodes that look at the history of some of the characters by flashbacks. Others have been a lead-up for a character's eventual return to the show, and some have followed characters who had departed from the show in an overseas setting. Like off-set episodes, these spin-offs are set outside the usual location of Albert Square. Documentaries have also aired, particularly for the 10th, 15th, and 20th anniversaries of the show looking back at the history of the show's inception, its characters, and storylines.

Contents 1 Spin-off episodes 1.1 Civvy Street 1.2 The Return of Nick Cotton 1.3 Ricky & Bianca 1.4 Dot's Story 1.5 Perfectly Frank 1.6 Pat and Mo 2 Documentary shows 2.1 EastEnders Revealed 2.1.1 List of titled episodes 2.2 EastEnders Xtra 2.3 Other documentaries 3 Charity specials 3.1 Dimensions in Time 3.2 Pudding Lane 3.3 Other specials 4 Christmas specials 5 A Question of EastEnders 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Spin-off episodes

[edit] Civvy Street

This episode first aired on 22 December 1988 and was set during the second World War in the period between 1939 to 1945. The episode was written and directed by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. It looked back at the early life of the residents of Albert Square and featured a young Lou Beale, Ethel Skinner and Reg Cox, who was a minor character found dead in the first ever episode of EastEnders in 1985. Holland was most upset to discover that Dot Cotton had been too young during the war to be featured as a useful character and also complained that the major events of the war occurred in the wrong order for effective drama.^[1] Lou and Albert Beale were celebrating their marriage in Walford, and planning their happy life together when war was declared. Albert was conscripted into the army, leaving Lou and her three children, Kenny, Harry and Ronnie, behind. Lou's family rallied around including her mother, sister Flo and she also had a gang of friends including young Ethel, dodgy Reg and pub landlords Ray and Lil to keep her company. Lou worried that Albert would not return from war intact, and the episode saw her propositioned by another man in his absence, but she managed to stay faithful and she and Albert were reunited. Ethel's parents were killed by an enemy bomb while she was sheltering with Lou in Walford East tube station. Ethel was also torn between the amorous advances of a GI and her admirer William Skinner.

[edit] The Return of Nick Cotton

This episode first aired on 1 October 2000 and was a lead-up to the return of Nick Cotton as a regular character later that year. It was written by Matthew Graham and directed by Chris Bernard. The episode followed Nick as he has just been released from prison. Fast forward to 10 weeks later and he was living in a squat in North London. He then had a dream where his dead father, Charlie, appeared and warned him that something terrible is about to happen to him. He was told by a black gay couple living in the squat with him that seeing your own dead relatives in your dreams was a bad sign but Nick was not worried. He then decided to meet up with his son Ashley and ex-wife Zoe and went to Zoe's brother Eddie asking about where Zoe lives. He also had some mean-looking thugs, one named Colin on his trail who had a score to settle with him. He met up with Ashley who revealed he and Zoe were living with Zoe's new boyfriend. The thugs discovered Nick's whereabouts and showed up at Zoe's house trying to break in. To escape them Ashley and Nick got into a stolen convertible car and drove off. Zoe pleaded with Ashley not to go with Nick knowing he would be a bad influence but Ashley did not listen. Then just before the end of the episode Nick and Ashley were discussing where to go from here and Nick predictably said "Let's go visit Ma." So they decided to travel around for a bit before their eventual return to Walford.

[edit] Ricky & Bianca

This two-part episode aired on May 13 and May 20, 2002 and was a lead-up to Ricky Butcher's return later that year as a regular character. It was written by Simon Ashdown. The episode saw Ricky reunite with his ex-wife Bianca Jackson and son Liam in Manchester. Bianca had been in Manchester doing an arts degree for the past two and a half years and was struggling to look after Liam.

Ricky discovered she had been working in a nightclub and had stolen money from the manager Vince. Ricky ended up getting caught in the middle of all of this along with his new girlfriend Cassie After he got Bianca out of trouble, they had a one-night stand. Then Ricky told Cassie he didn't really love her and was still in love with Bianca. Cassie managed to manipulate Bianca in thinking her and Ricky would never be happy together. She then made the difficult decision of leaving Liam with Ricky as she felt he would care for him better than she would and then left in a taxi.

[edit] Dot's Story

This episode first aired on 2 January 2003 and followed Dot Branning to Wales to visit the family she stayed with during World War II. Through a series of flashbacks, we see Dot being evacuated, and her experiences of evacuation.

[edit] Perfectly Frank

This episode aired on 13 September 2003 and followed Frank Butcher as he set up a seedy nightclub and a car valeting service in Somerset after returning from Spain where he was last seen in 2002. When Frank is sent a car to valet by the local gangster named Reg Priest, his assistant finds a dead body in the boot. Frank and his club staff try to find a way to avoid the police asking questions and fall foul of Reg so they throw the body into the water over the side of the pier. The episode was written by Tony Jordan.

[edit] Pat and Mo

This episode first aired on 1 April 2004 and revealed what caused the feud between Pat Evans and Mo Harris that still lasts to this day. Pat and Mo meet at the grave of Pat's brother and Mo's husband, Jimmy, and reminisce about old times through a series of flashbacks. Mo's brother, Stan Porter also appeared in the episode.

[edit] Documentary shows

[edit] EastEnders Revealed

EastEnders Revealed
Part of the title sequence used for EastEnders Revealed.
Format	Documentary
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	30 minutes/60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC Choice BBC Three BBC One
Original run	20 December 1998 – present

EastEnders Revealed is a factual entertainment programme that looks back at the storylines, characters and stars of EastEnders. It first aired in 1998 as part of the new BBC digital channel (BBC Choice) line-up. EastEnders Revealed was the only BBC Choice programme to last the entire life of the channel. It has been presented by Gail Porter, Harriet Saxton, Jayne Middlemiss, Edith Bowman, Colin Murray, Melanie Sykes and Tracy-Ann Oberman.

The episodes are 30 or 60 minutes in length and, on occasions, have been broadcast on the BBC's flagship channel, BBC One. This is usually after a major storyline has been taking place in EastEnders, for example when Leslie Grantham (Den Watts) returned to the show in 2003 and when Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) left.

[edit] List of titled episodes

Episode title	Subject(s) of episode	Original airdate
"Grant Mitchell Revealed"	Grant Mitchell	25 October 1999
"Ricky Butcher Revealed"	Ricky Butcher	20 April 2000
"Frank Butcher Revealed"	Frank Butcher	2 November 2000
"Sharon Watts Revealed"	Sharon Watts	19 July 2001
"Dot to Dot"	Dot Branning	20 August 2001
"Slaters Revealed"	The Slater family	10 October 2001
"Truemans Revealed"	The Trueman family	12 November 2001
"Mel Revealed"	Melanie Owen	3 December 2001
"The Jacksons Revealed"	The Jackson family	14 January 2002
"Being Peggy Mitchell"	Peggy Mitchell	11 February 2002
"Trouble Man: A Steve Owen Special"	Steve Owen	1 March 2002
"The Fowlers"	The Fowler family	1 April 2002
"Mel Leaving Special"	Mel Owen	12 April 2002
"Angie And Me"	Angie Watts	22 April 2002
"Through Kat's Eyes"	Kat Moon	9 September 2002
"Jamie Mitchell"	Jamie Mitchell	10 October 2002
"And Sparks Will Fly"	Trevor Morgan	4 November 2002
"Mark Fowler"	Mark Fowler	13 February 2003
"Laura Beale Unwrapped"	laura Beale	18 February 2003
"Being Barry Evans"	Barry Evans	17 March 2003
"The Coming of Age of Sonia Jackson"	Sonia Fowler	6 May 2003
"Walford's Brat Pack"	Vicki, Gus, Spencer, Kelly, Zoe, Martin	20 June 2003
"The Dr. Trueman Show"	Anthony Trueman	11 July 2003
"Dirty Den Returns"	Den Watts	26 September 2003
"The Life and Crimes of Martin Fowler"	Martin Fowler	14 October 2003
"In Bed with Garry Hobbs"	Garry Hobbs	18 November 2003
"A Year In The Life Of Sam Mitchell"	Sam Mitchell	17 December 2003
"Lean, Mean, Deadly Janine"	Janine Evans	1 January 2004
"Alfie's Story"	Alfie Moon	2 January 2004
"Blood Feud: The Watts vs. The Mitchells"	The Watts and Mitchell families	12 February 2004
"The Real Billy Mitchell"	Billy Mitchell	20 February 2004
"The Rise and Fall of Janine Butcher"	Janine Evans	26 February 2004
"Natalie Evans"	Natalie Evans	22 March 2004
"Squaring up to the Ferreiras"	The Ferreira family	26 March 2004
"The Growing Pains of Spencer Moon"	Spencer Moon	4 May 2004
"Sonia and Martin - Love Conquers All"	Martin and Sonia Fowler	11 June 2004
"Kelly Taylor - Working Girl"	Kelly Taylor	1 July 2004
"The Real Paul Trueman"	Paul Trueman	23 July 2004
"Sam Mitchell - Happy Ever After?"	Sam Mitchell	16 September 2004
"The One and Only Dot Cotton"	Dot Branning	30 September 2004
"Andy Hunter - Hunter's Prey"	Andy Hunter	9 December 2004
"Little Mo's Big Story"	Little Mo Mitchell	26 December 2004
"Ian Beale - The Real Deal?"	Ian Beale	3 February 2005
"The New Moons"	Alfie, Spencer and Nana Moon	17 February 2005
"The Growing Pains of Zoe Slater"	Zoe Slater	17 March 2005
"The Curse of the Queen Vic"	The Queen Victoria	31 March 2005
"The Make-up of Kat Moon"	Kat Moon	27 May 2005
"Meet the Millers"	The Miller family	31 May 2005
"Growing up in Walford"	Walford's youths	14 June 2005
"Jim & Dot - When Opposites Attract"	Jim and Dot Branning	16 August 2005
"Chrissie Watts: Victim or Villain?"	Chrissie Watts	22 September 2005
"The Duchess Returns"	Peggy Mitchell	4 October 2005
"Goodbye, Pauline"	Pauline Fowler	1 January 2007
"The Secret Mitchell"	Danielle Jones	3 April 2009
"The Sins of Archie Mitchell"[2]	Archie Mitchell	26 December 2009

[edit] EastEnders Xtra

EastEnders Xtra
Part of the title sequence used for EastEnders Xtra.
Format	Interactive entertainment series
Starring	Angellica Bell
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	10
Production
Running time	15-20 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	BBCi
Original run	February – May 2005

EastEnders Xtra was an interactive entertainment series based on EastEnders. It was first available to viewers in February 2005, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of EastEnders. Television viewers could watch the show by pressing the red button on their television remote, at 8.30pm on Monday nights. The programme was presented by CBBC presenter Angellica Bell and was approximately 15 to 20 minutes in length. It was primarily aimed at younger fans of EastEnders. It featured games and interviews with cast members, looked behind the scenes and allowed viewers to take part in quizzes on their mobile phones. The series was produced by Simon Hall. The theme and music used within the show was a rocked up version of the EastEnders theme tune.

The series ran for ten weeks, featuring ten episodes in total:

• In the first episode, Tracy-Ann Oberman who played Chrissie Watts in EastEnders co-presented the show. Oberman explained to the viewers that The Queen Victoria pub uses exterior and interior sets for filming. Perry Fenwick who plays Billy Mitchell took part in "Extractor", a part of EastEnders Xtra which asks cast members a series of questions.
• In the second episode, Nabil Elouahabi who played Tariq Larousi co-presented the show.
• In the third episode, Pooja Shah who played Kareena Ferreira co-presented the show.
• In the fourth episode, Jemma Walker who played Sasha Perkins co-presented the show.
• In the fifth episode, Natalie Cassidy who played Sonia Fowler co-presented the show.
• In the sixth episode, Ameet Chana who played Adi Ferreira co-presented the show.
• In the seventh episode, Cliff Parisi who plays Rick 'Minty' Peterson co-presented the show.
• In the eighth episode, Joe Swash who played Mickey Miller co-presented the show.
• In the ninth episode, Mohammed George who played Gus Smith co-presented the show.

[edit] Other documentaries

EastEnders Family Album was a special documentary which first aired on 13 February 2000 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of EastEnders. Narrated by Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler), the documentary looked back at some of the most memorable storylines and characters in the show and featured interviews with past and present cast members.

EastEnders: The Whole Truth was a series of five documentary episodes, three pre-recorded and two live, broadcast every day from 2 April-6 April 2001, presented by Gaby Roslin. The first three, pre-recorded episodes were broadcast at 12:00pm, whereas the two live episodes were broadcast before the main EastEnders shows on those days. EastEnders: The Whole Truth examined the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline, including interviews with several cast members. Episode 5 was broadcast before the assailant, Lisa Fowler, was revealed to the public, and episode 6 gauged the reaction the following evening.

A-Z of EastEnders was a documentary broadcast on the twentieth anniversary of EastEnders in 2005 and presented by Jonathan Ross.

Since 1 December 2006, a new breed of behind-the-scenes programmes have been broadcast on BBC Three. These are all documentaries related to current storylines in EastEnders, in a similar format to EastEnders Revealed, though not using the EastEnders Revealed name. The include clips from the series and interviews with the show's cast and crew as well as TV critics such as Sharon Marshall. Documentaries have included:

• EastEnders Unveiled: A Weddings Special, 1 December 2006, giving an insight into how the show's weddings are produced, and took a look at the past weddings of Walford. It was broadcast straight after the wedding of Ian Beale and Jane Collins.^[3]
• EastEnders Sweethearts: The Story of Martin and Sonia, on 2 February 2007, following the departure of Martin and Sonia Fowler.^[4]
• EastEnders Scandals: The Wicks Family, 9 March 2007, coinciding with Kevin Wicks's return to Walford.^[5]
• EastEnders Feuds: The Beales vs. The Mitchells, 18 May 2007, examining the feud between Ian Beale and Phil Mitchell and going behind the scenes of episodes broadcast on 17-21 May.^[6]
• EastEnders Vixens: The Rise and Fall of Stella, 20 July 2007, following the death of Stella Crawford and looking at the various female characters in EastEnders past and present.^[7]
• EastEnders Affairs: Max and Stacey, 1 November 2007, looking at the relationship between characters Stacey Slater, her fiancé Bradley Branning and his father Max Branning.^[8]
• EastEnders Christmas Fall Outs, 26 December 2007, looking back at Christmas episodes and going behind the scenes of 2007's Christmas episodes.^[9]
• EastEnders Ricky and Bianca, 4 April 2008, constructed in aid of the return to EastEnders by Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) and Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), looking back on the relationship of the two characters.^[10]
• EastEnders: Whodunnits, 31 October 2008, showing infamous whodunnit storylines such as the murder of Reg Cox.
• EastEnders: Comebacks, 31 December 2008, celebrating the return of Nick Cotton.
• EastEnders: The Return of Sam Mitchell, 11 September 2009, in conjunction with the return of character Sam Mitchell, played by Danniella Westbrook.^[11]
• EastEnders: The Two Faces of Lucas, 26 November 2009, looks at the character of Lucas Johnson, played by Don Gilet, as well as other characters who have had a "turning point" in their storyline.^[12]

[edit] Charity specials

[edit] Dimensions in Time

Dimensions in Time was a charity special crossover between EastEnders and the science fiction television series Doctor Who that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on the EastEnders set, and featured several of the stars of the programme at the time. It was made in aid of the charity Children in Need.

[edit] Pudding Lane

Another Children in Need special, Pudding Lane was broadcast in a series of five minute instalments throughout November 26, 1999 telethon. It relocated the then current EastEnders characters to Pudding Lane in 1666, during the events leading to the Great Fire of London.

[edit] Other specials

In 2005, the characters Peggy Mitchell, Stacey Slater and Mo Slater appeared alongside Catherine Tate's character Lauren Cooper for a Comic Relief sketch. Various EastEnders cast members have also appeared in sketches for Children in Need, performing songs with various themes. In 2007, the sang songs from The Beatles' Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and in 2009 they performed renditions of classic songs produced by Motown Records.

[edit] Christmas specials

On Christmas Eve 2003 and Christmas Eve 2004, two musical themed special episodes titled EastEnders Christmas Party aired which had the cast and crew of EastEnders singing, dancing and performing short comedy sketches. Many former cast members also returned for the special episodes.

[edit] A Question of EastEnders

A Question of EastEnders was a one-off special episode of the quiz show A Question of Sport focusing on EastEnders. It was broadcast on BBC One on 15 February 2000 to mark EastEnders' 15th anniversary on 19 February 2000.

The special was hosted by A Question of Sport presenter Gaby Roslin, and had two teams, each led by a team captain; Wendy Richard (who played Pauline Fowler) and Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale). On Richard's team were Blue Peter presenter Katy Hill and stand-up comedian Harry Hill. Woodyatt's team consisted of Michelle Collins, who previously played Cindy Beale in EastEnders, and Jeremy Spake, who became famous for appearing in the television docusoap Airport. There were eight rounds and Woodyatt's team won with 36 points to Richard's 16.

[edit] See also

• List of EastEnders spin-off characters
• EastEnders: E20

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• EastEnders: Civvy Street at the Internet Movie Database
• EastEnders: The Return of Nick Cotton at the Internet Movie Database
• EastEnders: Ricky and Bianca at the Internet Movie Database
• EastEnders: Perfectly Frank at the Internet Movie Database
• EastEnders: Dot's Story at the Internet Movie Database
• Pat and Mo: Ashes to Ashes at the Internet Movie Database
• A Question of EastEnders at the Internet Movie Database
• EastEnders Family Album details

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