EastEnders at 40: are soaps still relevant?

It's a question worthy of its famous doof-doofs of its theme tune: after 40 years of "disastrous weddings, pub brawls, love-rat scandals, serial killer neighbours and the absolute impossibility of ever having a quiet Christmas" – according to Sky News – does "EastEnders" still have a role to play in today's TV world?

The BBC's long-running soap first hit our screens in February 1985, when "Dynasty" and "Dallas" ruled the airwaves with their "peddled televised fantasies" of incredible wealth, outrageous behaviour and "shoulder pads you could land a helicopter on", said Fiona Sturges in The Independent. In contrast, "EastEnders"' opening scenes featured three men kicking down the door of a house to find a dead body.

But four decades on, "Dynasty" and "Dallas" are no more while "EastEnders" has become as much a fixture in the TV schedule as the news. True, it no longer pulls in the tens of millions that saw Dirty Den present his wife Angie with divorce papers in 1986, Sturges added, but there'll always be room for the "comfort in the knowledge" it brings that no matter how much of a mess your life is, someone on Albert Square has it worse.

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Life as it really is?

Its stars, however, say "EastEnders" has been more than simply "plot twists, emotions and gripping 'doof doof' cliffhangers", said the BBC. Ross Kemp, who played Albert Square hardman Grant Mitchell, told the corporation the soap had done more to raise awareness of social issues than "probably any documentary".

Indeed, the 1990s storyline around Mark Fowler learning to live with HIV was "public service broadcasting at its best", wrote Adrian Lobb in Big Issue, praising the "high-quality drama" of "EastEnders" and all British soaps. They have proved valuable training grounds for working-class people to enter the industry, with the likes of Idris Elba, Sally Wainwright, Suranne Jones and Sarah Lancashire all cutting their creative teeth on different soaps.

Their appeal is showing "everyday life in all its extraordinary, ordinary glory", fulfilling "Coronation Street" creator Tony Warren's desire to reflect the real lives and voices of the working-class people he grew up with.

Yet it is because soaps are based on working-class lives that they're in trouble, said Darran Anderson on UnHerd. Because working-class life isn't taken seriously, no one takes our soaps seriously and this has led to them losing touch with reality and viewers. "EastEnders" is a "depiction of how the BBC nostalgically imagines the East End to be", with crime shown "as if the Krays are still walking the streets". In reality, markets and pubs have closed and communities are battling the cost-of-living crisis, drugs and failing public services.

Changing with the times

Viewing figures are as bleak as storylines, with 2.47 million tuning in to watch Christmas Day's "Corrie" and 3.98 million settling down to "EastEnders". In contrast, the opening episode of "The Traitors" drew in more than five million viewers, with the show going on to have viewers "gripped" by a drama "ripped straight from the Deirdre Barlow playbook", said Nick Hilton in The Independent.

It is not only reality TV eating into the soaps' audiences, he added: streaming networks and on-demand services mean families no longer gather around the telly together. Older viewers might tune in, but their grandchildren will be watching their "thousandth TikTok of the day".

Soap fans can rest assured the bubble hasn't yet burst for their favourite shows, according to soap reporter Calli Kitson in Metro. As they have done in the past, Britain's soaps will adapt to new challenges – "Hollyoaks" has already shown a revival in viewing figures after going online and moving from five episodes a week to three. "Neighbours" is also doing well now it is being streamed.

Our soaps are "shows that have had no choice but to change with the times". They have already changed to survive, so "of course" they can do it again.