Why is EastEnders so unrealistic?
Why is EastEnders so unrealistic?Because it is a serial drama (soap opera) not a documentary series. Most of the issues it deals with are real enough in London, but EastEnders, like any drama, compresses and exaggerates for the sake of time and entertainment. With four instalments a week, it would be pretty dull if most weeks all people saw was the mundane day-to-day life of the characters as they go to work/school, pay their bills, buy their shopping, watch the telly, and go to the Vic now and then for a quick pint.Saying that, there have been some pretty dire and ridiculous storylines in recent years.
Is there a TV Station in America where I can watch Eastenders?
here in australia we have a cable network that airs a channel called uktv unfortunatly when I search america, all I could find is a cable company offering their services so you can watch it.. go figure anyway here is the link http://www.watcheastenders.com/
How accurate are EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street in their depiction of working class life in England?
They are not accurate - as you say they are soap operas. Life based around a pub is no longer very realistic as pubs are permanently closing at about 30 a week. There are 30% less than 30 odd years ago - The perfect pub: is there one left in Britain?The corner shop or village stores have been in decline - places where locals could meet and chat. Death of the corner shop —— 1,000 country pubs and village shops to close in next year due to cheap housing crisisI think when the soaps started, especially Coronation Street (in 1960), they were more accurate in depicting “working class life” and, of course, pub life and local shops were often the centre of social life.Most of EastEnders is shot in studios (outside London) and the fictional Albert Square is in Manchester - not London. The real East End is a very different place.Has EastEnders ever represented the real East End?From Hackney to Whitechapel by way of Bethnal Green and Spitalfields, among the pound shops and kebab takeaways, gastropubs, coffee bars packed with laptop users, and organic eateries are replacing smoke-filled pubs and greasy spoons. Art cinemas are taking over from fleapits and bingo halls, while new hipster clothes shops and hair salons seem to open weekly and former warehouses morph into studios or impressive work/live spaces.The East End’s proximity to the financial centres of the City of London and the gleaming glass and steel towers of Canary Wharf, both epitomising London’s wealth, bankers and bonuses, is a draw, despite this money machine lying hugger mugger to one of the poorest areas in the capital. It is both surprising and somewhat unlikely, in fact, that none of the Albert Square residents seems to be on benefit.Even one of it’s most famous characters “Dot Cotton” was born over a 100 miles away.I could go on about Coronation Street, but you get the idea!By the way, for the record, I dislike both of them. But plenty of Brits disagree and continue to watch the fantasies.
I would like to watch EastEnders from the beginning, where can I get the shows?
I don't know if you could get hold of all the episodes, many of them may have been lost through the years. I would like to mention, however, that if you could obtain every episode, you might be in for quite a session to watch them all.So far, there have been 5,781 episodes shown, and four more are shown every week. That amounts to 2,890.5hrs of TV, or about 120.4375 days of continuous viewing.Watching 8 hours a day without a single day off, you would reach the end of just those shows in 361.3125 days - nearly a year.Of course, in that time, a further 206 or 207 episodes will be released, which is another 13 days on top, so there's another 4 hours to watch.So, you can probably get completely up to date in 374 days or so. From there, I doubt you will want to watch any more.
Do the English soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street have a following in the US?
Yes. But in a more round about way. There’s no way to watch UK soaps in the US officially. So people in the US have to watch them through more indirect means. Normally this means watching them through edited clips on youtube or Dailymotion. The easiest way these things have spread is that someone in the UK edits the episode down to a particular character or relationship and then uploads them to some streaming site. Or spreading them through google drives or torrent sites. But you can find US fans of just about all of UK’s soaps.They might not have a particularly comprehensive knowledge of the series, but they do have just as intensely passionate fans.This is a Soap Opera Weekly article about Verboten Liebe, a German soap opera that was never shown outside of Germany. And yet developed a rabid fan base worldwide.
Do you prefer Coronation Street or Emmerdale?
This would be a tough one if I still watched them but I stopped watching the soaps a long time ago. I will however still try to answer it for you. I grew up in Manchester ans all of my family are still there so it will always be close to my heart. On saying that, I am now living in Yorkshire, where emmerdale is filmed and based so I can relate to the country feel.The dramas are just that and meant for viewer popularity and I would say that reality of it probably goes on more in Manchester than it does in emmerdale lol. So I would say if I had to make a choice it would be Corrie all the way.
Are there any soaps that run every week in countries other than the UK (e.g. Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders, etc.)?
Yes, there are.You have the Australian soap Neighbours, which is also very popular in the UK.Neighbours You also have the American soap opera Dallas. American soap operas are a bit odd though, they portray everyone as too beautiful/perfect. This misses the point of a soap opera. Good soap operas are about somewhat realistic people. Silly Americans!Dallas (1978 TV series) However, I would just stick with teh British ones. We make the best soap operas. When I was younger (probably 10-14 or so) I used to watch a hell of a lot of Coronation Street, particularly during the Richard Hillman storyline.Richard Hillman This remains the best soap storyline ever, with the possible exception of Hayley Cropper's arc, which is an unbelievably tasteful way of addressing the UK's changing perceptions of transgender people, and incredibly weighty ideas like death and love.Hayley Cropper On top of this, I genuinely cannot watch the death of Jack Duckworth without crying! It starts properly approx 3:30 in.British TV at its finest. Roy Cropper is one of the finest characters of all time.What a guy. Not some airbrushed Neighbours or Dallas bimbo or perfect hunk. A strange looking, eccentric, but fundamentally decent man.I don't watch Soaps any more. Finally, Corrie > Eastenders. If you think otherwise you need your head examining.
Why on earth is a site like "Best Gore" legal?
I completely agree with you on this. I simply cannot fathom why the video of the Magnotta murder is still online, and what's worse, how easily accessible it is.To my shock and horror I stumbled across a link to the video that is online and in full view to anyone who wishes to view it. While the original video of the murder was taken down, it has been re-uploaded to another site, and remains there. Sickeningly as of yesterday it had almost 500,000 views, and its been up for about a week and a half. Sadly, sites like these are legal. The way I see it, where the problem comes in with making these sites illegal has to do with where to draw the line. There is so much coverage of things like war, that are just as graphic, and are accepted as journalism. There is a very common argument behind these websites that insist that these sites are actually helpful in that they raise awareness in letting people know what is out there and making them more cautious and aware of the horrific capabilities of human kind. I personally think this argument is weak, and is simply an excuse for sick perversions. All these websites do is create a sense of community, and send the message that its okay to be entertained by content like this. A quick scroll through a gore website makes this clear. The issue is, that while there are laws that deal with obscenity in online content, the poster is allowed freedom of speech. Another issue is that lots of the content is fake, so it's hard to know where to draw the line. If there is a fake video of a man being killed on this website, how is that different from say, a horror movie. It's difficult to ban websites like these without likening them to gorey films, and thus banning horror films as well. The problem I see here is that this particular video is 100% without a doubt real, and it is still available to view. The opposing argument is that it is the community of the website that alerted the authorities. Apparently this proves frequenters of the site are not sickos. I don't buy it. Spreading a video like this is not necessary in raising awareness. Not at all. A few screen shots would do just as good. I myself think it is completely wrong. Child pornography is illegal, so why shouldn't videos of murders be illegal?
Did Margaret Thatcher motivate or inspire the BBC to create the London-based soap opera EastEnders?
Unlikely. Creating a soap to rival ITV’s Coronation Street had been an idea for a long time before 1985.In 1981 Doctor Who was moved from it’s traditional Saturday evening timeslot to a twice weekly showing throughout the week.Throughout the period of 1981–1984 the show was repeatedly moved around the schedules.John Nathan-Turner, the Producer of Doctor Who from 1980 to 1989, always said that he suspected that the BBC were using the show to test out time slots for a twice weekly drama, which became Eastenders.If John Nathan-Turner was right it means Eastenders, or at least the idea to create a soap goes back to at least 1981, when Margaret Thatcher has not been in power long and had not yet set her sights on BBC reform.In any case, the BBC of the 1980s did everything it could to resist government interference in programming.