EastEnders (TV Series) Episode #1.1 (1985) User Reviews

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 11 August 2018]

The opening episode starts off with a murder, but Reg Cox has not croaked yet. However the events of finding his body is a way of bringing the characters together and interact with each other.

Lou Beale and Ethel reminiscence about the good old days when people looked out for each other. Lou laments that it is the Asians who noticed that Reg was missing for a few days.

Pauline has found out she is pregnant at her age, she is afraid to tell her mother, Lou, especially as husband Arthur is still unemployed.

Albert Square looks grimy and dirty, the set was newly built to be that way.

Eastenders went on to become an institution but this where it all started. It had a rawness and grittiness that contrasted with the then cosiness of Coronation Street.

The episode ends with a punch up between Ali and Nick Cotton as Ali has had enough of Nick's casual racism. Den has blood on his best shirt as he planned to have an anniversary dinner with his wife Angie.

For the show's 30 year anniversary episode, it started in a similar way as this with the corpse of Nick Cotton slumped on a chair, the man who was accused of Reg Cox's killing.

When Eastenders was OK

[Metal_Robots · 7/10 · 22 May 2018]

I remember when this was aired, it took my family a little while but towards the end of the '80s we and everybody else were watching Eastenders. I don't remember people thinking it was particularly good or realistic but back in those dim & distant days we just watched what was on, we didn't have Netflix and 1000s of films at our fingertips. It did at least tackle a few subjects that were still quite taboo at the time like homosexuality, drug abuse and AIDS. Then some time in the '90s the BBC decided to start a new bright and exotic show called Eldorado, with the intention of it taking over as the flagship BBC soap. That failed and Eastenders is still going, but it's awful now and should have ended years ago.

Who did it?

[Rabical-91 · 10/10 · 29 August 2018]

Try to picture the scene - in the street of Walford known as Albert Square, a front door to a squalid looking flat is kicked down by three men - publican of the Queen Victoria ( or The Vic as it would soon become known as ) public house Den Watts ( the late Leslie Grantham ), local cafe owner Ali Osman ( Nejdet Salih ) and unemployed Arthur Fowler ( Bill Treacher ). Inside the flat slumped in an armchair is the barely alive body of Reg Cox, an elderly resident who has been missing for days. Den alerts local G.P Dr. Harold Legg ( excellently played by Leonard Fenton ) who is consulting Pauline Fowler ( the late Wendy Richard ), the overbearing wife of Arthur.

Many of the other residents - Pauline's sour faced mother Lou Beale ( Anna Wing ) and her nosy friend Ethel Skinner ( Gretchen Franklin ), Den's downtrodden wife Angie Watts ( the gorgeous Anita Dobson ), Pauline's brother and local fruit and veg stall holder Pete ( Peter Dean ) and his lovely wife Kathy ( the stunningly beautiful Gillian Taylforth ) and Ali's highly strung wife Sue ( the gorgeous Sandy Ratcliff ) - watch helplessly as an unconscious Reg is carted into the back of an ambulance.

Sue pours scorn on the residents who express their sympathy for Reg as they couldn't have cared less about him before. In amongst all this, a local troublemaker by the name of Nick Cotton ( John Altman ) causes difficulty for many in the Square, particularly Ali, who he regularly refers to as ' the stupid Turk'. It also transpires that Pauline is expecting a baby. Arthur is delighted but Lou is livid, not least because of the lack of space ( Pauline and Arthur live in Lou's house with their two teenage children Mark and Michelle, played by David Scarboro and Susan Tully ) but also Arthur's lack of regular income. Things later come to a head in the pub when a huge punch up starts between Ali and Nick, culminating in Nick smashing his fist through the door of the pub.

This brilliant opener lets the viewer know exactly what to expect each week. The cast fire on all cylinders, particularly Bill Treacher as Arthur. Also establishing themselves are Adam Woodyatt as Pete and Kathy's son Ian ( the only character to remain in the show from start to present ) and the stunningly gorgeous Letitia Dean as Den ( who would later become known as 'Dirty Den' ) and Angie's daughter Sharon. The great thing about this episode is that, unlike today's episodes, the plot takes its time in unfolding. Over the course of the couple of weeks to follow, the cause of Reg's condition is unveiled.

This opener was recently aired on UK Gold as a tribute to Leslie Grantham, who passed away a short while back from cancer at the age of 71. It had lost none of its appeal.

The groundwork had been laid for the BBC's most successful soap opera.