Trivia for
"EastEnders" (1985) More at IMDbPro »

• As of January 2007 only one original cast member remains in the series. Adam Woodyatt has played Ian Beale continuously since 1985. The second longest serving was Wendy Richard who played Pauline Fowler for nearly 22 years between 1985 and 2006.
  
  
• The fictional place Walford was derived from two real-life place: "Wal" as in Walthamstow and "Ford" as in Stratford
  
  
• The outdoor Albert Square set was built on the plot of land used for the building site in "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (1983).
  
  
• In 1993, the show's theme tune was updated to a Jazzy version, first heard on 11 May 1993. However, it proved very unpopular with the viewers and was replaced with a remix of the original theme tune only 11 months later, from 11 April 1994.
  
  
• Albert Square was reputedly based on the architecture in Fasset Square in Hackney, London E8 (just off Graham Road).
  
  
• Originally there was a storyline written that the whole Ferreira clan killed their pushy father Dan, but actor Dalip Tahil could not get a visa for working in the UK, so the storyline was scrapped and instead Ronny Ferreira got stabbed.
  
  
• In August 2006, the show went through a bad patch averaging only 3.9 million viewers per episode.
  
  
• Den, Angie and Sharon were originally going to be called Jack, Pearl and Tracy.
  
  
• In May 2007 a storyline involving the kidnapping of the newborn baby of Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon) was scrapped because of similarities to the much-publicised abduction of 4-year-old Madeleine McCann in the Algarve, Portugal on 3 May 2007.
  
  
• The character of Stacey Slater was created especially for Lacey Turner after she auditioned to play Demi Miller.
  
  
• Anita Dobson who played Angie Watts, did a recording of the Eastenders theme tune with lyrics called "Anyone Can Fall in Love". It reached #4 in the UK singles chart in 1986. The Lyrics was written by Don Black and it was produced by Queen guitarist Brian May. It was released by BBC Records. The B-side of the 7" single contained the original theme tune to the series.
  
  
• Leslie Grantham was only signed to do twelve episodes at the beginning of the series. According to Grantham himself, BBC executives Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell saw the first episode and were so impressed with his character that they recommended he should be brought to the forefront of the series.
  
  

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