From what I understand, this show is HUGE in England - am I wrong? I just started watching it last year on BBC America and I must admit - I am absolutely hooked. I’ve always had a soft spot for soaps, but I’m tired of US soaps - and I tune in every Saturday afternoon to get my fill of Walford (although even 2 1/2 hours isn’t enough). I do have a few historical questions for people who are more familiar with it, though, if anyone’s game.
First of all, how is Dot related to Sharon and Vicki? I didn’t realize Dot was their aunt.
How are Janine and Ricky brother and sister? Do they have the same father? And how is Pat related to them? (And yes, we just got Roy’s death over here - I just bawled my head off).
I know that Sonia and Robbie have the same mother as Bianca - but when did she leave? And when did Jim come along? Is he their mother’s father? And WHO is Sonia’s father?
And we have yet to get the whole Lisa/Phil in Portugal debacle - we should have it in a couple of weeks. Will it be worth the wait? I’ve been dying to find out what happened for months. (Although, it’s funny - my roommate never watched the show with me when I lived with him in NYC - although he’d catch bits and pieces of it with me - and we were on the phone last week and he said “So, whatever happened with that woman? You know, the bald guy who she was running from? Did they find out if she was dead or not?”. So I think he was paying attention more than he cared to admit:).
Okay, those are my questions for now. I don’t think I’ve been this hooked on a show in a long time - although I do have to rewind every so often because I can’t understand what they’ve said!
I hate the show utterly, yet somehow got hooked on it thanks to 'er indoors never missing an episode these past 5 years. I can’t answer all your questions, but :
Janine & Ricky have the same father, Frank Butcher, ably played until he left a year or two ago by comedian Mike Read. Pat was married to Frank for many years.
Sonia and Robbie do have the same mother as Bianca, who left in the late 1990s if I remember right. Jim is the mother’s father, yes. Sonia’s father… no idea. The mother (forgotten her name) put it about a bit, as I recall.
Lisa/Phil in Portugal debacle - worth the wait? Well of course not! It never is. But you’ll watch it on tenterhooks anyway, the same as we all did. Honestly, the show’s like a drug…
>… I do have to rewind every so
> often because I can’t understand
> what they’ve said!
That awful “Estuary English” they all speak is without doubt the most revolting accent of all the English-speaking peoples in all the world. I’d sooner listen to a yodelling South African.
Funny, that’s exactly what a friend of mine in England says every day before she emails me to say what I have to look forward to next month:D .
And thanks for the answers. We’re getting ones that are about 4 years old on PBS on Saturday nights, so I watch those as well as the current ones - right now, Bianca, Sonia’s, and Robbie’s mother is on, but there’s no Jim so I wondered where he came from. And you’re right…she does seem to put out a lot. Love Bianca, though…I wish she’d come back.
The accent is fun - I’m teaching myself to speak it. I’ve worked up to doing a pretty decent English accent and a fairly decent Irish one, so I’m determined to get this one right, too. (No reason for learning them, other than to impress people at parties.)
To answer your final question, Dot isn’t their Aunt, and I can’t think of any way she’s related to them. They could just call her Aunty Dot as a familiar term? It’s a common way for children to address older people over here, and it could hang over into adulthood. That said, I haven’t watched Eastenders for ages. I think it’s a very well-made and mostly well-acted show, but I don’t have the heart to take two hours of my time each week to watch it.
-SciFi (writing from a town right on the Thames Estuary).