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Dying on T.V.

Which T.V. death - fictional or behind-the-scenes - left you in pieces?

LATELY I'VE been catching up on NYPD Blue, now it's finally been released on DVD, and found myself gripped - and unexpectedly moved - by the death of Jimmy Smits' Bobby Simone. He takes five long, gruelling episodes to die. Not from a bullet in a shoot-out with some skells, or some other dramatic device, but from a nick on his gum after a trip to the dentist.

What follows is the painfully slow demise of an alpha-male detective, his physical collapse depicted in unrelenting, devastating detail. The hospital scenes are a perfect master-class in exactly how to get it right, stripped of the cliché we usually get on network T.V. What we're left with is a frightening, uncomfortably intimate, voyeuristic insight into a man's dying days. Initially, a junior (Latino) doctor deals openly and honestly with our traumatised couple, but an added frisson creeps in when a calculating WASP surgeon - who "talks down" to Bobby and Diane, vividly portrayed as working class Irish and Latino - tries to use the situation to his advantage.

The storyline is the most perfectly handled depiction of a character's death I've witnessed onscreen.

Over on Coronation Street, long-running transsexual character Hayley Cropper is dying from cancer. Hayley's portrayed with immense warmth and humanity by Julie Hesmondhalgh, and has been in the show since 1998, long enough for regular viewers to consider her an old friend. The trajectory is devastating: the routine check-up, further tests, the news that It's Not Good, the surgery that doesn't fix it... And then the death sentence. Yeah, I cried a little when consultant told the uncomprehending couple that palliative care was Hayley's only option. By dint of its characters sheer longevity, soap can still have that power.

Coronation Street is famous for making viewers blub. It was long before my time, but everyone knows of the famous scene where cleaner Hilda Ogden returns home from hospital with that pathetic bag of husband Stanley's possessions, and pulls out his famous glasses. In 1964, the credits rolled in silence when Martha Longhurst died suddenly in The Rovers Return, and conceit that would be repeated on that show and copied by others.

Years later, Doctor Who's controversial 1980s show-runner, John Nathan-Turner, would use the same "silent credits" conceit for the death of (gay) boy companion Adric. Actually killing an assistant was unheard of, and was never repeated (they backtracked on the brave butchering of Peri in 1986's The Trial of a Timelord). In Doctor Who today, if a leading character dies (and they do, often. Amy Pond seemed to die every week) they simply come back to life again, or become immortal. Death is meaningless.

Too many characters die in our our soaps these days - it's a bloobath out there! - although there at least they tend to stay dead, Dallas missteps notwithstanding. New Year's Day 2012 saw the death of Pat Butcher, a character who'd been in EastEnders since 1986. But it was an episode that aired a few days earlier that really tugged the heartstrings. For one last drink, Pat ventured out to the Queen Victoria pub, her local for decades. The camera slowly zooms in for a long, lingering close-up of actress Pat St Clement's face. In the background, various friends and relatives are told the news of her impending death, as Tony Bennett croons The Good Life, "please remember / I still want you, and in case you wonder why / Well just wake up / Kiss the good life goodbye..." She knows it's time to say goodbye, and we, the viewer, are left with no illusions that there's no hope of reprieve. The cumulative impact is devastating.

Click to 28:50.

Barbara Windsor has recently claimed that Pat St Clement phoned her up in tears upon learning that Pat was being killed off. It's an area EastEnders has form in, with the premature killing of Dirty Den in 2005, after actor Lesley Grantham was caught doing something he shouldn't on a webcam. Killing characters off can be a big mistake, as 1980s behemoth Dallas discovered when Patrick Duffy decided to jump ship - then come back. The entire ninth season was written off as a dream sequence, in one of TV's most epic fails. The worst part of this decision was the loss of Barbara Carrera as the terrifying Angelica Nero.

Redskin beauty JD Williams has twice died in cult dramas - as Kenny "Bricks" Wangler in Oz, and as Preston "Bodie" Broadus in The Wire. In both series, he played a long-running character who died abruptly, brutally and without warning. But most abrupt of all was the shocking gang killing of Kevin Alejandro's Detective Nate Moretta. Southland's writers sprang that one on us out of nowhere. Both Oz and The Shield open with characters who appear set up as series regulars, but see out the first episode in a body bag.

Dystopic late 1970s/early 1980s BBC sci-fi drama Blake's 7 loved a death, killing off all of its cast over its four season run - with the exception of evil super-villian Servalan. Famously, the remaining permanent cast were annihilated in the series finale, Blake. But I'm always drawn to the dreamy 1980 episode Sarcophagus, by sci-fi writer Tanith Lee, in which an alien entity takes over Cally. After centuries trapped in a tomb, she's freed, only to be thwarted by anti-hero Avon. For the alien, death is not an option, and her malignancy gives way to a desperate plea as she's sent back to limbo for another eternity: "I want to live, to live. I want to live, to live, to live. I want to live, to live, to live..."

Blake's 7 even killed off characters who'd already departed. Original character Jenna was said to have died - off-screen - in that terminal episode. EastEnders is also fond of telling us that long-departed characters have since died: we're told that Angie Watts finally succumbed to her alcoholism, years after she was last seen in Albert Square, and fellow '80s favourite Kathy Beale was said to have been killed in a South African car crash. The prematurely cancelled Noah's Arc had its second season finale resolved in a film, with the heartbreaking news that Dre did die in that Black Pride car crash, after all. I can't be the only one who wished that it had been Wade, instead.

Sometimes, the actors who play the characters we love pass away, whilst the characters they played live on - at least, for a while. Most recently, Glee's Cory Monteith died, leaving producers of that show to figure out an exit strategy for his character. Comedian Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife whilst he was still appearing in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, and David Strickland committed suicide in a Las Vegas hotel room whilst appearing in the Brooke Shields' vehicle Suddenly Susan. Yootha Joyce succumbed to alcoholism whilst her sitcom George & Mildred was at the peak of its success.

To coin a phrase: a friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.

EastEnders' Ray comes out

...of the shower.

We've all waited months for EastEnders' Ray to show us his beautiful body in all its glory, and Tuesday's episode really delivered the goods. In case you missed it, we've taken some handy screenshots to mark the occasion. Enjoy!

Just wake up, kiss the good life goodbye...

W H A T   I   S A W   L A S T   N I G H T

EastEnders, 01/01/12

I

've been watching Pat Butcher almost all my life, so I remember when she first appeared in Albert Square.

I was a small boy too young to be watching. Pat was a big, scary woman with too much make-up. Nasty, loud, and hard, an ex-prostitute whose sons hated her (they'd witnessed her "going at it" with the bedroom door open).

As time went by, I got older; Pat mellowed, and sex wasn't such a scary subject for me. The "bad woman" (as my old Mum used to call women like Pat) wasn't so bad after all, just damaged, and misunderstood. And gay boys love a bit of that, don't they?

Pat Butcher was a sinner; she sinned copiously, and was sinned against. She might have mellowed over the years, age transforming her into a disgraceful grandmother, but she was never too far away from too much vodka and someone else's husband. And her fashion sense was... intriguing.

It might seem silly to mourn the death of a fictional character, but Pat's always been there for me, over the past 25 years, a fallen woman struggling on against the odds, making the best of life, trying to keep the flag flying. The lipstick, the eyeshadow and, of course, the earrings all said one thing: "I'm still open for business, boys."

The cancer came suddenly, out of the blue, like it does in real life. It was too late for treatment, but not too late for one last drink in the Vic. New Year's Day's painful, drawn-out goodbye episode, in which friends, frienemies, and relatives visited a dying, bedridden Pat isn't the way I want to remember the old girl.

For me, Friday's episode was Pat's big send-off. Having been told that her cancer is imminently terminal, Pat is in the Queen Victoria for one last drink. Behind her, stepson Ricky is telling Bianca the bad news. In front of her, her old flame Patrick's dancing with Dot. The camera closes in on the stricken Pat, Tony Bennett's The Good Life drowning out everything else. "Please remember, I still want you, and in case you wonder why: Well just wake up, kiss the good life goodbye..."

It's moments like these that make EastEnders the best thing on television. We get a long, lingering close-up of her face, for well over thirty seconds before the theme music kicks in - an eternity in modern television - as life goes on around her. Pat knows she's going, but she still keeps up the front, gin and tonic in hand.

That's how I want to remember Pat Butcher.

I don't see that boy. I don't see him anymore

W H A T   I   S A W   L A S T   N I G H T

EastEnders, 03/11/11

W

e rejoin our East End epic with The Asians embroiled in a fierce familial argument, coloured with homosexuality, Islam, and arranged marriage. An outraged Masood is ranting about his bitter enemy, Evil Doctor Yusef. "I knew it! I knew it was him! Of course it was him! Now do you see? He is sick! He has a sick mind!"

So blonde Cockney bombshell Peggy Mitchell's departure has given way to this: Pakistani melodrama. And let's face it, few can do melodrama like the Pakistanis. Tempered with religion and tradition, and played out by some truly superb actors (Nina Wadia and Nitin Ganatra are mesmerising as Zainab and Masood), it's brilliant, just brilliant. This is the backbone EastEnders has been crying out for. The East End is dead, long live the East End!

Out in the Square, Cockney Mitchell Lola is asking newly out Ben what boys he'd like to snog. Lola is a girl of the 21st century, and doesn't have a problem with her distant cousin's long-seeded homosexuality. "What about Tinie Tempah? I'd snog him," she suggests. "No!" Ben says emphatically. "What about the little one from JLS," she tries. "Aston?" Ben says, perking up. Lola's amused by the brand recognition: "You even know his name? You're so gay!"

So two white Cockney kids are talking about fantasy celebrity crushes, and as a matter of course, the two names that come are black boys. Now that's interesting.

That's London.

Next we have some harmless fluff with some recent Walford immigrants: Essex boys and girls. Pretty and dumb, the Moon boys, and comedy relief Jodie and Poppy, light up the screen. Think about that: the ethnic minority gets the meaty drama, and the Caucasians get the comedy relief role. Make a phrase out of these random words: Other. Foot. On. Shoe. The.

Christian and Syed are arguing about the fallout from Evil Doctor Yusef's machinations. "I'm sorry I doubted you!" Syed whines. Christian charges off to belt Yusef, but doesn't, sadly. He's the better man, apparently. Personally, I'm all for a bit of righteous violence. It worked for Omar Little.

"'Ere, you know who else is gay, that bloke from The X Factor. Would you snog 'im?" Lola persists, reading from a magazine as Ben plays pool with sexy adopted brother Jay. Ben throws down his pool stick thing, and throws himself into a chair. Lola's reminded him that his Daddy, Phil Mitchell - a man for whom gays are pathetic embarrassments that happen to other people - is back on the Square. Sexy Adopted Brother Jay is the alpha male son Phil wishes he could have had, so it's beautiful to see him sit next to Ben and put his arm around him. "Has he said summat to ya?" Jay asks. "'Cos if he has then I'll 'av a word wiv 'im."

"Don't even give him the time of day," Lola says. "He's a twazzock."

Now, if only all our gay youth had a guard dog brother and a ready-made bitch fag hag! That's living the dream, kids!

Christian's brought Amira - boyfriend Syed's baby mama - back to their gay love nest. Her father's disowned her for having anything to do with the infidels. "I'm tired of fighting," Amira says, heralding a cessation in anti-gay hostilities. Remember, kids, she was once Christian's fag hag, and hell hath no fury like a fag hag scorned. Bitch'll be trying to get her claws back into her man as soon as Christian's waxed and tan-in-a-bottle's back is turned.

Christian's other annoying fag hag,  über-chav Roxy, is up in her flat with annoying sprog Amy, trying not to get evicted by Walford's resident Cruella de Vil, Janine Butcher, whilst watching kid's TV. Hey, that's what happens when you spread your legs and put a bun in the oven: A BORING CHILD! Not to worry, Auntie Kim is here to save the day. "The fembots at the salon said you were having a bad day," Kim says, referring to our Essex comedy relief. She's all cleavage and attitude, without tedious female histrionics. Now, that is my kinda fag hag!

Zainab is talking to Evil Doctor Yusef about when they first met. Arranged marriage. Pakistan. "The first time I saw you, the very first time, we didn't even talk, you just smiled. And I remember thinking, 'What beautiful eyes.' He must be kind with eyes like that... I don't see that boy. I don't see him anymore." You're not joking, love, we've been watching Evil Doctor Yusef's machinations for months. Of course, unbeknownst to her, he was the one who set her on fire when she left him for Masood back in Pakistan.

Oh, I can't wait until that comes out.

WATCH THE EPISODE
PREVIOUSLY...

I can't do this anymore

review

EastEnders 12/09/11

W

elcome to our new (not entirely serious) - review of the day's visit to EastEnders, in which we analyse the complex sociological meaning of Walford's finest!

Our latest EastEnders returnee - Mandy Salter from the '90s - has bumped into ancient pop royalty David Essex (as antiques dealer Eddie Moon) in the cafe, before colliding with EastEnders royalty Phil Mitchell who, remarkably, remembers her character from the old days, despite approximately 5000 new characters having passed through since that hallowed decade.

"I weren't sure at first, y'know, there's so many tramps around here," Phil growls. "But it's Mandy Slutter, innit?" Oh, he's an old smoothy, our Phil!

"Salter," Mandy corrects him.

"Well you grew up just 'ow I imagined: dog rough," Phil hits back, like an aging drag queen (but with less hair. And make-up. And frills) before dropping various hints about Mandy being a prostitute.

"Nothing like a bit of gentle banter first thing in the morning," Eddie says of the exchange. A bit of brutal misogyny in the local eatery, more like. These things happens in life, kids.

Meanwhile, Eddie's three boys are in the gym; dumb Tyler's pounding the punch bag, whilst pretty boy Anthony looks on. "Unhinged" (BBC official description) older brother Michael looks on. There's various Plot Things happening here (Michael's the black sheep and he's trying to destroy the happy family he's been excluded from) but the key thing to focus on here is the homoerotism. All three brothers are hot. This is what we need on a Monday night.

Elsewhere, Zainab Massood, local Pakistani matriarch, pops into the surgery to see Evil Doctor Khan. Unlike Michael Moon, he's not unhinged; more cold, calculating. And evil. Got that? EVIL! This doesn't stop his new receptionist - aging bleached blonde Rose Cotton (ex-Eldorado repatriated expatriate Polly Perkins) - auditioning for Carry On Doctor. "Oh, Doctor, d'you think those stirrups can take me weight?" Okay - she doesn't say that, but you get the drift. Again, this is what we want: knackered tart trying to bed much younger, evil doctor.

Pretty Anthony is rooting around in the safe for cash. Oh dear. Turns out he's a compulsive gambler. Dad orders him to check out "that house clearance in Stratford". I love it when EastEnders references real, supposedly nearby locales. Helps me suspend my disbelief. Why, I feel like I could almost hop on the District line to Walford this very minute!

Oh oh. Beautiful Thing legend Linda Henry - aka Shirley - is arguing with boyfriend Phil about his former crack whore one night stand working in his club. "She's going to be hiding in them bogs with a crack pipe and vodka," she points out, failing to realise that said former crack whore - the fabulously named Rainie Cross - has made as remarkable a recovery from crack/alcohol addiction as Phil has done. It Gets Better, kids - really!

And now Footballers Wives legend Zoe Lucker - known in these parts as "Vanessa Gold" - is wobbling around the Square in her heels, and Stepford Wives barnet. Unhinged Michael grabs her and pulls her into someone's doorway - this troubled, gold-digging hussy is all part of his elaborate scheme to destroy his sexy brothers and pop star Dad!

"I can't do this anymore!" Vanessa sobs through inches of L'Oreal.

"Eddie's brought this on himself," Unhinged Michael spits at her, before adding - fresh from the Cliche Folder - "secrets and lies!"

"You can't make me do it," she says.

"You've no idea what I can make you do," he says. "How far I'll go."

What, like Stratford?

There's more sobbing from Vanessa, and more maniacal grinning from Michael, plus a fake phone call to Vanessa's daughter Jodie, in which Michael says Vanessa's a prostitute. Vanessa might be a gold-digger, but he truly is Unhinged - dammit, that BBC press release was right!

WATCH THE EPISODE

Sex and the soap

In the absence of religion, I have my soaps. I'm just slightly older than EastEnders, and Coronation Street's history stretches back to 1960s. I've watched both my whole life.

There's also Emmerdale, a series I never took to. Likewise Hollyoaks, the young upstart: loud, brash and shallow. It won't enjoy the sort of history EastEnders or Coronation Street do (as a child, Coronation Street's Steve McDonald was a devastatingly handsome teen; I now watch him as a middle-aged wreck) because its cast is an ever-changing parade of pretty young things cast solely for their looks. It's totally disposable.

Brendan teaches Ste a lesson in lurve.

All four soaps boast a variety of ongoing GBLT storylines: EastEnders has Christian and Syed, an inter-generational, inter-cultural, interracial relationship that could have been so interesting, yet is saddled with clumsy writing and cringe-inducing performances (particularly John Partridge's deeply embarrassing prima donna Christian). Coronation Street has its lipstick lesbian teens, and dreary asexual frumps Sean and Marcus. Emmerdale has a cute "lad" struggling with his sexuality.

Then there's Hollyoaks, a show I don't follow. I recorded the omnibus from a weekend or two ago, fast-forwarded through the tedious hetero shenanigans, and discovered a thrilling, red hot, super-sexual gay interracial love/lust triangle.

Brendan: "I am your father." Noah: "Love in the club."

Brendan Brady is a dangerous, nightclub-owning Irish thug, with an excellent line in menace. His psychosis is palpable. He became embroiled in a secret, abusive relationship with cute twink Ste, beating, bullying and manipulating him within an inch of his life. Enter nice guy Noah, a grounded personal trainer who takes Ste under his wing. Ste and Noah become love's young dream - but Brendan isn't about to let Ste escape his clutches, and embarks upon a campaign to destroy the couple, mainly by tempting Noah over to the dark side.

This can't end well.

The scenes between uber-psycho Brendan, and grounded nice guy Noah (who's fighting a losing battle to hold onto Ste whilst overcoming his lust for Brendan) are some of the most sexually charged scenes I've seen on TV in a long time. There's danger and sexual tension and lust.

EastEnders and Coronation Street, which command huge audiences, aren't doing the GBLT community any favours with their tepid, cringe-worthy gay storylines (both are currently fixated on gay parenthood, a massive turnoff for anyone with a pulse). Hollyoaks - lightweight teen soap, and underdog - is telling it like is, and giving us a helluva ride to boot.

I like everything about this picture

O

n Monday night, I arrived home to find EastEnders' Arinze Kene waiting in bed for me.

Of course, strictly speaking, he was in Whitney's bed, on TV. And he wasn't waiting for me. A boy can dream though, can't he?

More Arinze Kene here, here, here and here. More shots after the jump...

Halfway out of the dark

review

Doctor Who, EastEnders,
Coronation Street

L

ast night's editions of EastEnders, Coronation Street and Doctor Who - all highly publicised Christmas specials - provide an intriguing insight into the national psyche.

What does it say about us, for example, that the soap's festive editions were both full of vicious, poisonous women - one of whom stabbed herself in the stomach to keep her man - and that the supposed SF drama was sentimental mush, a sort of lightweight sci-fi Mills & Boon?

There's something seriously wrong, either with the viewing public, or the people responsible for the shows, if this is what we want to watch (or what they think we want to watch) on Christmas Day.

How is it remotely appropriate that we witness Janine Butcher (EastEnders, BBC One, 8pm), pick up a carving knife, put it in the hands of grief stricken, bipolar Stacey Slater, and plunge it into her own stomach? On Christmas Day. Before the watershed.

I could talk lovingly about EastEnders 'til the cows come home, and I usually love crazy Janine's antics as much as the next twisted, vindictive queen, but this just wasn't called for. A step too far beyond the boundaries - even if it wasn't Christmas - the scene was nasty, disturbing and exploitative.

Coronation Street wasn't much better. Just a couple of weeks after the nightmarish tram disaster, which also saw John Stape bash his bunny boiler stalker's head in with a hammer (and subsequently conceal her body at ground zero), we see Tracey Barlow rejoin the cast. She's been away in prison for bashing her boyfriend's head in with an ornament, you'll recall (a pattern, or just repetition?)

A character without any redeeming features, Tracey Barlow isn't someone you want to have around - expecially not on Christmas Day. So quite why the Coronation Street production team thought it would be a good idea to bring back this vile creature to spend Christmas with us... Oh wait! More sensationalism! More magazine covers! And so we endure an hour of screeching, brawling harridans in the Rovers Return (with fellow white trash specimen Becky, who, let's not forget, indulged in a spot of looting during the tram disaster, whilst friends and neighbours were dying around her).

Coronation Street therefore managed to trump EastEnders' stabfest, with a level of ugliness and inhumanity unheard of on British television since Katie Price was last on telly. Thank God for the brief appearance of Scary Mary and her mobile home - that's real Coronation Street.

Which brings us to Doctor Who. I really wanted to hate this latest episode of the new series. This year's season was abysmal, for numerous reasons, and expectations were rock bottom. There's showrunner Steven Moffat's familiar tedious obsessions: we must endure yet another episode in the company of a child, and there's a dreary hetero romance, opera singer Katherine Jenkins cast presumably because Moffat would like to get off with her. But on the positive side, Karen Gillan's ghastly Amy Pond is barely seen, tucked away on a crashing space liner (sadly, she's saved in the end).

It's glossy, inconsequential, and gutless. I'd be lying if I said the emotional payoff didn't have me welling up - yes, it was terribly sad, and Jenkins sounds lovely when she opens her gob and sings - but I don't watch Doctor Who to be moved to tears, which seems to have been the primary goal in recent series. Women and metrosexuals will love it, but what I'd love is for the series to have some balls, just for once.

Maybe it could learn a thing or two from EastEnders.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Just when we thought that we'd never see EastEnders' Arinze Kene with his shirt off again (the boy's been disgustingly overdressed lately. Who cares if it's winter?), the BBC have delivered all our Christmases at once. Behold: Arinze in his underwear.

Never before have so many pause/rewind buttons been deployed so much.

Last night's EastEnders can still be viewed on iPlayer. More Arinze Kene here, here, and here. More shots after the jump...

I'm different from you still

review

EastEnders: 16/11/10

Ah, more Arinze, more shirtless heaven. All eyes are on the chest of wonder as the bad boy moves in with Carol and Blake's 7's Soolin Glenda. Let's hope it ends up more How Stella Got Her Groove Back than Heading South...

And please, please, please - let's have a homage to that soapy Stella shower scene where Taye Diggs showed us his assets.

But less of the movie comparisons. This is the small screen, and Blake's 7's Soolin Glenda has a comparison of her own. "'Ere, I've just seen my Mum laughing her head off with one of Billie's lowlife mates," Bianca is complaining in the caff, doubtless as confused as the rest of us that Carol is laughing at all (is this a first?) "Oh," Glenda smirks. "Young black guy, very fit? Uh... healthy." She doesn't miss a trick, that Glenda. Especially when the trick is young and 'healthy'. "So Carol hasn't told you about our new flatmate? I thought we were going to be like The Liver Birds. It swiftly turned into Prisoner: Cell Block H."

The Liver Birds? Maybe a female version of Steptoe & Son - Carol does a good line in misery. And where does she get Prisoner: Cell Block H from? Maybe she has visions of herself as Top Dog Bea Smith. Gawd...

Connor (Arinze Kene) and Carol's (Lindsey Coulson) intergenerational romance is touching. Let's hope it continues to be handled sensitively. But this is EastEnders, and Christmas is just around the corner.

More Arinze after the jump...

And what exactly do you mean by "feeding"?

review

EastEnders: 09/11/10

I

t's the moment we've all been waiting for. Arinze Kene's character Connor is back in EastEnders, and thanks to cutbacks in the BBC wardrobe department, he's only got half a costume.

Either that, or the production team took a look at his last appearance, and thought to themselves, "Yes, please, more of that."

Carol's clearly of the same mind, tracking her dead son's best friend to his sink estate lair to get an apology for being treated "like a piece of meat". Because she hated every minute of it.

"I thought that was what you wanted," was Connor's not unreasonable comeback. When you have tits like his, doors ain't getting slammed in the face.

My only question is: just what was he up to with the link boy in the hall just before Carol arrived? He was half-naked, after all...

Lots more of Connor after the jump.

Walking out of an old life into a new one

review

EastEnders: 09/9/10
EastEnders: 10/09/10

Even for EastEnders, this was big.

The soap that does big momentous set pieces like no other (sorry, my beloved Coronation Street) is seeing off Peggy Mitchell - the First Lady of soap - in style. Because not only is Peggy going, but the Queen Victoria pub is too.

American readers (who make up the bulk of this blog's readership) probably don't quite get how important soap is to contemporary pop culture in the UK.

It's universal - a form of almost religious communion - and EastEnders in particular unites all. Black and white, young and old, gay and straight. It's genuine watercooler television, and everyone watches it. Immediately after (and during) transmission, everyone's Facebook status was about The Fire. Even those who don't watch it had something to say. 'Anthony' said, "Wow I think I should start watching eastenders a lot more, a whole leap of passa passa !!!"

Anthony really should tune in a lot more, because the sheer resonance of tonight's events would have largely been lost on him. Okay, it's a soap, so everyone's got some storyline behind them, but the main players in tonight's epic drama have had some corkers recently, stretching back years (even decades). That's what makes soap in Britain so thrilling - the awful weight of history bearing down on everything (in the case of Coronation Street, fifty years worth). And yet it's all so current, and so loved by The Youth.

The sickening depths to which Peggy's son Phil has sunk takes centre stage tonight. The one-time East-end hard-man, and latter day family man, has lost everything. From alcoholic to crack-head in a soap minute, but Steve McFadden is more than convincing in his role (the actor shed pounds for his latest storyline) and his cruel taunting of Peggy is gruelling to watch. It really is grim, grim stuff.

The other players - Stacey Slater, and Janine Butcher - have histories stretching back more than twenty years, and it all comes into play tonight. But they're just a sideshow, really. The Queen Victoria pub is a character in its own right, and although it isn't the first time it's gone up in flames (Phil's brother Grant torched it in the early 90s) its cremation marks the end of an era, as the Mitchell dynasty is finally finished off.

The destruction of the Queen Vic takes its cue from disaster movies, and in particular, The Towering Inferno. There's a party, full of joy and celebration, then a horrific fire, just like Inferno. The camera holds on the banner above the bar, 'Under New Management', as it goes up in flames, recalling the  flaming 'We Build For Life' slogan in Inferno. Gay Muslim character Syed is trampled repeatedly by fleeing revellers (pick any "humanity ditching its humanity" tale).

There's some other beautifully poignant shots: the Queen Victoria bust in extreme close-up, Peggy brooding in the background. Just before her confrontation with Phil, there's a solo close-up of the iconic bust, with the party noise in the background. It speaks volumes, a stoic, world weary premonition of impending doom. There's one final shot as the Vic burns around her.

The initial explosion (fire and liqour - not a good combination) is profoundly shocking. Seeing Peggy crawling around behind the bar is akin to seeing one's own mother in a similar situation. Stacey cradling her baby upstairs as flame sweeps across the ceiling is another jawdropper.

Of course, the fire - the big, crowd pleasing set piece of the week - was never going to be Peggy's exit. Everyone thought it would be, but really, who would want that? Callous disposal by violent despatch of much-loved characters ain't what EastEnders is about. The giveawway was The Great Fire of Walford going out on Thursday: the cremation of the Queen Vic was the prelude to Peggy's exit, not vice versa.

A good friend of mine has always written Barbara Windsor off as a bad actress. But I always knew she was playing Peggy exactly as she should: Peggy is an actress, putting on a performance for her public. Putting on a front, whatever's going on behind the scenes. Keeping up appearances.

Peggy Mitchell is summed up in her last little scene with Sam, Ronnie, Roxy and Billy, just before she walks out. It's one of the most poignant moments you're likely to see on TV (it's right up there with The Wire's most heart-rending scenes), just Peggy talking about her old Mum, her childhood, the old East End:

"I'd rather walk. You see my mother taught me that - she was a tough old bird, but you had to be, didn't you, in those days. And sometimes, when I was a little one, we couldn't pay the rent, and she'd run in and say, 'Kids! We gotta get out of here. So c'mon, pack now!' So we'd stuff all our things into our bags and run out the door, as fast as we could. Mum, Sal, and me, walking down that road fast, fast, walking out of an old life into a new one, and then Mum would suddenly say, "Oi, stop! Stop! And look back girls - go on, look back, and remember what you see. So we'd... we'd turn round, and we'd take it all in, and we'd store it away up here. Then we'd turn round and walk on. Just keep going, never giving up. Yeah - that's how I was brought up. That's how I was brought up."

Her last scenes - a solo trek across the Square, and past the Vic - beautifully echo that speech. It's a far cry from the screeching harridan with her battlecry of "Getouttamypub". Barbara Windsor is simply stellar, as the facade drops and the real Peggy comes out: the diamond hard, sometimes cruel, occasionally nasty, loud Duchess of Walford.

In losing Peggy Mitchell, we've lost our nightly audience with Barbara Windsor. Old East End, real East End, and TV royalty.

They just don't make 'em like her no more.

Watch Thursday's episode here
Watch Friday's episode here