Bit fubared today. Yesterday afternoon, we were invited to go on Ireland AM this morning to talk about the EastEnders baby swap story. Apparently it went well (externally. Internally it was more like a toot factory of apocalyptic proportions. The nerves) given it was my first live TV foray. I was mustering the energy to watch it on TV3's Catch Up service but I see it's probably the only segment they've not uploaded... *lone tumbleweed*
Anyhew, to the woman of the moment; Samantha Womack is now being verbally abused in the street. Bet she didn't get overtime for that.
Today The Sun is reporting that some spectacularly misinformed muppet roared she was "a murdering ****" while she was out and about with her kids (one's nine, the other one's five). Yeah, 'Ronnie' didn't murder the baby, OK? In a blind moment of cumulative grief (what with her being abused by her father, then having her baby stolen by her father, then being reunited with her daughter 19 years later only for her to die in her arms thanks to Janine Butcher, then suffering a miscarriage, then her father being murdered, then having her newborn baby die after one solitary day) she swapped Kat's baby for hers, d'you get me?
The paper continues: "Viewers were outraged after her character Ronnie Branning swapped her cot-death son for Kat Moon's baby, and complaints to the BBC over the plot have now topped 6,000. Sam is leaving the hit series after finding her role 'horrifying' in the heavily-criticised storyline... Meanwhile shell-shocked Beeb chiefs are planning an early end to the harrowing plot in the wake of the huge row it has sparked. Actress Sam - formerly Samantha Janus - was verbally attacked in the street after viewers saw her character Ronnie swap her cot-death son in the New Year's Eve episode... As the star met with show bosses yesterday - and her exit was confirmed - a source said: 'Samantha's received such vile abuse this week. She was shouted at with her kids. Having to act that storyline was bad enough, having it filter into her home life is even more awful'."
As it happens, the Beeb have "listened" (after getting 10.6 million viewers on Monday), and they're currently in a frenzy rewriting the story so it makes for a "happy ending". One show source leaked: "We have listened to what people have said and taken on board the complaints and are now rescheduling things and working on the final scripts. It is important that we listen to viewers, because it is their soap after all (in which case, can we also have less boozing, vomiting, man-mad females, better written upbeat scenes, and more academically ambitious folk who don't end up jumping off the local pub or turning into an inadvertent serial killer, please). Filming will be done in the next few weeks and the storyline will end this spring, possibly by April." As opposed to May, when Ronnie was due to leave.
As I said this morning, all EastEnders need to do to keep ratings afloat is to increase Max Branning's recent influx of quippy one liners and possibly his topless scenes (sorry, but I found his latest topless outing during the week strangely arousing). On the flipside, introduce topless scenes for Ian Beale, that's more harrowing horror than anyone can handle of a tea time.
Obviously I don't mean to be flippant in this regard. I've watched this week's soaps with severe trepidation, often being reminded what my mum must've went through 42 years ago. The cot death, personally, I felt was dealt with well, it's the added baby switch that went just a smidge too far... Producer Brian Kirkwood would do well to return to a plot from 1985 involving Ali and Sue Olsen, a storyline which "the British Cot Death Foundation initially feared that a soap opera would trivialise the subject and frighten new parents. They tried to stop the episodes from airing, but in the end they were pleased with the way the subject was handled, and provided back-up support after transmission to many viewers who wanted more information on the subject."
Sometimes less is more.