Without these two EastEnders wouldn't be here.
The two Fantastic creators of EastEnders are the Late Julia Smith and the Late Tony Holland.
Julia Smith
Julia Smith (26 May 1927 – 19 June 1997) was an English television director and producer. She is best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
London-born Smith became involved in television production when she directed the series Suspense in 1962. Soon, she was directing popular BBC shows such as Z Cars (in 1962); and Doctor Who (in 1966), where she directed the stories "The Smugglers" and "The Underwater Menace". In 1967 she directed an adaptation of The Railway Children with Jenny Agutter that was successful enough for it to lead to the fondly remembered 1970 film in which Agutter reprised her role of Roberta.
Whilst working on Z Cars she had met Tony Holland who was a writer for the show. The two of them became an established producer/script-editor team and went on to work for the BBC's long-running hospital drama, Angels (1975) from 1979 to 1983.
Main article: History of EastEnders
In 1983 the BBC contacted Smith and Holland to create a new popular bi-weekly serial drama. Two ideas were given to them, one about a caravan site, the other about a shopping arcade. Neither of them liked either of the ideas, and demanded to be able to create something about what they knew - in the words of Smith - "London - today!"
Together they came up with the idea of a serial set in the East End of London in a Victorian Square. When casting for the show, Smith had the guideline 'Only genuine Eastenders need apply'; it was this that gave her the idea for the name of the show, which would be called EastEnders after other names were rejected. Originally the show was to be called Eastenders, but Jonathan Powell, then Head of Drama at the BBC who had commissioned the show, made the tentative suggestion that the second "e" didn't look good on paper, and said that perhaps it should be capitalized. It was, for which Smith later said "...we were eternally grateful to him!"
Traditionally, the end music to EastEnders begins with dramatic drums, but occasionally, especially when a character departs, a piano introduction is used. This is called Julia's Theme, after Julia Smith.
Her final contribution to EastEnders, along with that of fellow creator Tony Holland, came in early 1989, amid a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) could ever return to the show after being shot and supposedly killed. The character would ultimately return to the series, having apparently survived the shooting, but Smith would not live to see this happen.[1]
After the success of EastEnders, Smith and Holland collaborated again on the ill-fated BBC soap opera Eldorado. Holland created the series — based on an original idea by Verity Lambert — and Smith was producer. Eldorado was produced by Lambert through her own company Cinema Verity Productions. The BBC obviously hoped that, after EastEnders, Smith and Holland could make drama gold again, however the series was cancelled by the new controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob. Smith was blamed for the programme's shortcomings and was fired, which left her very bitter towards the BBC, who she believed hadn't given Eldorado a chance to establish itself.[citation needed] Corinne Hollingworth took over as series producer after Smith left the show, but the series was ended after only one year.
Following the demise of Eldorado, Smith retired from television work. She died of cancer in Kensington and Chelsea,[2] London, in 1997. Several stalwart cast members of EastEnders, including Wendy Richard, attended her funeral.
Tony Holland
Anthony John "Tony" Holland[1] (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was an English actor and television screenwriter best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Tony Holland began his career as an actor, appearing in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Savages and Message for Posterity, a serial for The Wednesday Play in 1967. That same year, a play he developed, The Isle is Full of Noises, was taken up by the BBC and produced by Thirty-Minute Theatre. It was from there, Holland turned to scriptwriting.
Through his agent, Holland was landed a job on Z-Cars as a writer and script editor in 1970. It was here that he met producer and director, Julia Smith and started a long and successful working relationship.
Holland and Smith became an established producer/script-editor team during their time on Z-Cars and went on to work for the BBC's hospital drama, Angels. It was during their time on Angels that the format of the programme was expanded from weekly minute-long episodes to a bi-weekly half-hour serial, with the further possibility of the show being aired all year round.
In 1983 the BBC approached Holland and Smith to produce a new experience for their channel, a bi-weekly soap-opera that would rival the long established ITV favourites, Coronation Street, Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm. The BBC wanted this new serial to reflect "London, today!" and together, Smith and Holland came up with the idea of a programme set in a Victorian Square within the East End of London, focusing on its close working-class families and eccentric Cockney inhabitants. Thus, EastEnders was born.
Holland and Smith wanted a primary focus of EastEnders to be a large extended family, representative of the type most typically found in the East End of London. Holland was from a large London family himself, and in creating some of the show's characters he was able to use some of his own experiences as inspiration for EastEnders central clan the Beales and Fowlers. In creating the stories and characters, Holland delved into family stories, past and present. His aunt Lou Beale came to inspire the EastEnders character of the same name, along with her two children Peter (Pete) and Pauline. Holland also used some of his experiences as a barman in London's pubs and clubs to create the dynamic pairing of Den and Angie Watts, the owners of the Queen Victoria.
Holland worked on EastEnders for four years, initially as script-editor and going on to script many episodes himself. After four years, Holland and Smith decided to leave EastEnders together in 1989 following a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) could return to the series following his exit in February of that year after being shot and supposedly killed. The character would ultimately return to the show 14 years later, having survived the shooting despite being presumed dead.[2]
On his departure from EastEnders in 1989, Holland was approached by Ireland's national broadcaster RTE to give their new urban soap opera Fair City its structure and story lines for the first season.[3]
In 1991, they were famously tempted back to the 'world of Corn'[citation needed] by the BBC to produce Eldorado, loosely based around the lives of expats in Spain. Their new show was launched in July 1992, but plagued by a string of on and off-screen problems, it received little of EastEnders success, and was axed a year later, in July 1993.
In 2001, he was awarded with a Special Achievement Award from the British Soap Awards, and in 2004 he appeared on the Channel 4 documentary How Soaps Changed The World.
Holland and Paul Wade entered into a civil partnership in May 2007. Holland died on 28 November 2007, aged 67, after a long illness.The following day's edition of EastEnders was dedicated to him.
Julia and Tony might have passed away but they have left this Iconic TV show behind for us to enjoy for decades more to come.
Beautiful OP dan. Thank you for all your EastEnders contributions to this forum over the past 7 years. You were the first person I interacted with and you made me feel at home and welcome on here. #forumlegend
Happy birthday EastEnders. Thank you for 30 years of escapism hard-hitting gritty drama, lots of laughs, tears and gasps. You have brought so many colourful, wonderful characters to life and educated us on many important issues. Here's to the next 30!
& in SoapAddict101's Survivor game which can be found in the games room.
Sharon Batten @SharonJBatten 37m37 minutes ago
#EELive Just watched the rehearsal of Thursday's hour ep ... you ain't seen nothing yet... @Gittins2Rob@dominictc
Beautiful OP dan. Thank you for all your EastEnders contributions to this forum over the past 7 years. You were the first person I interacted with and you made me feel at home and welcome on here. #forumlegend
Happy birthday EastEnders. Thank you for 30 years of escapism hard-hitting gritty drama, lots of laughs, tears and gasps. You have brought so many colourful, wonderful characters to life and educated us on many important issues. Here's to the next 30!
All of the anti-Carter fans are going to hate this.
No doubt. It adds a bit more drama and tension to things.
Tomorrow it seems we have a bit from everyone but the main story is the Murder reveal of Lucy.
Will the hour episode be one episode or will it be like most double episodes two that are put together with a midway 'doof-doof' moment? The 55 minute run time seems to suggest the latter.
Will the hour episode be one episode or will it be like most double episodes two that are put together with a midway 'doof-doof' moment? The 55 minute run time seems to suggest the latter.
1 Hour. It's written as 1 hour
The LIVE scenes will likely be part of the Duff,Duff anyway as that's likely to be the murder reveal
55 minutes is just so the BBC can fit the news update in. I expect it will start at 7:28 and finish shortly after 8:25.
Tonight and last night it over ran a minute or 2 anyway.
Wow, thanks for the spoiler Dan. Right in bold, too. You were able to put the link in the spoiler, so why not the actual spoiler itself?
No problem I thought about it but i would have had to provide a link anyway so decided to do it that way. I didn't want to spoil it for anyone so thought it best to have the Link under spoiler tags too.
I bet ya the killer is in the news tomorrow. BBC News at 10 will most likely run the story.
The Papers will be saying something like '20 million tuned in' before the ratings are even released
1 Hour. It's written as 1 hour
The LIVE scenes will likely be part of the Duff,Duff anyway as that's likely to be the murder reveal
55 minutes is just so the BBC can fit the news update in. I expect it will start at 7:28 and finish shortly after 8:25.
Tonight and last night it over ran a minute or 2 anyway.
Thanks for that Dan, I thought that was the case but the 55 min thing threw me so thought it might have been like previous episodes especially with football being on Monday. At least this will be the final run to the reveal then.
Thanks for that Dan, I thought that was the case but the 55 min thing threw me so thought it might have been like previous episodes especially with football being on Monday. At least this will be the final run to the reveal then.
No problem.
Yeah it was always written as an hour long. I think that if we had a Monday episode then we wouldn't have had a Wednesday episode.
It seems to me it was always the plan to have 90 minutes of EastEnders on Thursday night.
No problem I thought about it but i would have had to provide a link anyway so decided to do it that way. I didn't want to spoil it for anyone so thought it best to have the Link under spoiler tags too.
No problem.
Yeah it was always written as an hour long. I think that if we had a Monday episode then we wouldn't have had a Wednesday episode.
It seems to me it was always the plan to have 90 minutes of EastEnders on Thursday night.
Yeah i think most will have LIVE scenes on Friday anyway given it's LIVE for the whole 30 minutes.
Comments
Well I don't want to be under pressure and come home with a headache well, that's what I am telling myself lol
The two Fantastic creators of EastEnders are the Late Julia Smith and the Late Tony Holland.
Julia Smith
Julia Smith (26 May 1927 – 19 June 1997) was an English television director and producer. She is best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
London-born Smith became involved in television production when she directed the series Suspense in 1962. Soon, she was directing popular BBC shows such as Z Cars (in 1962); and Doctor Who (in 1966), where she directed the stories "The Smugglers" and "The Underwater Menace". In 1967 she directed an adaptation of The Railway Children with Jenny Agutter that was successful enough for it to lead to the fondly remembered 1970 film in which Agutter reprised her role of Roberta.
Whilst working on Z Cars she had met Tony Holland who was a writer for the show. The two of them became an established producer/script-editor team and went on to work for the BBC's long-running hospital drama, Angels (1975) from 1979 to 1983.
Main article: History of EastEnders
In 1983 the BBC contacted Smith and Holland to create a new popular bi-weekly serial drama. Two ideas were given to them, one about a caravan site, the other about a shopping arcade. Neither of them liked either of the ideas, and demanded to be able to create something about what they knew - in the words of Smith - "London - today!"
Together they came up with the idea of a serial set in the East End of London in a Victorian Square. When casting for the show, Smith had the guideline 'Only genuine Eastenders need apply'; it was this that gave her the idea for the name of the show, which would be called EastEnders after other names were rejected. Originally the show was to be called Eastenders, but Jonathan Powell, then Head of Drama at the BBC who had commissioned the show, made the tentative suggestion that the second "e" didn't look good on paper, and said that perhaps it should be capitalized. It was, for which Smith later said "...we were eternally grateful to him!"
Traditionally, the end music to EastEnders begins with dramatic drums, but occasionally, especially when a character departs, a piano introduction is used. This is called Julia's Theme, after Julia Smith.
Her final contribution to EastEnders, along with that of fellow creator Tony Holland, came in early 1989, amid a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) could ever return to the show after being shot and supposedly killed. The character would ultimately return to the series, having apparently survived the shooting, but Smith would not live to see this happen.[1]
After the success of EastEnders, Smith and Holland collaborated again on the ill-fated BBC soap opera Eldorado. Holland created the series — based on an original idea by Verity Lambert — and Smith was producer. Eldorado was produced by Lambert through her own company Cinema Verity Productions. The BBC obviously hoped that, after EastEnders, Smith and Holland could make drama gold again, however the series was cancelled by the new controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob. Smith was blamed for the programme's shortcomings and was fired, which left her very bitter towards the BBC, who she believed hadn't given Eldorado a chance to establish itself.[citation needed] Corinne Hollingworth took over as series producer after Smith left the show, but the series was ended after only one year.
Following the demise of Eldorado, Smith retired from television work. She died of cancer in Kensington and Chelsea,[2] London, in 1997. Several stalwart cast members of EastEnders, including Wendy Richard, attended her funeral.
Tony Holland
Anthony John "Tony" Holland[1] (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was an English actor and television screenwriter best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Tony Holland began his career as an actor, appearing in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Savages and Message for Posterity, a serial for The Wednesday Play in 1967. That same year, a play he developed, The Isle is Full of Noises, was taken up by the BBC and produced by Thirty-Minute Theatre. It was from there, Holland turned to scriptwriting.
Through his agent, Holland was landed a job on Z-Cars as a writer and script editor in 1970. It was here that he met producer and director, Julia Smith and started a long and successful working relationship.
Holland and Smith became an established producer/script-editor team during their time on Z-Cars and went on to work for the BBC's hospital drama, Angels. It was during their time on Angels that the format of the programme was expanded from weekly minute-long episodes to a bi-weekly half-hour serial, with the further possibility of the show being aired all year round.
In 1983 the BBC approached Holland and Smith to produce a new experience for their channel, a bi-weekly soap-opera that would rival the long established ITV favourites, Coronation Street, Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm. The BBC wanted this new serial to reflect "London, today!" and together, Smith and Holland came up with the idea of a programme set in a Victorian Square within the East End of London, focusing on its close working-class families and eccentric Cockney inhabitants. Thus, EastEnders was born.
Holland and Smith wanted a primary focus of EastEnders to be a large extended family, representative of the type most typically found in the East End of London. Holland was from a large London family himself, and in creating some of the show's characters he was able to use some of his own experiences as inspiration for EastEnders central clan the Beales and Fowlers. In creating the stories and characters, Holland delved into family stories, past and present. His aunt Lou Beale came to inspire the EastEnders character of the same name, along with her two children Peter (Pete) and Pauline. Holland also used some of his experiences as a barman in London's pubs and clubs to create the dynamic pairing of Den and Angie Watts, the owners of the Queen Victoria.
Holland worked on EastEnders for four years, initially as script-editor and going on to script many episodes himself. After four years, Holland and Smith decided to leave EastEnders together in 1989 following a dispute with BBC bosses as to whether the character of Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) could return to the series following his exit in February of that year after being shot and supposedly killed. The character would ultimately return to the show 14 years later, having survived the shooting despite being presumed dead.[2]
On his departure from EastEnders in 1989, Holland was approached by Ireland's national broadcaster RTE to give their new urban soap opera Fair City its structure and story lines for the first season.[3]
In 1991, they were famously tempted back to the 'world of Corn'[citation needed] by the BBC to produce Eldorado, loosely based around the lives of expats in Spain. Their new show was launched in July 1992, but plagued by a string of on and off-screen problems, it received little of EastEnders success, and was axed a year later, in July 1993.
In 2001, he was awarded with a Special Achievement Award from the British Soap Awards, and in 2004 he appeared on the Channel 4 documentary How Soaps Changed The World.
Holland and Paul Wade entered into a civil partnership in May 2007. Holland died on 28 November 2007, aged 67, after a long illness.The following day's edition of EastEnders was dedicated to him.
Julia and Tony might have passed away but they have left this Iconic TV show behind for us to enjoy for decades more to come.
Happy birthday EastEnders. Thank you for 30 years of escapism hard-hitting gritty drama, lots of laughs, tears and gasps. You have brought so many colourful, wonderful characters to life and educated us on many important issues. Here's to the next 30!
This week has been INCREDIBLE thus far.
Long live EastEnders!!
Vote for your favourite EVER characters.
Fav Character of All Time
& in SoapAddict101's Survivor game which can be found in the games room.
Sharon Batten @SharonJBatten 37m37 minutes ago
#EELive Just watched the rehearsal of Thursday's hour ep ... you ain't seen nothing yet... @Gittins2Rob @dominictc
I am glad that i made you feel welcome and i hope others feel the same way too.
Not a problem. I love EastEnders and i love this forum.
And thank you. I am glad you like my OP.
Hour Long episode 7:30pm - 8:30pm and Flashbacks 9:25pm to 10:00pm
Both episodes air LIVE scenes
All of the anti-Carter fans are going to hate this.
Tomorrow it seems we have a bit from everyone but the main story is the Murder reveal of Lucy.
That's what I was thinking but I think the aftermath of the Lucy storyline will hopefully continue for a while anyway!
Wow, thanks for the spoiler Dan. Right in bold, too. You were able to put the link in the spoiler, so why not the actual spoiler itself?
The LIVE scenes will likely be part of the Duff,Duff anyway as that's likely to be the murder reveal
55 minutes is just so the BBC can fit the news update in. I expect it will start at 7:28 and finish shortly after 8:25.
Tonight and last night it over ran a minute or 2 anyway.
News just in: Lucy's killer revealed
I bet ya the killer is in the news tomorrow. BBC News at 10 will most likely run the story.
The Papers will be saying something like '20 million tuned in' before the ratings are even released
most of the cast has been in live segments. Think there is a handful that haven't yet. Will everyone get a chance in coming days do you think?
Thanks for that Dan, I thought that was the case but the 55 min thing threw me so thought it might have been like previous episodes especially with football being on Monday. At least this will be the final run to the reveal then.
Yeah it was always written as an hour long. I think that if we had a Monday episode then we wouldn't have had a Wednesday episode.
It seems to me it was always the plan to have 90 minutes of EastEnders on Thursday night.
Yeah i think most will have LIVE scenes on Friday anyway given it's LIVE for the whole 30 minutes.
Well you spoiled it for me.
what I thought assuming cast list is correct