It was quite well written but I just couldn't take it seriously. All those staff sitting there saying nothing while Billy did all the speaking.

Reminds me of the Underworld extras in Corrie in the 90s who used to just sit in the Rovers and nod along or shake their heads to whatever Janice said.

I hate the mutes, just don't bother then,
same as when back in the day Stacey shouted at many people WOT ARE YOU LOOKIN AT and people just walk on, you would seriously get smashed in your face more likely if you approach people like that

They were all paid with Petty cash in SOCs office

I think they were corpses.

I hear they are all great mates with Tracey.

we have never seen them before

We really need Extras to start speaking

It might make these Soaps more realistic

Yes I was expecting someone other than Billy to say something since their jobs are on the line.

Silly Billy is shop steward

It is probs down to budget cuts. You can pay someone a lot less if they don't have lines to say. They are cheaper to sit there and nod.

They should've just had Billy in the scene. It looked increasingly ridiculous.

Indeed, it just got worse and worse as it went on. Was big Nigel there? If not, why not?

Does it really cost that much more to have another person in the scene speak such that it's worth having a load of mutes sit there in such an unrealistic fashion? It would have been better if they'd not been there at all and we'd just seen Les tell Billy and then go off to speak to the others off-screen.

What I find daft is if the Coker family have been in business there for 100 years, as Les said, how come we never seen or heard of the funeral parlour in years gone by? Les and Pam only seemed to turn up a couple of years ago

They were in Spring Lane and moved to Albert Square when Spring Lane was redeveloped / the market closed (or whatever happened). Walford's a bigger place than just Albert Square, so there's lots we don't see like "The High Street".

I had no idea Les had a workforce beyond Billy until last night

Les first appeared in 2012 when he oversaw Pat's funeral and it was implied then he knew her quite well but you are right, up until then they were never mentioned.

I thought we saw him before that when he called at the Vic to arrange Stacey's funeral which turned out to be a sick joke. And when was it that he was in a house clearance scam with the Moon brothers ?

If they start talking they are not extra.s any more are they, and they need to be paid a lot more.

Not really, any new owner of the business would still have to employ them, on the same terms, and it would count that they have been there for X years as if Les was still running it, it's called TUPE law , to protect the workforce.

http://smallbusiness.co.uk/interim-m...-know-2106296/

Extras are fine as background filler in pub scenes/street scenes but are ridiculous in scenes such as this one last night where you would expect at least one of them to speak given the circumstances, and not all just make silly gurning faces as Billy spoke on behalf of them

I also thought Billy was there only employee, when yes said to Pam, im going to call the staff for a Meeting, I thought it was just Billy, Come to the Staff Meeting I thought who are you interlopers.

Its coming up to Christmas, no doubt Billy will loose his job, and will then have to do hunting for money,

Extras are not actors. They are cheap/ free because they have no equity card. The equity union agreement states that extras cannot deliver lines. Lines are for paid up equity card holding professional actors.

In this particular scene, the irony of them being mutes is that there's an actual job at a funeral directors called a "mute" (see oliver twist! )

do you have to be a member of equity to act on TV?

I think so for BBC yes.

My friend used to be an extra and now has speaking parts, no questions asked.