Old meets new on the streets of Walford
Eastenders E20, the little brother of BBC’s flagship soap opera will return to the Internet and BBC Three next month, and according to Deborah Sathe, the series producer, it will be “more exciting, more dangerous and more amusing” than ever.
For the uninitiated, E20 was launched last year by the Beeb and represented a bold project designed to allow young writers (under 22) and actors to work with the Eastenders crew in making their own web spin-off of the show. This year the gritty, hand-held antics of Walford’s youngsters go into overdrive as the show ‘invades’ a regular slot on BBC Three, opening the programme up to a larger mainstream audience.
More than just a ‘BBC Hollyoaks’, E20 hopes to find talent of tomorrow and act as a junior version of the succesful BBC Writer’s Academy. Already some of the young E20 writers have worked directly with the main team on stories for the characters they’ve created. As Deborah Sathe explained when she spoke to the Beehive, this is something she hopes will continue as the brand develops:
“I’m trying to establish E20 as a massive training ground for new talent at the BBC.
“The young people we’re working with have great ideas and are brilliant for creativity.
“It’s been the best job I’ve ever done, I love it.” said Sathe with genuine enthusiasm. “I love seeing the kids invade Walford”
Just as Phil Mitchell is keeping the adult show ‘real’ by becoming a crack addict, Sathe believes the introduction of street dance into the second series of the micro-soap will give it an authentic East-End flavour of youth.
Flawless will give the show some urban dance grooves
I couldn’t help but make the obvious comparison to the American show that everyone’s trying to emulate right now …
“It’s not Glee at all” Deborah laughed.
“Street dance is something that the younger generation have reclaimed in recent years, and we want to celebrate that in the show.
“It’s not been since, maybe, John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever that young people have really embraced dance in this way. It’s something for everyone now.
“It’s a beautiful thing to watch how the kids get absorbed into it.”
She’s put her money where her mouth is too, hiring Britain’s Got Talent dance troupe Flawless to appear in the show as well as their choreographer, Marlon “Swoosh” Wallen, to add a little bit of urban dance magic to scenes throughout the series – I guess the actors haven’t quite reclaimed dance themselves yet, they still need a little help?
Roxanne McKee, twice 'Sexiest Female' at the British Soap Awards will add a touch of glamour to the gritty streets of Walford
The talent show stars won’t be the only special guests either. As well as new regulars, Sol, Stevie, Asher and Naz, former Hollyoaks star Roxanne McKee will be appearing in the show as upmarket totty Pippa.
“Roxanne was really great” said Deborah, which prompted me to enquire as to whether there could be a regular slot for the actress in the grown-up version of the show.
“There are no plans for that to happen” she replied. But added: “Never say never, Bryan Kirkwood (Exec Producer of Eastenders) is always on the lookout for new talent to join the show.”
Last time, the four lead characters Leon, Mercy, Zsa Zsa and Fatboy all made it into the main show so there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing at least some of the newbies treading the streets of Walford pretty soon.
“Watch this space.” teased Deborah. “I think the four (new actors) that we have are smashing.”
Series one of E20 received some criticism because of the varied lengths of the episodes (3-16 mins) so this time the show will be standardised to 14 minutes a piece.
Deborah explained: “Last time we made the episodes to the strength of the story. We were still experimenting. But now the show will be on TV (as a BBC Three omnibus) every week, so we have to keep the episodes the same length.
She added: “We listened to the fans of the show, and they wanted longer episodes.”
A further innovation is the introduction of Twitter teasers for the programme … in fact they’ve already begun.
“Although you’ve not seen them yet, there are already two characters living in the square and they are in communication with some of our existing cast.”
Some of the new crew chill out above Roxy's salon, waiting to enter the square
If you log onto Twitter you can follow the antics of Fatboy (@manlikefatboy), Stevie (@stevie4olly), Naz (@badgal_naz) and Olly (@OllyManHall) as they prime the audience for the new series.
It’s a good innovative idea from the Beeb, and despite only being launched two days ago, the #E20S2 hashtag is already receiving a bit of a buzz in the Twittersphere as teenagers try to find a way to get through the summer holidays.
The new series hasn’t begun airing yet, but Deborah Sathe has infectiously ambitious plans for E20:
“I’m ever hopeful there will be a series three, and four … and a feature film!”
The new series airs in September, but for now you can watch series one and discover more about the new characters over at the official BBC website
