Eastenders Baby Death Storyline

[deemented]

Once again, no one can live happily ever after

Ronnie's baby James, dies and she puts his body in Kat and Alfies son's crib, and steals their baby boy, Tommy.

Why oh why oh why do scriptwriters insist on portraying bereaved parents - mothers especially - as mad and deranged??? Maybe it's because they can't begin to imagine how awful the death of a child is, but really, whilst we are mad with grief, it is our own child that we want back, not someone else's stolen child. When are scriptwriters ever going to understand that?

Still, it'll be a riveting watch, no doubt.

I`ve followed this thread, commented on it and complained to the BBC, however, Im still find some of the comments on here extremely distrubing. I have been lucky and have not lost a child, but I am horrified about this storyline.

If i dont like a programme or find it mildly offensive, yes I turn it off. However, this is totally different. EE is on early evening, it is billed as family enertainment, the BBC says it tackles difficult subjects to educate and bring awareness.

The cot death/baby swapping storyline is not family entertainment, does not educate and certainly does not make you aware of a distressing subject - it is simply there to sensentionalise. It is also unforgivable to have this story running through Christmas and NY, when so many families struggle after the loss of a child, the loss of anyone. I lost both of my parents at christmas, they were both very young. The BBC should be sensitive at this time of year as many people find this period difficult anyway.

This thread is incrediably emotional, and Im sure im not the only person to find some posters comments offensive, please think very clearly before you post something.

Yes, I have turned EE off and yes we will complain, together our voices are louder. The BBC cannot ignore us all.

Hello

I watched EE . Last night and leading up to it. I watched Friday and Saturday night with one of my closest friends who is 8 months pregnant.

We both said to one another, we shouldn't be watching it but for some reason we did. Very much like looking at an accident as you drive past.

I lost triplets at 16+ weeks gestation so we were both emotional watching the plot unfold.

I too found the 'reaction' of Ronnie really patronising. I kind of knew what was coming with the fact that Tommy hadn't been checked on, Charlei was pissed in the pub, Kat was rushing home, you just knew something was going to happen, even without the press spoiling it for you!

I've only skimmed the thread (sorry, toddler crawling around me) but wondered where I can complain about the way that the BBC have portrayed her 'losing the plot'?

I am dreading the next few days/weeks of EE and have decided not to watch it until this is all over.

I felt sick watching last night, begging her out loud not to take Tommy, thinking that this isn't the norm for a woman to wander around a crowded pub un-noticed etc.....and then to snatch a baby.

Yes, it's only a soap but when you have been through the loss of ANYONE, grief stays with you and a storyline on a soap can bring it all flooding back.

Sorry, waffling

hello hoho

i cant really comment on your post, as it wasn't me whom made those comments.

personally, i couldnt even bring myself to watch the trailers without cringing.

in my house, we felt a mixture of EE is just bloody rediculous now and how appalling.

so decided not only to not watch those episodes, but bin the whole cringeworthy show weeks ago.

and then not even grace such crap with anymore attention than just that.
as it is, by definition, crap TV, so we dont expect any better from them.
but they will persist and carry on regardless, as we are nation obsessed with soaps and celebrity trivia, so im sure folk will lap up this storyline and give EE continued justification to churn out more.

i hold my fire and attention for stuff that goes on in real life, real people suffering real awful stuff, such as SIDS.
im unmoved by people's obsessions with x factor or EE.

i binned the telly, its a regretful addiction. that way my life is no longer corrupted.

its too close to home as well.
when im expecting a baby, i just dont need to see stuff like that.

This is an upsetting episode and I wouldn't want someone elses child, I would be too distraught grieving over my own. I wouldn't want to let my baby go. If I discovered my baby dead in its cot, I'd be hysterical.
Ronnie didn't portray any of this, but then maybe people react differently.
It's a horrible tragedy for Ronnie again having lost her Daughter and had a miscarriage. I'm suprised the script writers
made this storyline for Ronnie. Is he ever gonna have a happy storyline?

I have never watched EE but I have lost a baby to cot death. The pain is indescribable but I am not mad, irrational or a threat to other women's babies.

Obviously we want to explain death because we live in a scientific culture which does not accept the inexplicable. The guilt, longing and confusion for parents bereaved in this way is therefore bad enough without storylines like this which sound about as stupid, insensitve and damaging as its possible to be.

Also to suggest that any other baby could replace a lost child is hideous. Nothing fills the void left by such a loss. The dead child is always missing.

Absolutely. Despite EE generally being depressing and unrealistic, i watch it for the escapism. I'm so cross about this storyline and i'm now refusing to watch it.

Time to switch to Coronation Street, me thinks...

I agree JJM. Nothing can replace that child or children.

Not even having subsequent children.

The hole remains in your heart.

I am guessing that the writers at EE are playing this out as an act of desperation, rather than the norm.

I doubt any of us here would have stolen a child after losing our own. Or know of anyone who has.

Which is why I find it so shocking/patronising?? (not sure of the word) that they have played the story out like this.

It's not the 'norm' is it? Quite the opposite. Maybe they were hoping for higher ratings by being totally 'outrageous'??

I haven't watched this - seen bits and pieces but think it has become a really distasteful parody of a soap opera in the last few years. But they did portray SIDS responsibly on EE before with baby Hassan and they did that admirably, it was very emotional. But the bits I have seen of this seem more like Hollyoaks histrionics and silly sensational storylines, not credible real-life events.

A real shame, very shallow, and a bit nasty. I was lured back to Corrie with the tram crash episode, but this debacle will only serve to keep me firmly away from the trash that is EE.

trouble with stuff like EE, you know its going to put you thru some torment/discomfort/misery/ diappointment with oneself, BEFORE you watch, and then you watch, and feel all the above and self loathing for being so weak.

been there, done that.

its like drugs, or mcdonalds,

short term fix, long term soul robbing

i had my EE epiphany a few weeks back when i hadnt watched for a while and had no idea what was going on.
it was surreal, its almost like the faces were distorting and twisitng before my very eyes, with the ugliness and misery of it all.
i thought, gosh, that was weird.
how come i never noticed that before?

so when i heard about this latest "offering" it just confirmed what i had already been shown in my near visionary experience.

its just basically awful, the plot leaps are just beyond rediculous now.

saw the stacey xmas episode as my family had it on for xams viewing at their house.
i think once upon a time you could argue the storylines had some odd internal eastenders logic.
but it seems the scriptwriters have even given up that pretence now.

the stacey episode was totally idiotic and ludricrous.

aside from the appalling taste of this baby death story, i can just guess the plot is easily full of the most ludricrous nonsense. leastroiesaside from the

I haven't read through lot of this thread but it seems that thye general reaction is to stop watching EE. I sat down last night to watch the episodes, that I'd recorded. I fast forwarded though them, and then decided that I'm not going to watch it for a couple of weeks. But I reckon that that breaks my EE addiction and I won't go back to it at all.
How could they have got it so wrong????

I have a young child who is perfect, and at the moment I'm going through a hard time, feeing quite low. I did think that this was probably why I couldn't bring myself to watch it, but now I think I would have turned it off anyway. It's horrible, sensationalist, and I hope the viewing numbers goes down enough for them to realise this needs to be brought a conclusion now, not in a couple of years time.
Ridiculous!

Also - to whoever it was that said that soaps cannot portray real lives 'because it would be boring' - actualy the greatest drama is in the minutae of human existence.

A storyline showing the quiet crying, the spoken exchanges between husband and wife, the knowing looks - the real human tragedy behind so many mundane everyday events - is actually fascinating and a priviledge to witness.

A soap that could tone down the aggression, shouting screaming, overblown characters and create real, quiet, passionate characters could potentially do very well.

A realistic SIDS storyline could have been educational, touching, and reached millions of people. This knd of nonsense is damaging and should be challenged. Why should anyone keep quiet about it and 'just turn the TV off'?

Exactly Tigerseye. I found it totally sensationalised.

'Stop press - bereaved, unstable mother steals neighbours' baby but no-one knows because they were wearing the same baby gro'

FFS.

That's how it will pan out. I really hope it's all over soon and they don't draw this out for aaaaaaages. I won't be going back to EE, I'd only just tuned back in!

I can't watch eastenders anymore. I find this storyline really sickening. Thankfully I didn't watch this storyline on tv .

Just sent my complaint to BBC. So sorry to the people who have found this upsetting due to tragedy in their own lives. I personally found the baby swapping story development pretty tasteless, and I think it has been handled irresponsibly by the BBC in pursuit of "drama".

I complained weeks ago when it first leaked. Just complained again, this time to ofcom. I stopped watching weeks ago when I didn't get any response, after watching it from the very first episode. The story is sick. And insulting to bereaved mothers on so many levels.

BTW, what should people say to bereaved parents? I have been wondering this for a long time.

Good for you, PotPourri.

I used to watch it all the time, but stopped watching years ago, after having the DC's.

I think I remember the early episodes too !

But really, you won't miss it !

It's gone downhill badly over the years !

Potpourri - for mr, i'f have just wanted you to sa his name... not cross over the road to avoid me, not tell me 'how well i was coping' or that 'if i were you, i'd have killed myself'.

Just be normal.

potpourri just to say sorry and be willing to listen is enough . I do know it is hard to bring up the conversation and we do appreciate it ( somtimes pathetically so ) when someone says our childs name out loud and just acknowledges the fact that the worst has happened it can make the difference between a crap day and a slightly less crap day .

Thank you deemented and travelling wilbury. I can see that saying their name would be a good thing to do. Just spending a little time remembering them together.

That's very helpful. I'll try to remember to do this.

That's made me feel better. It was hard, but that is what I did with a new friend who I discovered lost her daughter to leukemia. It felt right say her daughter's name, but very difficult. Her eyes filled with tears, which was hard too. But I realise that my discomfort is so insignificant to the pain she goes through every day. Life really is not fair

Oh dear it is so difficult. I know 2 women who have lost grown up children. I have never known whether I should be talking about them/referring to them or not. I didn't want to upset the poor mothers. But thanks for the advice here, I shall make sure I don't shy away from the subject in future,
I have finally managed to put a complaint in with ofcom as well as to the bbc earlier.

For me, only a few people would actually touch me....as if the death of my sons was catching. One or two gave me a massive bear hug and said 'Matty was so funny' or 'Gareth was such a cute baby' - definitely mention the childs name, oh yes and just someone who will listen while you talk about them or ask you about them.

No death so sad as that of a child xx

Thanks for sharing this deemented and travellingwilbury