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.

9 million people apparently do.

I really am not sure if I have the right to post on this thread, but this bbc plot has incensed me.

For all of you who doubt the depth of the emotion of the parents you hear on here, I can tell you that as a bystander it is the most horrific experience, and then journey, you can experience (obviously this is just own my experience and possibly there are those who are just making something out of nothing).

At 15 I worked as a mother's help for our neighbour. She had a toddler, and I started looking after him and his brother when the younger of the 2 was 6 weeks old. I was looking after them whilst their mum was out, 4 days a week. This was until the baby was 13 weeks old, and I found him in his cot.

Of course the feelings were coloured by being 15, having NO life experience at all (other than losing a rarely-visited grandmother). I, of course, assumed I'd done something wrong, made the formula wrong, given hinn too much puree...

I couldn't get hold of either parent (before the days of mmobile phones of course), and ended up with a phobia if the phone had to ring more than a couple of times before someone answers, because I spent all afternoon waiting for someone to answer then numbers I'd been given. Not sure why I included that, it's only one of a long list of far more unpleasant results.

Fortunately my mum was home by chance, a nurse, and she made the trip to hospital whilst I looked after the older brother.

I think the ee storyline is unbelievably crass and horrific for several reasons,but in the end it's just that 30 years on, I know that I had to grow up that moment, and nothing has ever been the same since. Nothing will remove the look on their father's face, when he came round to apologise to me that night.

So, before storywriters try to pass off this abysmal tripe as "useful" or "what our audience connects with", or however else they sleep at night, they should spend a moment asking those who know. Did they not think to ask mothers/those who have experienced it for real because they knew it would make for a far more confronting storyline? One that they can't box into a 26 minute segment.

Oh Jackaroo, what a terrible thing for you to have to deal with. At such a young age too. It must have been so awful for all of you.

I am trying to see this in an objective light- I don't wish to be harsh and I cannot say that I know how anyone who has suffered cot death feels, because I am fortunate in that it has not affected me, only an absolute fool could not fail to realise how upsetting it is-however...

The storyline itself is absolutely appallingly written. The writer is shit.
If, and I do mean if, Eastenders were some surreal drama that did not even pretend to have any semblance of realism at all, maybe, this just may work as a storyline.

What the dumbass writer/s have not realised is this: if you are going to have realism in a drama you've got to make it credible and REALISTIC!!

You cannot have a situation where a midwife realises a child's club foot is missing and shrugging it off! A club foot does not just disappear.
Total and utter tosh.
NOTE to Eastenders writers: if you're going to make it real, make it real. If you are going to go all fantasy land, don't even pretend that your soap has any realism in it at all. Go the whole f*ing hog: Phil Mitchell is an alien, the Queen Vic a massive spaceship and Walford an outpost of Mars. You get the picture.

I don't get why people keep mentioning a club foot when there has been no mention of it on the program

Compo - I have read through about 4 different magazines and it says about the club foot in every one of them. I don't think it has been mentioned in EE. Another example of rubbish scriptwriting probably!!

I would have thought one of the rules for writing Eastenders and the like is that it might be OK to have a fantasy element involved in storylines that are not going to provoke strong emotions because people will just shrug them off, but that the storylines that will provoke strong emotions have to be realistically and sensitively approached.
I think the writers have made a big error.

Yet no one sees fit to actually be answerable - i know it's probably because of the holidays, but i haven't had one reply from any of my complaints, except the usual computer generated ones. I'd have thought they would have had someone available to answer complaints. Still, i shall see what Tuesday brings.

FWIW, I struggled a lot with how to handle the 'how many children do you have?' question, and have eventually come to the conclusion that it's not my place to make anyone else feel comfortable, so when asked, i say that i have four children, but only three are here with me, or i say that i have two living sons and a daughter.

Too right Dee about no-one being answerable. They are being very slippery by responding to complaints about the swap by saying "We have sought guidance and advice from the FSID, as well as speaking to parents who themselves have lost babies through cot death, to ensure that our portrayal is as sensitive and realistic as possible.". It is quite clear that the swap part makes all this very far from sensitive and realistic and that FSID absolutely did not advise about that. They are misrepresenting FSID in these responses to complaints about the sawp, and on that basis surely they themselves could complain to OFCOM.

I'm furious about this storyline. SIDS is still the most common cause of death in babies under a year. Whose bright idea was it to adress this devastating issue by turning it into a outlandish 'baby swap' story?

I will be complaining.

I have complained, and told them I don't want a reply regarding the SIDS aspect, but the babyswapping one.

Can I ask about how to respond as well please?

I work in a shop, a lady was recently buying clothes for a little girl. I asked if they were a christmas present, maybe for her daughter? The lady replied they were for her niece, her two daughters had died. I replied with how sorry I was to hear that- which I genuinely was, by the way, I cannot begin to imagine how heartbreaking that would be. But afterwards, after reading a few things on here, I wondered if I should have asked maybe there names, how would have been a "nice" way to reply to this?

I really don't want to offend anybody asking this, and have taken on board a lot of things you lovely people have said regarding people I do already know, but this lady was a stranger to me, albeit someone I was having a pleasant conversation with, and I honestly wondered what would have been a "good" reply to this.

I think your response was perfect, to be honest. xx

Oh, good! I did worry in case I had inadvertantly said something wrong. All of you ladies are so strong on here, I have the utmost respect for you and the way you offer help to everyone else.

Speaking for myself I find it easier to forgive the people who say something really stupid (yes that means you who told me that at least I'd get "closure after the funeral") than those who say nothing at all.

Anyone who has had a conversation with me without ever mentioning my DS has a special kind of dislike resrved for them.

Youre right, HearMeRoar. Its infuriating me that they are undermining FSID, and putting them in a bad light, by insinuating they had anything to do with the babyswap story.

The cowardice of the EE producers and BBC in hiding behind FSID is appalling.

And yet they continue to send out that decptive blurb even after FSID have declared they had nothing to do with the babyswap.

They have no right to imply to parents bereaved by cot death that the organistaion supporting them would betray them and have anything to do with this callous tripe.

This will probably make most organisations wary of dealing with EE/ advising the BBC again, in case they get their reputation used and abused as the BBC have here.

*have done here.

They are ignoring everyones complaints and enquiries about the babyswap twirlymum, even when people are enquiring in very blunt terms.

They just respond about cotdeath and try to hide behind FSID advising them on that.

I would think this is because they have no justification or excuse to offer for why they went ahead with this.

If anyone was being honest in the BBC I imagine the actual response would be "sorry it distressed you, we knew it would distress a lot of people and cause more pain, we were told that in advance, but we take our commitment to producing sensationalist crap very seriously at this time of year so we thought we'd go ahead anyway."

at Beach.

That would be a brilliant thing for them to say. Mainly because IT IS THE TRUTH!!!

Perhaps we should all send them suggestions for how to reply to the complaints. I'm sure we could sum up the situation a lot more accurately than their surrent blurb.

if they are ignoring complaints or giving stock replies, cant say i would have expected anythin different, tbh.

they will just think of their viewing figures and regard you guys as anamolies.

beachholioday, last paragraph, spot on.

I do understand why people are angry/upset.

But don´t EE take all such storylines as far as possible?

Why no one has to like it, I can´t see why anyone is surprised or thinks that EE would have a change of heart on this.

If you don't understand why people are upset, diddl, then you obviously haven't read all of this thread, have you?

I haven't the energy nor inclination to explain... again...

Not expecting a change of heart from EE...not arsed interested to be honest.

Will be interesting to see, however, just how many complaints they get. If nobody speaks out, if nobody complains - Oh I dont know - it just feels to me as if I am letting down the memory of my lovely lads by just sitting here moaning!! I had to complain to the BBC. My Matty used to say 'Did they do it by accident or by purpose Mum? Cause if it was by purpose then I am going to get even !!

Well I reckon it was by purpose Matty xxxx