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.

The new executive producer of ee has only been in charge of the show since November. He said his aim was to 'sex up' the programme. This storyline must've been one of the first decisions he made in his new job.

BBC received complaints about this storyline before anyone saw the programs.

They essentially dismissed complaints made by those who hadn't seen it, said they were going to do a realistic depiction, had worked with FSID and bereaved parents etc and we should see how well they did it.

So some of us watched in order to make a more informed complaint and tackle the issue. Some of us wouldnt or couldnt but are still very angry at the damage BBC have done in showing this and will equally still complain anyway.

We are complaining that this has been done.

Whether we personally sat through and felt offended is not the issue.

The horrible stereotype that EE is perpetuating is the issue. And the horrible idea that scenes of a cotdeath are "not tragic enough" and EE seems to feel they need to add cheap melodrama and sensationalism to them. Which is absolutely brutal.

Having watched the episodes I don't think they were as bad as I was expecting (which says a lot about what I expect from 'Eastenders') It is very crass to use the tragic death of a baby to move the plot along and I think people are right to question the taste of such a decision . I'm wondering where they will go with this tbh. At some point the switch will be discovered, and then what? Ronnie carries on living in the square?

FFS.

That is my other beef to all of this. You know your own baby no matter what.

Mothers with twins know the difference between the two. Always.

How could you not know what your baby looks like.

Nah, they'll cart her off to the asylum, won't they?

God forbid they give the woman the help she so obviously needs.

They are not as bad as you were expecting Chickens because the beeb showed the episodes to a test audience and they were slammed as too upsetting and dark. The eps you saw are cut versions.

EE plans for this storyline to go on 'for years.'

So that means we'll be inflicted with it on the main terrestial tv channel that we all have to pay for at primetime for a very long time.

Nice

Whatever, I bet it's all forgotten about within a month (much like Phil's crack addiction ).

Shabba, totally spot on...sadly

I would imagine they want to do one of their wonderful court cases when it all comes out. But I do think that the more it is complained about, the shorter it will be.

As no-one is sure when this ends, and they intially implied it would be a year or two, I think they are just going ahead atm for their ratings and essentially stopping if/when they feel they have to.

Does anyone else remember when Coronation Street did a similar-ish storyline years ago? It was Kevin Webster's Wife (Not Sally). Think her name was Alison. They had a baby and it died in hospital a few days later. She then left the hospital and kidnapped little Bethany, Gail's granddaughter. When they were found, Kevin's Wife then killed herself. Think she jumped in front of a lorry or something like that. Anyway, I was just thinking about it. Eastenders isn't the only soap to portray bereaved Mothers as kidnappers unfortunately.

What, so Kat is screaming that it'snot her baby (no mention that the baby has a club foot - ooooh how did that happen?), and no one thinks a thing about Roxy acting bereaved and having a baby that looks like tommy and doesn't have a club foot.

What a lot of shit. I don't understand why they couldn't have just had the baby death - that is more than enough to deal with. That is hideous enough. And if dealt with properly would have been educational and open some taboos while also (hate to say it) 'entertaining'. The swap undermines the story, and also demonises bereaved parents and adds to the taboo of babies dying.

Eastenders should apologise for this gross miscalculation and reshoot sharpish so that Kat sees Tommy, recognises him, gets him back, Ronnie gets to say her goodbyes to James, and the whole thing gets put behind them.

This can be done, and has been done before where soap storylines are inappropriate due to current affairs.

Yes to the court case. With suitably dramatic dragging down to the cells. I also predict that Ronnie will be out in weeks with fab new hair and a diabolical scheme. It really is utter toss.

Good point swallowedafly. There does seem to be a 'damaged goods' element to some of the characters.

I agree completely swallowedfly.

I would dearly dearly love for someone from the beeb/EE to come and actually be accountable to us for this. I'd be very interested in what they had to say.

Such a well-known soap has far-reaching effects too. Thinking about it, I spoke to my mother yesterday and she seemed very down and flat, which I assumed was because my father has been poorly.

But, she had a 'miscarriage' of her first baby - in fact she gave birth having been induced because the baby had died at 8 months. It traumatised her and she has remained affected ever since. She does not watch EE but with so much about it in the news and media she could not possibly have avoided hearing about it.

It makes me so mad that something that should be a frivolity, a source of entertainment, has stooped so low as to abuse such a subject to win a ratings war. Sickening.

It is not 'just a soap'. They need to end this nastiness now.

look, I'm not saying that this is ok in the name of entertainment. In fact I don't actually think that eastenders is remotely entertaining - the level of depressive storylines for the christmas episodes is legendary and why anyone watches it at all is beyond me.

But the kinds of people that think that bereaved mothers are deranged probably already hold those types of views - you don't generally, as a rational thinking person, watch a storyline like this and suddenly think "OMG, mothers that suffer the loss of a child are mentalists who might come after my child," most rational-thinking individuals will think "what a bloody ridiculous storyline."

And really, what are people hoping for by complaining - yes of course your view will be made known to the bbc/ofcom, but the storyline isn't going to be pulled, it has to run its course, they're not going to pull the show or similar off the back of a few complaints, and in the meantime people who have been through a loss are watching so that they can complain.

It really is better just to switch it off.

I second that deemented.

Can we have Joyce Epstein from FSID on as well to explain herself too?

I know that MN have been on here already but what about an update on what they plan to do?

That's an incredibly passive response to something that deserves more positive action wannabe.

Because they think they can get away with it. I, for one, would very much like to show them that they cannot, and shouldn't be able to!

and unfortunately, those who are watching so they can complain are adding to their ratings so the opposite is being achieved.