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.

So soaps don't inform people about social issues? People don't believe what they see on TV? Sectors of society don't deserve to be accurately portrayed on TV? It's all high melodrama so we should just switch it off f we don't like it?

There is in fact some evidence to suggest that soaps partiularly EE are damaging to children because they give them a negatively distorted view of society - namely that conflict is resolved through shouting and violence, and positive human relationships are absent.

Look, YOU switch off if you want. But for women who want or need to feel they have had their voice heard, let them do what they feel is right for them.

I've said in an earlier post that the soap 'expert' on This Morning who went to a special viewing of the episodes was told this was a storyline the ee hope to continue for years

WannaBe, you keep saying complaining wont do anything, they wont pull the storyline and they will let it run its course, even though probably it has not all been filmed yet. How are you so sure? Do you have some inside information?.

I only ask as I imagine that if they recieve so many complaints and the media turns on them aswell then they could wrap the story up pretty quickly.

Great post last but one SAF. Spot on. Sullied women = an unhappy ever after.

The BBC are simply not allowed to do anything in the name of ratings. Screening porn in the early evening might draw massive audiences, but they aren't allowed to do it. (no I am NOT comparing this with porn ). They have gone a step too far. It is offensive, and this needs to be pointed out and taken on board so that they stop stereotyping bereaved parents in this way and don't make similar mistakes in the future in EE or other programming. See my post above about the BBC's mission and remit. They are taxpayer funded. They have responsibilities and they themselves claim that their programming is there to inform and educate.

TigerseyeMum has hit the nail on the head. Soaps reflect real life and the audiences learn from them. I think it is perfectly understandable and indeed laudable to take action to try to influence how the BBC are portraying a vulnerable group (the bereaved) in primetime TV.

but positive action isn't achieved by watching it and then complaining.

Tv programmes like EE thrive on their ratings, and while people are watching it (even if it's so they can complain about it) they are still getting the ratings and have no reason to act, "well we've had a thousand complaints but we've still got 15 million viewers..." iyswim. After all, they don't know that x number of their viewers are watching in order to complain about it.

So the first positive way to react is to stop watching it, and to try to get others to stop watching it. The less viewers a programme gets, the more likely they are to change their approach.

We live in a media age now, it's easy enough to publicise something like this say, over the media of twitter/facebook.

If everyone on here who watches EE could get ten of their friends to stop watching, and they in turn could get ten of their friends to stop watching, and so on, you could achieve quite a dip in viewers. Even more so if you could get someone, a public figure, on side, say someone like lorraine kelly (she's on twitter and is usually quite good at publicising things).

You could have a publically known boycott of eastenders on a set day - I would recommend the episode that is the funeral, and get the media involved - again through twitter and facebook.

Complaining isn't enough; it only expresses personal, individual views. A mass boycott on the other hand sends a clear message.

I agree with a re-shoot PotPourri. Had hoped Kat sayong 'that's not my baby' was the beginning of the end of the storyline...

God I hate EE. Stopped watching it when they did the 'burying Max in the woods' shitty storyline.

Awful.

I have banned it from this house, said I won't be watching it again on my FB status, e-mailed the BBC, Watchdog and OFCOM to complain of the portrayal of a 'mad Ronnie'.

EE is now banned from the Mouse house.

Actually, the people who need to sit up and take notice of all this are not just the scriptwriters and editors etc of EE, but people higher up in the Beeb. The people who wrote this are almost certain to stick by their 'creative work' and defend it, unless someone more senior forces an apology and makes damned sure this sort of tripe is not permitted ever again.

As an aside, storylines do get pulled and rewritten, for example Bianca Jackson's upcoming stuff was all done in a hurry before Christmas because her maternity leave started unexpectedly early and they had to fudge her sudden departure. In fact there is some evidence this storyline itself has already been toned down quite a bit. We know the last few episodes were recut following test screenings which appauled the audiences. There is also some suggestion that the reveal of the swap might have originally been intended to go on for months, whereas the internet speculation is that it's been filmed and will happen within a few weeks. (That may of course be wrong, and it could be that people assumed the storyline would go on for 1 year plus because of actors' contract durations, or that in fact the storyline will go on for months, but the longest part will be the fallout after the swap is uncovered).

The actor/actress that play Alfie and Kat were brought back in to do a storyline that they found shocking, and they were told it would run for 2 years. I assume, this is it. I hope it isn't.

A well-publicised mass boycott of the funeral episode is actually a reasonable idea Wannabe. I don't think that makes individual complaints pointless, however.

I watched the 31 Dec episode, but none since on principle (and am usually a regular viewer). I am aware of the content of ongoing episodes from reading summaries online, and have seen photo stills etc.

individual complaints only carry weight if there are enough of them.

Look how many people complained about the Jan Moir article about Stephen Gateley for instance, and no action was taken there. And less people read the daily mail than watch eastenders, so you'd need an unprecedented number of complaints in order that any action be taken.

x-factor routinely receives in excess of a thousand complaints on issues that range from Dannii Minogue's comments to a bisexual contestant a couple of years ago to the atire/routines of the guest artists/dancers and the inability to vote for certain contestants - these have never been upheld.

Dont you think the complaints received about Jan Moir's article might make her less likely to write homophobic rubbish again? Or make her newspaper think a bit more carefully about publishing it?

And wouldnt it be a horrible reflection on our society, and far worse for Stephen Gately's husband, family and friends if less people had complained?

Something else I found interesting from reading the blog on the EE website, was the reaction from many of the viewers; they were appalled by the storyline, because they didn't want to know about SIDS.

That is an entirely different thing, and a good reason to do a storyline, iyswim, but by adding to the horror (if that is indeed possible) it just feeds the idea that it should be taboo and kept under the radar.

Oh, and I haven't watched it for years, but I feel I have enough information from other sources to complain.

I think, Wannabe, by focusing on not watching, you are missing a trick. Those who are most profoundly affected will NOT be watching it, just to see what to complain about. They know what the problem is. To reiterate a PP, it's not the ratings that should speak to them, it's individual, real, reactions, and that should be shocking the board at the BBC, not the writers.

There are plenty of ads where I think "what were they thinking?"; I think in the middle of a commissioning/creative meeting you could all easily convince themselves that they were onto a good thing. But isn't it interesting that they didn't think to tell FSID about the rest of the story??? Do you think they knew it was maybe a little sensationalist, and that FSID might in fact not want anything to do with it?

apologies for unpolished content, breakfast in here...

Yes Jackaroo, I agree. If you've watched the video clip interview on the BBC blog that I linked to above, it features Simon Ashdown (Eastenders Series Consultant, whatever that means!) explaining how they thought it all through to make sure it was credible that no-one noticed the difference in the two babies. He seems very pleased with it all.

You can just imagine them planning it all out, and in their group think, simply failing to step back and think wait a minute, NO! No, this isn't clever and neat and a fascinating little challenge to solve about how to make sure no-one can tell 2 babies apart. No, none of this is believable or realistic, it's contrived and stupid. And no, this is not an appropriate storyline to follow, it is highly offensive to a vulnerable group of people and will perpetuate some nasty stereotypes. I thought this is what all the BBC's infamous beaurocracy, guidelines and layers of management were supposedly for? So that someone points this out before something is filmed, and certainly before it's screened.

Apologies for not having read the whole thread (its 26 pages after all) but I've turned off EE since I found out about the storyt line.

Its just crass. I've had a very close friend lose her baby to SIDS and not once did she ever go mad, she was too torn apart by grief. Never did she want someone else's baby, she just wanted her own.

Its all a load of sick bollocks that doesn't properly portray bereaved parents at all. Bereaved mums and dads have a hard enough time as it is coming to terms with the loss of their child and the general inability of those around them to be able to support them properly or know what to say or do for the best. Many end up feeling that they are on their own with their grief as the world moves along even though theirs has been torn apart.

And how are they portrayed? As mad baby stealing woman.

The BBC has failed massively on this one and I just can't be doing with watching that tripe ever again.

Can someone start a facebook campaign about boycotting the funeral episode? I would definately join - but don't know how to do this. (Then post link here)

And can mumsnet please contact some key celebs (e.g. Lorraine Kelly, the loose women, nigella, other people on tv/in the public eye...) and newspapers - asking them to support said campaign.

I do agree that a mass boycott will give weight to the complaints. And signs that a serious boycott will happen may even make them consider pulling the story before the funeral even happens.

But the distaste needs to be registered on a public level not an individual level.

I can't find anywhere where a tv programme has been pulled/altered due to the level of complaints received, so in order to achieve this here there will need to be an unprecedented number of complaints. And that can only be achieved by mass publicity through the media.

And while you have the likes of sharon Marshall raving about this storyline on this morning that just isn't happening.

Has anyone thought to contact this morning to ask wtf Sharon Marshall is thinking being so publically in favour of this storyline?

I said that earlier wannabe. She obviously thought this was a fabulous storyline the way she was smiling enthusiastically while talking about it. Stupid cow.

If anyone can use twitter why don't they contact Phillip Schofield etc to see if they'll do an item on this.