ENDERS MANOR A RIGHT DANGER
Move is on as soap set falls apart
THE iconic EastEnders set is falling apart and a health and safety horror after 34 years of filming.
Cast and crew are keen to get out of their outdated Albert Square set, which is in such poor condition it is “no longer fit for purpose”.
But BBC bosses were last night blasted for being late and overbudget on a new HD-ready set.
The new East End housing estate replica should have been ready this summer, but may not be finished until 2023 – and has cost £27million more than expected.
It has been dogged by delays including the discovery of potentially deadly asbestos and a string of health and safety issues.
The National Audit Office condemns the publicly funded corporation in a report out today about its project – dubbed “E20”.
NAO chief Amyas Morse said: “The BBC will not be able to deliver value for money in the way that it originally envisaged.
“It is surprising that some of the reasons for this were built in from the beginning.
Poor
“Despite recent project management improvements, E20 is late and over budget.”
Auditors said “unexpected asbestos has been discovered at each major phase of construction”.
And the NAO blames “poor BBC site records” for the problem, which cost £1.8m to fix.
When EastEnders was launched in 1985 with stars such as the late Leslie Grantham and Wendy Richard, bosses planned to use the site at BBC Elstree for just two years.
But the successful soap has stayed there ever since, producing hundreds of episodes a year.
The E20 programme to build a new set was launched in 2013.
It will provide a more realistic take on the capital city.
Last night a spokesman for tje BBC said: “The set of EastEnders was only intended for use for two years.
“Over 30 years later, the show remains one of the BBC’s flagship programmes and yet is filming from a set that is no longer fit for purpose.
“The new set will be suitable for HD filming for the first time and extend Walford to better reflect modern East End London.”
She said the building work was “a large, complex project” and had faced “challenges”.
It was expected to cost £59.7m and be completed by August 2018, but is now set to cost £86.7m and not be complete until 2023.
Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “It is concerning that the BBC has been unable to keep to budget. It is critical that every pound of licence-fee payers’ money is spent effectively.”
WE’RE used to the lives of the characters in EastEnders falling to pieces.
Now it looks like the famous old set is going the same way.
It seems BBC bosses only expected the Albert Square show to last two years.
Some 34 years later, it’s still the BBC’s most popular soap and its set is “not fit for purpose”.
But this is more than a lick-of-paint job. In fact, the repair work is going to cost the BBC £86.7million.
Or, more precisely, it’s going to cost you – the licence-fee payer – £86.7m.
The cost of the job is spiralling out of control like Phil Mitchell with a bottle of Scotch.
Let’s hope bosses get it sorted quickly. Or the ratings war with Corrie will be the least of their problems.