EastSpenders

As soap’s ratings hit all-time low (and over-75s lose their free licences) BBC splashes £10m a year on salaries and £87m on a new set

THE BBC’s flagship soap EastEnders slumped to its lowest ever audience of 2.9million last week – despite being one of the Corporation’s most expensive shows.

But as the audience tumbles, the wage bill is rising, with the cast and crew earning an estimated £10million a year between them. And last year, EastEnders bosses were accused of ‘outrageously overspending’ £86.7 million of licence-fee money on a new Albert Square set.

The audience for last Thursday’s episode, which was aired at 7pm instead of its usual 7.30pm slot to make way for the England vs Norway football clash in the Women’s World Cup, fell even lower – to just 2.4 million – in the final minutes.

That’s less than one-twelfth of the audience the 34-year-old soap drew at its peak, when 30.6million viewers tuned in to the bombshell 1986 Christmas Day episode when Den Watts handed wife Angie their divorce papers.

Cheaper shows without large casts or expensive sets regularly pull in more viewers. For example, Eat Well For Less and War On Plastic With Hugh And Anita were seen by 3.6million.

EastEnders’ rising costs come amid the growing row over the withdrawal of free TV licences for the over-75s, with critics saying the Corporation could make savings to cover the £745million-a-year cost of maintaining the perk.

The most recent figures released by the BBC revealed that actors Danny Dyer (pictured) and Adam Woodyatt, who play Mick Carter and Ian Beale, earn between £200,000 and £249,999 a year. And seven of its other stars, including former Strictly contestant Letitia Dean and Gillian Taylforth, were confirmed as earning between £150,000 and £199,999 annually. Producer Sean O’Connor also fell into that bracket.

Other members of the soap’s 50-strong cast earn close to the £150,000 threshold which requires their pay to be disclosed, while some are paid on a different scale of up to £2,000 per episode.

Last year, the National Audit Office slammed EastEnders bosses for failing to keep a lid on the spending on their new set at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, which is needed to film in high definition.

The project has run £27million over the original budget and it isn’t expected to be completed until 2023, nearly five years late – by which time television insiders fear the audience will be far less than the 2.9million logged last week.

Other shows which will be deemed much better value for money than EastEnders include Countryfile, which draws five million viewers a week, and Ambulance, a fly-on-thewall show that gets 3.7million.

In the last year, the BBC’s mostwatched shows have been Line Of Duty with 10.9 million viewers; Call The Midwife with 8.9million; Luther with 8.8million; and Death In Paradise with 8.2million.

An EastEnders spokesman said last night: ‘With the growing popularity of this year’s Women’s World Cup, it was decided that BBC1 viewers should have the opportunity to watch as many of the matches as possible.

‘Although this meant a late schedule change for EastEnders this week, we are confident that our audience know they can watch EastEnders on BBC iPlayer as we have already seen a significant number of viewers watching this week’s episodes that way.’