EastEnders’ Christmas special attracts the highest ratings of the decade
In 1986, staff from the social research organisation Mass Observation asked thousands of volunteer diary-keepers to record how they spent Christmas Day. The replies proved – if anyone still needed convincing – that, in many homes, Christmas meant Christmas TV. And, this year in particular, it meant EastEnders.
Since it was already the most popular programme on British screens, the BBC opted to treat viewers to not one but two instalments, the first just after 6.30pm, the second at 10pm. Programme details in Radio Times offered tantalising clues as to what would unfold across the evening by including two short snatches of dialogue. The first was apparently from Angie, whose husband “Dirty Den” was the landlord of the Queen Vic pub: “Nothing can go wrong, Den. I want this to be the best Christmas we’ve ever had.” For the second instalment, the magazine’s listings featured an altogether darker line: “They should bring back hanging for people like Den Watts.”
What on earth was capable of provoking such a terrifying outburst after that initial display of goodwill? The diaries reveal a nation of viewers on tenterhooks. “Ate Christmas pudding with cream and sauce in lounge in front of TV,” wrote one, “Watched EastEnders with great glee and everybody determined to watch second half at 10pm.” “9.35pm: more conversation then more TV as we were all waiting for the day’s second episode of EastEnders,” another recorded. “We all agreed that the Beeb had been very crafty.”
By 10.30pm, all had been revealed. Den had discovered that Angie had lied to him about being terminally ill, and now served her divorce papers in coldblooded revenge. If that wasn’t dramatic enough, Pauline Fowler had also discovered that Den was the father of Michelle’s baby – another long-running plotline that had sparked much audience speculation. It was melodrama with the dial turned to maximum. But it proved to be a ratings winner, too. Thirty million of us watched – the biggest television audience of the 1980s.
It was melodrama with the dial turned up to 11 – but it proved to be a ratings winner, too