E(ASTENDERS) = MC (ALBERT) SQUARE(D)
New ‘Time Travel’ plot set to thrill sci-fi soap fans
THE BBC has announced a bold new fantasy plotline for EastEnders later this year which they hope will thrill watchers of the popular BBC1 soap, and draw in a new audience of sci-fi fans. The daring new storyline will see Sharon Watts discover a strange portal behind The Queen Vic, through which she travels back in time in an attempt to convince her teenage rock group The Banned not to split up.
Back in 1986, the primetime soap’s viewers were enthralled when youthful characters Sharon Watts, Ian Beale, Kevin Carpenter and Ian ‘Wicksy’ Wicks formed a musical group. Subsequent episodes chronicled The Banned’s career – from their disastrous debut gig in the Queen Vic, through all the arguments over musical differences and direction. The storyline came to an end when the group split up acrimoniously following an embarassing performance in a Walford ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition after disgruntled former member Harry Reynolds sabotaged their equipment.
“If there’s one thing that everyone at EastEnders regrets, it’s that we didn’t see more of The Banned,” producer Sharon Batten told us. “They were young, cool, talented, and authentic. They had it all going for them, and it’s time to bring them back.”
CURLY
The new storyline begins with Sharon discovering a portal through time whilst stacking empty kegs round the back of the Queen Vic, and travelling back to 1986. There she sees The Banned – including her younger self – performing their hit Something Outta Nothing. Shocked and afraid, Sharon stumbles back into the portal and returns to the present day. In an attempt to conceal what has happened from other pubgoers, she puts a bin in front of the rip in the space-time continuum.
MO
Later on, she finds herself humming the tune that she saw the band perform 35 years in the past. Cockney co-star Danny Dyer notices and asks her what the song is, but she brushes him off by telling him it was just something she heard on the radio. In that moment, Sharon realises that The Banned had something special. Returning to the time-travel portal after closing time, she once again goes back to 1986 to convince the group not to split up.
“As with all time-travel plotlines, there are lots of paradoxes and impossibilities,” said Batten. “We had to be careful that Sharon didn’t interact with her younger self, which could lead to a temporal causality loop.”
“Instead, our story sees Sharon approaching Simon Wicks, The Banned’s keyboard player, and telling him how good the group is. Flattered by her attention, he makes a pass at her and they begin a passionate ‘Mayand-September’ affair.”
LARRY
According to Batten, the storyline will leapfrog across the decades, with modern-day Sharon attempting to stop The Banned from breaking up in the past, while trying to keep her timetravelling fling with Wicksy concealed from her jealous younger self.
Script writers are aware that if modern-day Sharon is successful in her bid to keep The Banned together in 1986, it could change the whole course of Albert Square history. “Sharon could return to present day Albert Square only to find a 70-yearold Dirty Den and Ange, complete with silver corkscrew hair, still in charge of the Vic,” said Batten. “Or Arthur Beale could have found a copy of the Racing Post from the future in a bin and won a fortune at the bookies.”
She continued: “To stop that happening, the new story will see The Banned stay together, but move to Australia so their career will have no impact on the goings on in Albert Square. That way, the past 35 years of the soap will still make sense.”
PERRY
“The Ian, Kevin, Sharon and Wicksy who appear in the show post-1986 will be revealed as long-lost twins of the band members in Australia, who were adopted as babies or something.” “We haven’t finalised it quite yet.” The younger versions of Sharon, Ian, Wicksy and Kevin will be played by the original actors using de-aging video technology. The computerised graphics system – the same as that which allowed 78-year-old Robert de Niro to play his lumbering youthful self in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman – will allow present day soap stars to play what younger versions of themselves would look like if they were played by older versions of themselves.
To coincide with the new storyline, the BBC plans to re-release The Banned’s hit single Something Outta Nothing, along with a ‘Greatest Hits’ album featuring several remixes of Something Outta Nothing.