EastEnders
"EastEnders" is often filmed on location, away from the studios in Borehamwood. Sometimes an entire quartet is filmed on location, which has a practical function and are the result of "EastEnders" making a "double bank", when an extra week's worth of episodes are recorded at the same time as the regular schedule, enabling the production of the programme to stop for a two-week break at Christmas. These episodes often air in late June or early July and again in late October or early November. The first time this happened was in December 1985 when Pauline (Wendy Richard) and Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) travelled to the Southend-on-Sea to find their son Mark, who had run away from home. In 1986, "EastEnders" filmed overseas for the first time, in Venice, and this was also the first time it was not filmed on videotape, as a union rule at the time prevented producers taking a video crew abroad and a film crew had to be used instead. In 2011, it was reported that eight per cent of the series is filmed on location.
Pam St Clement
In 1986 St Clement was cast in her most notable role to date—Pat Wicks, the troublesome former prostitute and ex-wife of Pete Beale (Peter Dean), in BBC's "EastEnders" (the show's producers wrote that the marriage had taken place more than 20 years before EastEnders was launched). She played the character continuously since her first appearance on 12 June 1986 – just over a year after the show began. St Clement's character was originally brought in on a trial basis for a period of three episodes. However the series' executive-producer, Julia Smith, decided to introduce her as a regular character. St Clement initially had reservations about committing to the role, commenting: "I couldn't envisage how this character, who creates absolute havoc everywhere she goes and is not at home with herself or with anybody else in the Square, could possibly fit in". However she was persuaded to continue by Smith, who said: "'We've only seen one layer of the onion skin—the defensiveness—now we'll start to peel away more and get to the vulnerability that lies behind it'." Pat went on to become one of the soap's longest running characters, appearing in 2,183 episodes.