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.
East End of London in popular culture
"EastEnders", a BBC soap opera broadcast since 1985, is set in the fictional London Borough of Walford. The programme is actually filmed at a purpose-built set at the Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, and the paradigms for the show are thought to lie beyond the East End, in Stratford and Walthamstow. In that, the programme does represent the diaspora of East Enders who have moved out of the district, and draws on the themes of family and social integration. The show rarely evidences changes occurring to east London, such as the Docklands development. An earlier programme, "Till Death Us Do Part" (1965–1975) attempted to satirise the stereotypical attitudes of an East Ender, Alf Garnett, played by Warren Mitchell. The locale for this programme has been variously placed in Wapping and West Ham, with the principal character a supporter of West Ham United F.C.. The comedic theme of the programme was the interaction between members of the family, and the inability of the principal character to adapt to the rapid changes in his world. The piece inspired the hit American remake "All in the Family", among others.