melody is upset when junior and his family move away in august 1989; they think about running away together, but are unable to set their plan in motion. junior still visits melody occasionally and on halloween 1989, she and junior dress as ghosts and throw eggs at dot cotton (june brown) for refusing to offer anything desirable during their game of trick or treat. following a chastising from dot for this, melody disappears with no explanation. off-screen, the show acquired a new executive producer, michael ferguson, and many characters were dropped. according to writer colin brake, the storyline involving melody and the unruly brownies was intended to be fun, but references to brownies behaving badly caused great offence to the brownie movement, and an official complaint was made and upheld. the broadcasting commission said the "eastenders" brownie episodes "came near to parody," were unfair to the brownies and harmed the girl guides' image. the bbc had to make a public apology for the misinterpretation of the movement. brake has suggested that the mishap was a "salutary lesson to those [...] in the script department to be very vigilant in ensuring, as far as possible, that no group or individual was offended by an unintentional slight in a script."