Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
While Den Watts wouldn't eat a green salad, Leslie Grantham does. But Walford's hard man would be proud of the way the actor speaks his own mind about the corrosive power of soap.
The Corrosive Power of Soap Opera: Apparently, most people who visit Albert Square bring a camera with them. I know this because Sharon, the EastEnders press officer, has just told me so. 'The guys from the tabloids are the worst,' she says, as we pass the historic Fowler fruit and veg stall. 'They get really excited. They tell us the pictures are for their wives, but we know better, don't we, Natalie?' Her colleague nods in agreement and the two of them look at me, smiley and expectant. Alas, I am a flash-free zone - though this is not to say that I am not agog because, somewhat to my amazement, I am. It's just so spooky here in Walford. Perfect in every physical detail but entirely devoid of human life, it's as though some terrible plague has been visited on the place. Alfie! Pauline! Is anybody out there? In half an hour's time, I will be having lunch with Leslie Grantham, aka Dirty Den, who recently returned to EastEnders after an absence of 14 years. At the moment, however, he is indoors, hard at work on a closed set - which means I get the chance to snoop out here. The Queen Vic, the Mini-Mart, the launderette: oddly, these places look more real up close than they do on television, for all that you cannot actually go inside them (the buildings are only fronts). At Walford station, tickets are strewn on a tiled floor; in the square, litter fills the bins. We pass the swings, where the soap's characters think their most mournful thoughts, and the war memorial, where they enjoy their most secret assignations (it is engraved with the names of long-serving EastEnders staff). Ooh, and here's a scoop, fans. Kate Mitchell's nail bar will soon be open, and it has bubblegum pink awnings over its windows. I would love to be able to give you more top insider gossip but, soaps being as leaky as old teapots, security at the BBC's Elstree studios, which are tucked away behind Borehamwood High Street, is very tight indeed. While I am waiting for my tour to begin, I spend 20 minutes sitting in a freezing cold gatehouse while five fluorescent-jacketed guards keep their beady eyes on me and, later, when I return to the lot with Dirty Den in tow, even he is required to stump up a laminated pass (he refuses, thrillingly, and tells the woman at the barrier that, if she doesn't let him in, it will be up to her to explain his absence to a waiting crew). 'So when is Barbara Windsor coming back?' I ask Sharon ever-so-casually, as we stand beside Arthur's bench contemplating the laurel bushes. She affects not to hear me.
Back To Home Page
