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EastEnders is a British television soap opera produced by the BBC.
Crossovers
to be added
References in the DWU
The 1994 novel, First Frontier, made a nod to the aforementioned Dimensions in Time through a claim by the Seventh Doctor that he once had a dream in which all his old enemies chased him around the EastEnders set.
The 2001 novel, Instruments of Darkness, revealed that the Sixth Doctor's 2000-hailing companion, Evelyn Smythe, had been using her foreknowledge of 1990s EastEnders storylines to get some extra cash by betting on the correct outcomes.
In the 2005 novel, The Monsters Inside, following her year away from modern day Earth, Rose Tyler caught with the episodes of the show that she missed during that time. The Ninth Doctor, who was forced to watch along with her, later used a piece of his general knowledge of the show to his advantage, when Rose is tested by Lazlee Flowers on tangential warp offset, he subtly gave Rose the answer (45), by telling her to think of the address of Pauline, Martin, and Sonia Fowler, which was 45 Albert Square at the time.
In the 2006 episode, The Impossible Planet, the Tenth Doctor expresses his belief that one of the most unluckiest phrases that one could utter was, "This is going to be the best Christmas Walford has ever had", a reference to the show's typically, notoriously depressing Christmas specials.
In the 2008 The Sarah Jane Adventures serial, The Mark of the Berserker, whilst under the influence of the Berserker pendant, Haresh Chandra obeys his daughter's command to [pretend to be] "Bianca off EastEnders", in which he screams the names of Ricky Butcher, Whitney Dean, and Pat Butcher in her trademark style.
In the 2018 audio story, The Siege of Big Ben, saw Jackie Tyler learn that the show did not exist on Pete's World, to her disappointment.
References to the DWU on EastEnders
In an episode broadcast on 27 April 2010, Ricky Butcher and Charlie Slater discuss the recent outing of Syed Masood, during which Ricky mentions "the one from Doctor Who. The big yank, the gay one [who is] into all the musicals", prompting a surprised Charlie to remark "gays in Doctor Who?! Wouldn't have happened in my day".
In an episode broadcast on 24 October 2022, after Finlay and Felix Baker move in with Chelsea Fox and Whitney Dean, Chelsea is taken aback by how many boxes the pair have brought with them, considering they previously lived in a cramped flat with their uncle Mitch and the Taylors, prompting Chelsea to ask Mitch flippantly, if their flat was "the TARDIS".
Behind the scenes connections
Crew
Doctor Who's connections to EastEnders are so great that they stretch right back to the two minds who created the soap, Julia Smith and Tony Holland; Smith directed the 1960s television serials, The Smugglers, and The Underwater Menace, being the second ever female director of a Who serial for the former.
Holland, meanwhile, acted on screen in The Savages, playing the Third Assistant.
Cast
Actors who appeared in crossovers
Among the EastEnders actors to appear as their characters in Dimensions in Time, Letitia Dean, Gillian Taylforth, and Steve McFadden are the only three who still appear in the show today, as Sharon Watts, Kathy Beale, and Phil Mitchell, respectively.
Shobu Kapoor, who appeared in Dimensions as her EastEnders character, Gita Kapoor, later appeared as the scared woman in Journey's End, and then as the voice of Sai Chopra in the Big Finish audio, Vortex Ice.
June Brown had already appeared in Doctor Who as Lady Eleanor, in The Time Warrior, before taking up her long-serving role as EastEnders stalwart Dot Cotton early in the show's run, a role she later played briefly in Dermot and the Doctor, and her likeness of which was used in Sprout Boy meets a Galaxy of Stars.
By the time Ricky Norwood appeared as an interview subject for The Ultimate Guide, he was already best known for playing Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb on the soap, a role for which he appeared to promote in Consider Yourself One Of Us...
Another actor to appear in Consider Yourself, Shona McGarty, continues to appear in the soap as Whitney Dean.
1980s
Before playing Captain Kathryn McDonnell in 42, and voicing Winnie Tyler in the Big Finish audio, Damaged Goods, one of Michelle Collins' most famous roles was Cindy Beale, the gold-digging former wife of Ian Beale, a role she first played in 1988.
1990s
Lindsey Coulson, who played Carol Jackson for various periods from 1993 to 2015, played Val Cane in Midnight.
2000s
The first year of the new millennium saw the introduction of what would go on to be one of the show's most beloved families, the Slaters. Among this predominantly female family was Zoe Slater, the role that launched the career of Michelle Ryan (Lady Christina de Souza of Planet of the Dead). The family patriarch, Charlie Slater, was played by Derek Martin.
In 2001, Gary Beadle, who later played Paul Langer in the Sarah Jane serial, The Mark of the Berserker, joined the soap as Paul Trueman. He was joined months later by his adoptive father, Patrick Trueman, played by Rudolph Walker, who had previously appeared as Harper in The War Games.
In 2003, David Walliams, who previously voiced Quincy Flowers and Ned Cotton in Big Finish's Phantasmagoria, and later played Gibbis in The God Complex, appeared for two episodes as Ray Collins, the man who officiated Kat Slater and Alfie Moon's wedding.
Just before playing Yvonne Hartman in Army of Ghosts and other following media, Tracy-Ann Oberman played Chrissie Watts from 2004 to 2005.
Lee Ross, who later played the boatswain in The Curse of the Black Spot, joined the soap in 2006 as Owen Turner.
Don Gilet joined the cast as the murderous Lucas Johnson in 2008, just four months after playing Lance Bennett in The Runaway Bride.
The Masood family were also introduced in 2008, with three of their four initial members consisting of Nina Wadia as Zainab, Zahra Ahmadi as Shabnam, and Himesh Patel as Tamwar. Wadia and Ahmadi would both go on to appear on televised Doctor Who as, respectively, Dr Ramsden in The Eleventh Hour, and Missy in Nightmare in Silver, while Patel would voice three characters for Big Finish audios; Dendry in Day of the Vashta Nerada, and Ayrton Valencia and the Engineer in The Lifeboat and the Deathboat.
In 2009, Meryl Fernandes, who played a female student in The Poison Sky, joined the show as Afia Khan.
2010s
In 2010, just two years after doing his best Bianca Jackson impersonation as Haresh Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures serial, The Mark of the Berserker, Ace Bhatti joined the EastEnders cast as the villainous Yusef Khan, father of the aforementioned Afia, and the abusive first husband of Zainab Masood.
In 2014, Rakhee Thakrar, who would go on to play Eighth Doctor companion Bliss in various Big Finish audios, took over the role of Shabnam Masood (originally played by Zahra Ahmadi).
Davood Ghadami, who played Jim, one of the crew aboard the Teselecta in Let's Kill Hitler, played Kush Kazemi from 2014.
Twelve years after previously appearing as her Doctor Who character, Melanie Bush, in Dimensions in Time, Bonnie Langford joined the EastEnders cast in 2015 as Carmel Kazemi, mother to the afoemtioned Kush.
The Kazemi family was expanded once again in 2016 with the addition of Carmel's other son, and Kush's brother, Shakil Kazemi, played by Shaheen Jafargholi, who previously appeared in the Torchwood episode, Greeks Bearing Gifts, as Danny.
Roger Griffiths, who played Commander Kess in Planet of the Ood, joined the show in 2018 as Mitch Baker.
2020s
Reoccurring Big Finish voice actor Zaraah Abrahams joined the soap as Chelsea Fox in 2020.
Miscellaneous
Festive specials
EastEnders traditionally broadcasts extended episodes on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, in time slots that are typically adjacent to Doctor Who's own festive specials, resulting in the two shows competing against each other in the ratings.
For Christmas Day schedules, EastEnders have typically ended up with higher overnight ratings than Doctor Who, with only The Time of the Doctor and The Husbands of River Song managing to score higher in their respective years, with New Year's Day ratings historically having worked in Doctor Who's favour, with only Part 2 of The End of Time failing to outdo EastEnders in 2010.