EastEnders
EastEnders was a television show broadcast in the United Kingdom during the 20th and 21st century.
Pete's World did not have Eastenders, much to Jackie Tyler's continued disappointment. The programme was one of the things she missed from the Doctor's universe. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)
Evelyn Smythe, having left with the Sixth Doctor in the year 2000, had "foreknowledge" of 1990s EastEnders episodes, and made a bit of cash off this, betting for the correct outcome. (PROSE: Instruments of Darkness)
The Seventh Doctor claimed to have once had a dream in which all his old enemies chased him around EastEnders' sets. (PROSE: First Frontier)
Among the casualties of the Vore invasion of Earth in 2005 were members of the cast of the series; they had lost more than Coronation Street. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
EastEnders was noted for its depressing festive specials. The Tenth Doctor believed the phrase, "This is going to be the best Christmas Walford has ever had" was among the unluckiest sentences that one could utter. (TV: The Impossible Planet)
In the summer of 2007, with the new "ghost" craze sweeping the planet, one of the killed-off characters, Den Watts, was brought back to the show in ghost form, using one of the ghosts which materialised during that period. The Tenth Doctor flicked through this episode of EastEnders along with Ghostwatch and Trisha Goddard, while investigating the new phenomenon at Jackie Tyler's flat. The ghosts were later revealed as a new form of Cyberman. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
When Amy Pond and Rory Williams suddenly ended up in a doll's house, Rory suggested that the Eleventh Doctor was in an EastEnders-like place. (TV: Night Terrors)
When Rani Chandra had the Berserker pendant she told her father to do Bianca, from EastEnders. Haresh said: "Rick-ay. Whitney. Paaaat." (TV: The Mark of the Berserker)
Sophie was a fan of EastEnders. In 2007 she was watching Ghostwatch and texted them that "Dirty Den" was back. (GAME: Ghostwatch)
During the Twelfth Doctor's imprisonment in the Prison, Clara Oswald taught Class 2A's art class. She asked the students to paint a placard with the slogan "SAVE THE DOCTOR" but instead, they got confused and began to paint "SAVE DOT COTTON". Clara explained to the Governor that Dot Cotton was a "famous Cockney chimney". (PROSE: The Blood Cell)
EastEnders was among the 20th century Earth television shows broadcast by Reef Station One in the New Earth Republic during the 101st century. (PROSE: Synthespians™)
Behind the scenes
- Tony Holland, who played the Third Assistant in The Savages, and Julia Smith, who directed The Smugglers and The Underwater Menace, were the co-creators of EastEnders.
Crossovers with Doctor Who
- Though other stories portray EastEnders as a television soap, the Brief Encounter story Mistaken Identity by Gary Russell and the Doctor Who mini-episode Dimensions in Time cross over EastEnders with the Doctor Who universe. A line in First Frontier dismissed that adventure as a dream.
- The comic adventure Happy Deathday seems to take place, in part, in the EastEnders universe. This is later revealed to be a video game being played aboard the Doctor's TARDIS.
- In the comic Tooth and Claw, the Eighth Doctor refers to "Albert Square", the location of the series (although he might have meant another Albert Square).
- The National Television Awards Sketch 2011 and Sprout Boy meets a Galaxy of Stars are also crossovers with the series.
The Brilliant Book 2012
- According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, William Shakespeare was the head writer of EastEnders in an alternate timeline.
Doctor Who references in Eastenders
- The character Bradley Branning was a fan of Doctor Who, amoung other sci-fi series’. An episode broadcast in early 2008 saw him and Stacey Slater attend a Doctor Who convention. People in Dalek and Cybermen costumes could be seen at the event. In another episode, Bradley claimed he knew the names of all the actors to play the Doctor off by heart.
| Actor | Primary DWU role | First apperance | Primary Eastenders role | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zahra Ahmadi | Missy | TV: Nightmare in Silver | Shabnam Masood | 2007-2008 | Fellow DWU allumni Rakhee Thakrar took over the role of Shabnam in 2014. |
| Daniel Anthony | Clyde Langer | TV: Revenge of the Slitheen | JJ | 2004 | |
| Lucy Baker | Young Nyssa | TV: Mawdryn Undead | Lisa Fowler | 1998-2003, 2010, 2017 | |
| Lynda Baron | Wrack/Val | TV: Enlightenment/TV: Closing Time | Linda Clarke | 2006, 2008-2009, 2016 | |
| Gary Beadle | Paul Langer | TV: The Mark of the Berserker | Paul Trueman | 2001-2004 | |
| Nigel Betts | Frank Armitage | TV: Into the Dalek | Craig | 2018 | Betts also appeared as an unnamed desk sergeant in a 2004 episode of the soap. |
| Ace Bhatti | Haresh Chandra | TV: The Day of the Clown | Yusef Khan | 2010-2011 | |
| Sharon Duncan-Brewster | Margaret Cain | TV: The Waters of Mars | Trina Johnson | 2009 | |
| June Brown | Lady Eleanor | TV: The Time Warrior | Dot Cotton/Branning | 1985-1993 and 1997-present | Brown also portrayed Dot in NOTVALID: Dimensions in Time and NOTVALID: Dermot and the Doctor. |
| Lauren Crace | Jemima | AUDIO: The Two Masters | Danielle Jones | 2008-2009 | |
| Anita Dobson | Eileen Klint | AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks | Angie Watts | 1985-1988 | |
| Alex Ferns | Parks | AUDIO: Clean Sweep | Trevor Morgan | 2000-2002 | |
| Jamie Foreman | Eddie Connolly | TV: The Idiot's Lantern | Derek Branning | 2011-2012 | |
| Don Gilet | Lance Bennett | TV: The Runaway Bride | Lucas Johnson | 2008-2010 and 2016 | Gilet also appeared as a minor one-off character in an earlier episode of the soap. |
| Leslie Grantham | Kiston | TV: Resurrection of the Daleks | Den Watts | 1985-1989 and 2003-2005 | |
| Jill Halfpenny | David's mam | AUDIO: Imaginary Boys | Kate Mitchell | 2002-2005 | |
| Jo Joyner | Lynda Moss | TV: Bad Wolf | Tanya Branning | 2006-2013, 2015, 2017-2018 | |
| Bonnie Langford | Melanie Bush | TV: Terror of the Vervoids | Karmel Kazemi | 2015-2018 | |
| Tracy Ann Oberman | Yvonne Hartman | TV: Army of Ghosts | Chrissie Watts | 2004-2005 | |
| Himesh Patel | Dendry | AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada | Tamwar Masood | 2007-2016 | |
| Mike Reid | Greek soldier, guard, worker & soldier (all uncredited) | TV: The Myth Makers, TV: The Massacre, TV: The War Machines | Frank Butcher | 1987-2000, 2002, 2006 | Reid also portrayed Frank in NOTVALID: Dimensions in Time |
| Lee Ross | Boatswain | TV: The Curse of the Black Spot | Owen Turner | 2006, 2009-2010 | |
| Michelle Ryan | Christina de Souza | TV: Planet of the Dead | Zoey Slater | 2000-2005 | |
| Madhav Sharma | Patel | TV: Frontier in Space | Arshad Ahmed | 2018-present | |
| Rakhee Thakrar | Bliss | AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus | Shabnam Masood | 2014-2016 | The second actor to portray Shabnam, after fellow DWU allumni Zahra Ahmadi. |
| Nina Wadia | Dr. Ramsden | TV: The Eleventh Hour | Zainab Masood | 2007-2013 | |
| Rudolph Walker | The War Games | TV: The War Games | Patrick Trueman | 2001-present | |
| Barbara Windsor | Peggy Mitchell | TV: Army of Ghosts | Peggy Mitchell | 1994-2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 | Windsor portrayed her Eastenders character in a fictional episode of the soap briefly featured within the story. |
