Beyond the borders of Walford

Matt Conder looks back at episodes filmed away from the Square and gets EastEnders Production Manager Rona McKendrick’s account of the recent filming in central London.

Added: 30 June 2010, and viewed 2651 times

There comes a time when the residents of Albert Square find that they can’t do everything in Walford. I mean you can’t do all of your shopping there, and if you wanted to go on holiday it wouldn’t be any good setting out your beach towels in Turpin Road would it? It always makes EastEnders feel much more realistic to have its characters visiting locations outside of Walford.

Obviously the programme would become tedious if we were not treated to these ‘away days’ and so instead of becoming like the Truman Show, it helps to create a more realistic environment with Walford feeling like it’s part of London in real life. (I wouldn’t recommend arguing with Tube staff at Kings Cross about buying a train ticket to ‘Walford East’ though)

Fact: Most of the platform and train scenes for the fictional EastEnders Tube station are filmed at the real life East Finchley London Underground station.

Apart from the smaller scenes that are often filmed outside of the studio (like we have seen in the current Lucas Johnston storyline), we were recently treated to an EastEnders ‘spooky’ forest trip and also a day out for Pat and Peggy to Central London. Of course it’s not the first time the residents of Walford have packed their bags and gone out for a trip away from Albert Square.

“Let’s go for a trip on the Orient Express Den”...

From 1985 right up to this very year EastEnders has produced many off-set episodes in its history. The first such episode in 1985 involved Pauline and Arthur’s search for their son Mark in Southend after he ran away from home. They did find him – on a go-cart of all places! That episode marked the beginning of these longer on location filmed episodes which nowadays tend to occur a few times every year. Other memorable ‘away days’ include the famous trip on the Orient Express for Den and Angie when instead of enjoying his tea and biscuits, Den found out about Angie’s lies after dinner. There were more light hearted trips such as when Dot Cotton and Ethel Skinner danced their way across Clacton, and Pat & Franks visit to France with their not so great language skills that even Del Boy wouldn’t have approved of. In more recent years we’ve seen episodes filmed in Spain, Amsterdam and Dorset.

It’s all done for a reason…

Of course it’s not just to keep the soap fresh (see what I did there), there are other more technical reasons for these special off-set episodes. The EastEnders production team call it a ‘double bank’ which is when an extra week’s worth of episodes are recorded while the regular schedule is in progress. These extra episodes are made so that at Christmas time the cast can have a well earned fortnights break from filming. Of course on location filming can be hectic for the crew but most of the cast enjoy it – especially holiday storylines in places like sunny Spain. When filming the episode where Peggy travels to Franks funeral only to find he is in fact alive and well, Barbara Windsor spoke to the Sun newspaper. She said how she really enjoyed working in Spain and said: “it felt very fresh working outside of the studio”.

What was your all time favourite ‘away day’ episode?

Not all of these on location episodes have gone down well with critics. There has been some criticism over the years for the portrayal of certain locations, and according to one critic: the episodes seem “patchy in places”. However, most it seems are well received and are an important part of the soaps schedule that most fans look forward too. It’s good to see the characters outside their ‘normal routine’ and the episodes also provide some memorable moments along with some really funny events to look back on.

Pat and Peggy go ‘up West’

Making an episode of EastEnders in the private lot at Elstree where members of the public are kept well away by burley security men, privet hedges and high fences is an ideal situation for the production team. But when it becomes necessary to film episodes on location in large open public spaces it’s not as easy. It takes a lot of work to make the scenes in such places look realistic and at the same time keep excited fans and curious members of the public in check. (Well who wouldn’t look twice if you saw Pat and Peggy taking a stroll down Carnaby Street!)

I asked Rona McKendrick, EastEnders Production Manager about the logistics of filming the recent Pat, Peggy and Harvey scenes in Central London.

I started by asking Rona about the difficulties of filming in such a public place.

“The safety of all those involved is paramount, including members of the public as EastEnders has a tendency to attract crowds. Also, as Pat & Peggy walk down Carnaby Street we don’t want members of the public staring at them or waving at the camera so we employ supporting artists to walk alongside that cast and they manage to guide members of the public away from the actors without viewers noticing”.

The EastEnders production team only used two cameras to shoot the scenes in Central London; however there were approximately 35 to 40 crew members working on the set.
Even though there were so many people involved it’s rare for the team to shut down roads for filming as Rona explained: “We try to avoid road closures as much as possible to avoid disruption to the public and would only consider it if there were safety concerns”.

“It’s always nice to get out of the studio and into the heart of London”.

During the episode we saw Pat and Peggy in Carnaby Street, outside the London Palladium and even on a tour bus. As you can imagine this sort of on location filming requires a great deal of co-operation from everyone involved. Rona said: “The company who owns Carnaby Street were a great help with seeking permissions from the various companies and businesses”.

The EastEnders production team are certainly well practiced in location filming. Time is always an important factor due to the tight filming schedules and complex storylines.
“Every location is different and requires different logistical arrangements” said Rona. “We want to have as much time as possible to shoot the scenes on location so we try to find places that are as near to the studios as possible so that the travel time doesn’t eat into the schedule. It is a fairly big technical operation but we’ve been doing it now for 25 years”.

It’s clear that most viewers enjoy the on location episodes. I asked Rona if the cast and crew enjoyed filming the scenes in Central London: “Very much so. It’s always nice to get out of the studio and into the heart of London”. And on the possibility of another outing in London soon she said: “watch this space”…

So maybe it’s time some more of Albert Squares residents went on an outing. Who would you like to see in an on location episode next - and where?

© 2010 Matt Conder.

A special thankyou goes to ‘Ian & Jane Fan’ of the Walford Web forum who very kindly gave her time to design the superb banner for Walford Lite.

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Written by Matt Conder

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Pat Evans

Peggy Mitchell

Rona McKendrick

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