Fans were left heartbroken at the end of episode when beloved character Martin Fowler died
Several EastEnders stars have lifted the lid on what it’s like filming a live episode as the Albert Square programme continues to pick-up the pieces from its 40th anniversary week.
Following a week that had a wedding, a villain being killed-off and an explosion at the Queen Vic, the BBC soap’s birthday celebrations concluded with a 30-minute live episode last Thursday (February 27).
Fans were left heartbroken at the end of the episode when beloved fruit and vegetable salesman Martin Fowler perished as a result of injuries sustained when a steel beam fell on him following the Queen Vic explosion.
Outside of the goodbye to James Bye’s character, Sonia Fower (Natalie Cassidy) gave birth to her daugther Julia moments after her baby’s dad Reiss Colwell (Jonny Freeman) was crushed by a bathtub.
Helping Sonia through her ordeal was her sister Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) and Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa), who talked her through the race against time as debris fell around them in the Watford pub’s kitchen.
One hilarious moment saw Bianca tell Lauren that it was ‘only a nanny’ as they debated which one of them should deliver Sonia’s impending arrival. However, Natalie has revealed on her Off the Telly podcast that writers switched the line at the last second.
“Do you know what, that was actually written as ‘it’s only a fanny” But they wouldn’t do fanny. We were coming up with lots of things as you can imagine. Things we were coming up with in rehearsals,” she said.
Natalie’s co-host and Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page replied: “I can’t believe it was originally written as ‘it’s only a fanny’.” Natalie added: “We couldn’t say it and there were lots of ideas.”
Appearing on the podcast episode was Linda Carter actress Kellie Bright, who opened up about how she was originally meant to flip a coin to help Denise Fox (Diane Parish) choose between Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) and Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).
“I was supposed to flip a coin in that scene. So when we first got the script, I take out a coin – because it’s all about Denise making her decision’.
“And so I say ‘why don’t you toss a coin?’ and I was supposed to then go on and toss the coin, catch the coin, and she then puts her hand over my hand before I call it to say ‘No, I know what I want to do’. I can’t toss a coin for toffee anyway. I just thought, ‘my hands would be sweaty, shaking, there is no way!'”
Despite the changes being made leading up to the live episode, the cast managed to get through it without any incidents that went viral like the 2010 special.
