When TV Goes Live

Tonight will mark the first live episode of EastEnders in the soaps 25 years on-air. Tonight millions of viewers will discover just which Albert Square resident killed Archie Mitchell on Christmas Day. Was it Roxy? Was it Ian? Was it Tracy the barmaid? You’ll have to wait until tonight’s live episode to find out! EastEnders isn’t the first soap to go live so we’ve re-uploaded a feature from last year which looks at other soaps and drama’s that have also aired live episodes in recent years.

[Originally uploaded on 15th September 2009]

Once upon a time most television programmes either aired live or were filmed ‘as live’. Believe it or not but Coronation Street for its first few years actually went out live while fellow ITV soap Crossroads was filmed ‘as live’. Those days are long gone and most soaps are now weeks ahead of broadcast but occasionally soaps, and other shows, go live for special occasions. We take a look at a few examples from recent years.

Coronation Street: 2000

As stated above with the Granada soap launched in 1960 it went out as live and did so for its first few years. Famously in 1964 when the character of Martha Longhurst was killed off the cast refused to say their lines right up until the last few seconds of the episode as they disagreed with the axing but in the end they backed down and said their lines as they soap went out live. So in 2000 when the soap celebrated its 40^th anniversary it was decided that it would mark the occasion with an hour long live episode. The residents of the street united to save the cobbles from being tarmaced over, Ken Barlow gave a long boring speech, Peter Barlow returned with yet another new face and Prince Charles had a small cameo appearance when he featured in some specially shot footage.

The Bill: 2003 & 2005

The London based-cop drama decided to celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a live episode in 2003. It was a daring move considering the show featured far more location filming than Coronation Street and producers decided to pack the episode with stunts to impress audiences. The episode saw yet another character killed off during a period when the coppers at Sun Hill were dropping like flies! This time the poor unfortunate victim was DC Juliet Becker who was stabbed at the station. The episode was watched by an impressive 11 million viewers. In 2005 the police drama decided to go live again after the success of its anniversary episode. The second live episode saw a distraught father, Jeff Clarke, take hostages at Sun Hill.

Popular American comedy series about gay guy Will Trueman and his straight best friend, Grace Adler and their two friends, Jack and Karen. The series was hugely popular both sides of the Atlantic and ran for eight seasons and regularly pulled in millions of viewers in America. The series decided to go live in 2005 but because of the time difference between the East and the West coasts in America they had to do the episode twice – so both coasts would see the episode live. In 2006 the show once again went live and again the episode was performed twice – meaning the series technically had four live episodes. Amazingly there are very little differences between the different versions of the episodes despite them being performed separately.

A remake of the popular 1950s serial of the same name which aired on BBC Four as part of the channels ‘TV on Trial’ season. The remake aired live and was the first specifically commissioned live drama to air on BBC television in over twenty years. The remake was meant to last for two hours but actually under-ran by twenty minutes or so. As the drama went out live there were a few mistakes such as fluffed lines, missed cues and crew visible in a few shots. At the end of the broadcast the credits rolled over the cast celebrating the end of the episode – although the cast were unaware they were still on air. During the broadcast a news ticket appeared at the bottom informing viewers that a major news story was breaking on the BBC News Channel – Pope John Paul II had died.

Part of our EastEnders @ 25 Features