Deadenders
BBC1 2007 (2 series of 30 episodes)
Mike Reid presented this BBC 1 panel show in early 2007 featuring Wendy Richard’s first post Eastenders TV appearances.
Wendy was the captain of one team; Peter Dean the captain of the other. The teams included one well-known celebrity that watched Eastenders (eg Diane Abbott, Matthew Wright, Lloyd Grossman, Gail Porter) and a former cast member of Eastenders (Bill Treacher, Leslie Grantham, Anna Wing, Ross Davidson, Nadia Sawalha, Tom Watt for the opening weeks) .
Given the high turnover of characters on Eastenders the show concentrated on the departed, those that have taken the black cab or hearse or police car out of Albert Square.
The programme was criticised by television reviewers for pilfering other shows for the rounds. It included an identity line-up where the panel had to identify a former cast member – with bonus points for the manner of their departure; What Happened Next? (a blatant opportunity to show a clip of the moments leading up to a character’s untimely death); A missing words round (obituaries from the Walford Gazette); Where are they now? (a character was shown and panellists had to guess which advert broadcast during Countdown or Deal or no deal he or she had last appeared on) and (at Mike Reid’s insistence) Runaround where contestants answered multiple choice questions by running into circles on the ground and then on the cry of Runaround leaping into another circle.
After some early success ITV attempted to replicate the formula with a programme based on The Bill called Sunset Hill. This had greater longevity as every person with an Equity card in the UK had at some point appeared in Sun Hill.
The resultant litigation led to the untimely end of both programmes and resulted in regular repeats on Challenge TV.
Triffik, as the Mike Reid Triffk Nougat Bar used to say.
I shouldn’t have let you boys play together..
One day I will have my own TV channel and the world will quake in fear.