大象传媒

Friday Night is EastEnders Night . As part of the 大象传媒 One soap's 30th anniversary celebrations Bobby Davro and EastEnders past and present gather for an evening of music, song and a good old cockney knees-up at London's Hackney Empire.

In February 1985 大象传媒 One Controller Michael Grade launched his new look evening schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a live chat show hosted by none other than Radio 2's Terry Wogan. Tuesdays and Thursdays were to be a brand new drama series - a soap - to challenge its 25 year old ITV rival Coronation Street - the series was called EastEnders.

Created by producer Julia Smith and script editor Tony Holland EastEnders was set in a fictional square in London E20. It was a world of strong East End families (the Fowlers, the Beales, the Watts, the Mitchells) and cantankerous East End matriarchs ( Lou Beale, Pauline Fowler, Mo Harris, Pat Butcher and Peggy Mitchell). Plus, of course, a splattering of East End villains - Dirty Den, Nick Cotton, Trevor Morgan and Archie Mitchell. Its aim was to portray real life with gritty and often controversial storylines.

How we love a whodunnit! Who did kill Lucy Beale? Who shot Phil? Who murdered Archie Mitchell? 30 years on EastEnders is a substantial success for the 大象传媒.Sold and shown worldwide , 3 decades on it is still attracting a large share of the TV viewing audience.

Tonight, 大象传媒 Radio 2 and the 大象传媒 Concert Orchestra conducted by Mike Dixon invite EastEnders past and present to let their hair down and take to the stage of the Hackney Empire. As it turns out many EastEnders are also West Enders having trod the boards and learnt their trade in musical theatre. Tonight's guests include Shona McGarty(Whitney Dean), Tameka Empson(Kim Fox)Declan Bennett(Charlie Cotton), and Johnny Partridge(Christian Clarke). We recall the history and some favourite doff-doff moments - the cliff-hanger at the end of each episode illustrated by a drum break to entice us back to the next episode...doff, doff, doff, doff, doff,doff,doff, doff,doff.....

Concert first broadcast in February 2015.