EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. The series primarily centres on the residents of Albert Square, a Victorian square of terraced houses, and its neighbouring streets, namely Bridge Street, Turpin Road and George Street, and which encompasses a pub, street market, night club, community centre, charity shop, cafe and various small businesses, in addition to a park and allotments.
The series was originally screened as two half-hour episodes per week. Since August 2001, four episodes are broadcast each week on BBC One, with each episode being repeated on BBC Three at 22:00 and an omnibus edition on BBC One at weekends. From 1985 to 2012 the omnibus aired on Sunday afternoons, but was moved to a Friday night/Saturday morning slot from 6 April 2012.
Samantha Zoe Womack (née Janus; born 2 November 1972) is an English actress, singer and director, both on television and stage. In recent years she has been best known for playing the role of Ronnie Branning in EastEnders, but made her name in the mid 1990s as Mandy Wilkins in Game On, and also represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991. She is currently the star of the award winning show South Pacific, touring the UK with the cast and gaining the most impressive reviews of her career so far. Samantha is patron to Expressions Performing Arts in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Janus was born in Brighton, Sussex. Her father Noel left the family when she was three, and soon after her mother Diane married a doctor and the family moved to Edinburgh. She has a younger sister, Zoe. Janus lived on the QE2 with her grandmother for a short time. On 23 August 2009, her 60-year-old estranged father was found hanged in the bathroom of his council flat in Brighton, where he lived alone. It is believed he committed suicide.
Rita Joanne Simons (born 10 March 1977) is an English actress, singer, and model. She is currently known for playing the role of Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders.
She has made appearances in the British television shows Mile High, Dream Team and London's Burning.
On 11 May 2007, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of EastEnders as Roxy Mitchell, alongside Samantha Womack who played Roxy's sister Ronnie Mitchell. Of her role, Simons said: "I've always watched EastEnders and it's been my dream to become part of the Mitchell family."
Before her acting career, Simons was in the band Girls@Play, who had a couple of hit singles before splitting up. Their songs included "Airhead" and they covered Mel and Kim's "Respectable". She then joined a different group called Charli with three other members, including Shar from the Paradiso Girls, and released a single titled "Feel Me".
Her portrayal of Roxy Mitchell won her Best Newcomer at the Digital Spy Soap Awards along with Best Onscreen Partnership for her character partnership with Ronnie Mitchell played by Samantha Womack. She also won Best Newcomer at the TV Now awards and was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2008 British Soap Awards, but lost to Coronation Street's Michelle Keegan. She also won the award for Best Newcomer at the 2008 Inside Soap Awards and won the award for Most Popular Newcomer at the National Television Awards in 2008.
Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985. The character appeared in his 2,000th episode in the show on 26 March 2007. He took a temporary break from the show on May 25, 2012, when Ian had a breakdown and disappeared from Albert Square, and he is expected to be off screen for at least six weeks.
Philip James "Phil" Mitchell is a long-running fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Steve McFadden. Phil was introduced to the soap opera on 20 February 1990, and was followed by his brother, Grant, sister Sam and mother Peggy. Phil was one of the major introductions made by executive producer Michael Ferguson, who wanted to bring in some macho, male leads. Phil and his brother Grant became popularly known as the Mitchell brothers in the British media, with Phil initially portrayed as the lesser of two thugs. Storylines featuring the Mitchell family dominated the soap opera throughout the 1990s, with Phil becoming a popular and long-running male protagonist into the 2000s and the 2010s.
Phil's most prominent storylines include his battles with alcoholism and addiction, various feuds and criminal dealings, having an affair with Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) who was married to Grant (a storyline popularly dubbed Sharongate), a failed marriage to Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), a strong rivalry with his former step-son Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), and being stalked by his son Ben, leading to an arrest for the murder of Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson), who abused Ben before jumping from a factory roof. One of the most culturally significant storylines featuring the character aired in 2000 and was dubbed Who Shot Phil?. The plot saw Phil gunned down in a whodunnit? mystery, with the would-be assassin eventually revealed as his former girlfriend Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin). The storyline captured viewer and media interest and the assassin-reveal episode was watched by 22 million viewers.