With only a few more days until viewers can unwrap the festive treat that is the EastEnders Christmas Day bumper episode, we caught up with executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and actress Kellie Bright, who plays Linda Carter.
We wondered how long the Christmas Day storyline had been in the pipeline.
“When we brought the Carters on last Christmas, we knew that we were going to explode them the following Christmas,” Dominic reveals. "We had tent pegs of the story laid out in place - the best stories are always planned.
“Kellie and Danny always knew that this Christmas there would be two moments: That Mick finds out half way through, and that Doof Doof moment,” he adds. "And Linda Henry is so amazing - she doesn’t get enough praise. And I said this before, but Linda Marlowe was always in our heads as her mum and at story conferences six years ago we talked about the Carters, so this moment has kind of been bubbling for years!”
“I need to thank the writers – Richard Davidson and Matthew Evans, who are two proper stalwart EastEnders writers. And Jennie Darnell, who’s just wonderful, directed the rape episode. What was lovely about that was to get the echoes. When Linda is sitting at the table and Pretty Flamingos is playing and when Mick is starting to propose, all those little pieces that we put in play. It’s pretty organic and it’s good to feed off those performances. Kellie and Danny fed into the script as well. We got their thoughts and their notes. They know their characters so well, and what’s so lovely about EastEnders is that we all work together as a team. We listen to everyone’s input, and that’s what makes it special I think."
It's an explosive Christmas as the truth unravels on Carter secrets.
Kellie Bright recalled her reaction when she first received the Christmas episode scripts: “There is something about doing EastEnders at Christmas that is different to any other episode. I don’t know what it is – it’s something to do with nostalgia probably, and the excitement of the episodes and the ‘Something’s going to happen…’ but I can remember texting Danny straight away, saying ‘Have you read it, have you read it?’ - and we all loved it straight away. Every single one of us went ‘Wow,’ and then you go, ‘Oh, now we’ve got to make it. Now we’ve got to do it and make it good!’ But I love it here. I love playing Linda Carter. I feel very honoured to have been given all the storylines in the past year and to culminate on Christmas Day is a real honour.”
Dominic has been delighted with his stars’ performances, particularly in these episodes. “Wasn’t Danny Dyer good?!” he smiles. “He’s so good,” agrees Kellie. “When you’re working with someone, it’s very different to sitting back and watching their performance. I can’t explain it other than when I’m working with him I’m not me – I’m reacting to what he’s doing.
“But the one thing I would say - and one of the things I just love about the whole team and everyone at EastEnders and how they dealt with this whole story - is that everything has been researched and researched. And they have been very true to the real story of many women, and what now follows is still the same – the fallout of this and what’s going to happen next. They have continued to follow what really happens to a lot of women in this situation.”
The truth will out on EastEnders, this Christmas on BBC One.
Kellie has received a lot of feedback about the rape storyline, including some from women who have unfortunately been rape victims too.
“I’ve had lots of mail, but also… I always stop off for coffee on the way to work, and I had just got back into my car and there was a little knock on the window – and it was a woman a bit younger than me stood there. I thought she was going to ask me for a selfie, but she said ‘Can I talk to you?’ So I opened the door and said ‘Yes,’ and she said ‘I’ve been watching your story and I have to thank you for what you’ve done and I can’t stop watching your story because it’s my story.’
“And it was just so humbling – utterly, utterly humbling, because, at the end of the day I’m an actor, I’m playing a part and this has not really happened to me. But to be faced with someone – literally face to face with someone it has happened to just re-iterated to me the importance of these storylines and how much we owe to those women to tell this story. The response for me personally from the public has been phenomenal.”
We wondered how Kellie prepared for the particularly emotional scenes that Linda Carter has experienced recently.
“For me, I come into every scene as Linda Carter. I have to just be in that moment, hearing what I’m hearing, reacting to what is in that scene whatever emotion comes from that comes. I’m not very good when I see a script that says A single tear rolls down Linda Carter’s cheek while she’s applying her lipstick in the mirror… and I always kind of go, ‘I’ll scrub that out!’ but only because I think if the tear comes, the tear comes. If it doesn’t it doesn’t.
“And they are draining. There’s no two ways about it - it’s draining doing that kind of emotional work, but I love working with Danny so much. I love working with all of them. I mean Maddy, who plays my daughter, watch this space people! She is incredible in the New Year and Danny-Boy Hatchard as well. The truth is that the act has happened to one person, but the fallout ripples through an entire family and tears them to pieces. It really does."
Having seen the episodes, we’ve witnessed some powerful scenes from Danny Dyer, as he discovers what has happened to his wife.
“He’s been chomping at the bit for this for a year,” reveals Dominic. “Ever since we told him, he’s been ‘But then Dom, I go ballistic, yeah? I’ll kill him?’ And I said ‘Calm down Danny, calm down!’”
Danny and Kellie spend so much time together playing Mick and Linda that the lines between fact and fiction can sometimes blur. “We are like husband and wife, because the thing is, we are Mick and Linda more than we’re Danny and Kellie,” says Kellie. “So it does become like a parallel life. That’s the only way I can describe it. It’s the strangest thing, because it’s an ongoing thing as well. It’s not like anything else, where you get a script, you know where your character is going, you film for three months and that’s it – thank you very much, goodbye. I’m going to go back to my real life. This carries on with you, so you really do have two lives.”
Dominic confirmed that Danny gets wrapped up in the storylines and the two worlds too. “He’s such a puppy, he just doesn’t like it. It just makes him sad, but also he’s Danny Dyer and he wants to smash things! So, literally, we always said there would be a scene and we let him go crazy. But this is only act 1. There’s so much more to come and like Kellie said, there are ripples through the family, but the constant throughout it all is their love. And we also kept hold of that because we want women out there who have been through this but who haven’t spoken out to go ‘it’s going to be okay when I tell my husband. It’s going to be okay when I speak out.’ Things aren’t all going to be smooth – they are going to get rocky, but ultimately there will be a happy ending.”
We wondered how Shirley would react and deal with the situation now the truth is out.
“The easiest thing would be for her to say ‘I’m your mum,’ and then have ‘Oh, mum, let’s have a hug’ [from them],” Dominic told us. “And actually we had to put another big obstacle in the way. This was always the big twist. You’ve got to make it difficult. It’s EastEnders. If we were all cuddly you wouldn’t be watching.
“So it’s going to be very hard, and what’s wonderful is you’ve got someone like Linda Henry who is just playing all these different, strange, facets of Shirley – who is not a sympathetic character. And yet you’re with her through this whole journey. And you’ve already met daddy. The amazing Karl Howman from Brush Strokes. He’s coming back to do the next chapter of this story because he needs to see his two sons. And there’s a whole new era of the show coming up next year which is really exciting.”
Dominic teased the next chapter of the Carters saga.
“You haven’t had all the surprises yet. There’s a baby due. We’ve scripted the birth, which is suitably dramatic. And ultimately, also, it’s not all going to be bleak. There’s going to be joy – a lot of joy for the Carters coming up as well. Because that’s important. When they came in they were joyful. I had a conversation just before the script came in for the rape and Kellie said “Oh God, we’re doing it; we’re changing her. We’re changing the family. And we’ll never be the same again.”
So, will Kellie be sitting down to watch the show on Christmas Day?
“Yes. With all my family. I absolutely will. It’s going to sound so odd, but I don’t watch it like it’s me. I have managed to get to a place where I can sit back and just watch it and enjoy watching Linda and Mick and their story – and even though I was there it still surprised me and it really moved me. I was really moved by it.”
We couldn’t resist looking even further ahead and try to unlock some of the secrets of EastEnders’ 30th anniversary next February – and a certain murder mystery...
“You’ll find out who did it,” said Dominic. “We’re being really ambitious. I’ll either be very happy or never work again! Everyone is terrified and excited and I think sustaining those moments every day. You already know that Barbara is coming back, which is amazing. And there’s an amazing scene between her and Danny Dyer. It’s got them both very, very excited!"
So, finally, why should viewers make EastEnders the top of their TV viewing this Christmas?
“I’d say it’s worth a watch for all the performances across the board,” says Kellie. “Everybody in the episode is phenomenal and you don’t want to miss it!”
“I think we’ve gone back to the basics. Back to the origins of classic EastEnders,” says Dominic. “A secret that the audience know is going to come out and they’re wondering how it’s going to come out. It coming out ‘Boom’ in the middle and then watching the fallout and then it’s going to keep rumbling. Boxing Day picks up directly from that moment and, if possible, it gets even better!”
EastEnders is at 9pm on Christmas Day, BBC One.
