E20 on EastEnders
Post categories: media literacy
| 19:35 UK time, Friday, 8 January 2010
This evening EastEnders launches its spin off online drama E20. As soon as EastEnders finishes on 91Èȱ¬ One, log on to the EastEnders website at www.bbc.co/eastenders and you'll find the first episode of E20 which features 4 young characters in a squat in Albert Square. You'll see some regular cast members from EastEnders in E20 too. If you're a regular watcher of EastEnders you will have spotted some of them already!
Younger audiences who have grown up with the internet and technology will be familiar with logging onto a site and watching programmes online. It's intrinsic to their lives. However, some older audiences might not be.
I know John Yorke, Controller of Drama Production and New Talent genuinely hopes that people who don't normally use the internet will, because of this perhaps get the net, see it and discover a whole new world for themselves.
Part of EastEnders 25th Anniversary celebrations, and predominantly aimed at a younger audience, the 12 part series, was innovatively conceived as a way of nurturing new talent - a potential training ground for new talent in acting, writing, and remixing music etc. The writers are aged 17-22 years.
You can see how they got on, and see interviews with cast members, amongst others the director and producer about elements of getting the series made in our behind the scenes guide. You can see 4 short films about the idea, the casting and scripting process, the shoot and all the finishing touches. It's called EastEnders: E20 - The Making of an Online Drama.
For producer Deborah Sathe, E20 is also an opportunity for young people to show the older generations in their family how modern technology works. So if you have a friend or family member who is a huge EastEnders fan but might need some help watching E20, please give them a hand. Once they've watched the programmes, they may just be inspired to explore the internet further. They can find all sorts of useful learning material on the 91Èȱ¬ Media Literacy website.
Seetha Kumar is the Controller of 91Èȱ¬ Online.
Comment number 1.
At 9th Jan 2010, TV Licence fee payer against 91Èȱ¬ censorship wrote:"This evening EastEnders launches its spin off online drama E20."
Can't think of anything more pointless, a waste of money that could have been used to provide something that isn't already available - this spin off can't even take any of the charters stories further (unlike previous spin-off's, such as "Tuckers Luck" which carried on were the main programme charters ended or the war-time EastEnders spin-off were the charters past was already known) as they still need to dove-tail the plot into what is happening within the main soap's plot and those watching the main soap needs to know what is occurring to these charters even if they do not watch the spin off!...
"Younger audiences who have grown up with the internet and technology will be familiar with logging onto a site and watching programmes online. It's intrinsic to their lives. However, some older audiences might not be."
Whilst the words "might not be" have been noted why are you still peddling the myth that 'old fogies' can't cope with computers, many parents and grandparents were using computers in the work-place before anyone thought about having "a computer in every home" (never mind connecting them to the 'web') or this "Younger audience" you talk off were born. Isn't it also true - despite your repeated assertion that to the young "it's intrinsic" - for some younger people it might not be intrinsic or even available?
"For producer Deborah Sathe, E20 is also an opportunity for young people to show the older generations in their family how modern technology works."
That comment is totally patronising and amounts to ageism, the 91Èȱ¬ should be ashamed of it's self for allowing such comments to be published.
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Comment number 2.
At 9th Jan 2010, TV Licence fee payer against 91Èȱ¬ censorship wrote:Just to clarify my comment at #1, I wasn't trying to imply that "Tuckers Luck" was a EastEnders spin off, I'm quite aware that it pre-dates EastEnders by a number of years.
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Comment number 3.
At 9th Jan 2010, rexel wrote:Boilerplated, I think you are being unecessarily pessimistic and seem to have not understood what the blog said (or I misunderstood you.)
There will be need for people to watch both soaps, although I expect most E20 viewers will watch the main show aswell. The characters in E20 will have very little overlap into the main show, especially when it comes to the storylines. It is basically just using the Eastenders brand to attract more interest.
I also disagree that the 91Èȱ¬ is perpetuating the myth that older people can't cope with computers. They are trying to do the exact opposite by encouraging older people to get on the internet. Many older people are put off using computers as they think it would be too confusing but I would say the 91Èȱ¬ does a lot to help these people start using them.
I am not a huge fan of Eastender, more of an occasional viewer and probably won't watch this online spin off but the BBc dserves praise for continuing to recognise the shift from 'normal' TV to online TV.
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Comment number 4.
At 9th Jan 2010, Alison wrote:Would someone mind explaining to me why this doesn't carry subtitles? And how are deaf people supposed to access it? Thanks.
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Comment number 5.
At 9th Jan 2010, Andrew Tegala wrote:I am a big fan of Eastenders and was looking forward to the first show last night (8th) at 8.30pm. I looked up the show on iPlayer via XBMC but was disappointed to not find it there. I understand now that the E20 show will be shown on iPlayer in Omnibus editions starting from next Sunday (19th). I just thought it would have been good to have the episodes available instantly on iPlayer but apart from that technical issue, well done 91Èȱ¬. I believe I am slightly out of the demographic the spin off soap is aimed at but it is still good fun! :)
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Comment number 6.
At 9th Jan 2010, Simon Davenport wrote:I enjoyed it.
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Comment number 7.
At 9th Jan 2010, Maria Oliveira wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 8.
At 10th Jan 2010, Ed Lyons wrote:Andrew: I thought I'd heard that iPlayer is only allowed (by the 91Èȱ¬ Trust) to show content that's been on 91Èȱ¬ TV or Radio. Obviously it'd be convenient if more could be on iPlayer!
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Comment number 9.
At 11th Jan 2010, mikeandherson wrote:Boilerplated - stop being so defensive. The idea is to make programming for Teenagers (who now spend more casual time on the internet than watching TV), and who have very little British TV as it is. I think it's true more younger people are familiar on how go online [i]and[/i] [b] watch tv [/b] to a far extent and do it more often - and by younger people I mean from 12 to 35.
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Comment number 10.
At 11th Jan 2010, TV Licence fee payer against 91Èȱ¬ censorship wrote:#9. At 12:06pm on 11 Jan 2010, mikeandherson wrote:
"The idea is to make programming for Teenagers (who now spend more casual time on the internet than watching TV), and who have very little British TV as it is.
Tosh, they have as much television as everyone else, it's just that they choose not to watch it...
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Comment number 11.
At 11th Jan 2010, Green Soap wrote:Tosh, they have as much television as everyone else, it's just that they choose not to watch it...
While plenty other programmes become targeted at the yoof by dumbing it down....
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Comment number 12.
At 12th Jan 2010, Tamii321 wrote:EastEnders E20 is even better than normal EastEnders because the episodes are shorter so i don't use up all my time and the charachters are younger and say the kind of stuff we say. Can't wait till the next episode on Wednesday!!!
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Comment number 13.
At 12th Jan 2010, Tamii321 wrote:When will there be some action between Zsa Zsa and Leon? x ;]
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Comment number 14.
At 14th Jan 2010, Nick Reynolds wrote:Seetha has now responded to some of your comments.
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Comment number 15.
At 31st Jan 2010, Richard Rose wrote:waste of time it was just like watching hollyoaks.BTW you all know who I am aswell.
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Comment number 16.
At 27th Mar 2010, U14390976 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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Comment number 17.
At 8th May 2010, Someone wrote:It really annoys me I can't watch videos on this site.. I live in Denmark :/
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Comment number 18.
At 12th May 2010, U14460911 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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Comment number 19.
At 20th May 2010, talat wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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