Torture scenes, fan fave buried alive and tragic baby swap that sparked 13k complaints… EastEnders’ sickest storylines
IT’S one of Britain’s most popular TV shows and the drama never stops in Albert Square.
But EastEnders – known for its glass half empty approach to life – has also provoked its fair share of complaints.
Brooding characters and their ceaseless challenges have kept viewers glued since Den and Angie Watts first stood behind the bar of the Queen Vic in 1985.
At the height of its success the National Grid had to prepare for the moment the adverts came on, when between 1.5 and 1.75 million kettles were boiled.
In the neighbourhood where the sun rarely shines, the Square has been home to some of the grittiest storylines ever seen on a soap.
From kidnaps and beatings to grisly deaths and sex assaults, EastEnders has covered it all, taking on some of the most controversial and taboo subjects in British culture.
Here we have a look at some of the soap’s most shocking plots.
Chilling baby swap
The infamous baby swap involving Ronnie Branning and Kat Moon saw 14,000 viewer complaints.
The plot saw both women give birth on New Year’s Eve in 2010 before Ronnie and Jack Branning’s son James died suddenly of infant death syndrome the next day.
After finding her baby lifeless in his cot, desperate Ronnie swapped him for Kat’s son Tommy.
The scenes were one of the show’s most complained about plots in its history as many slammed the ‘distressing’ scenes.
In the end, Tommy was returned to Kat, played by Jessie Wallace, and Ronnie (Samantha Womack) was put behind bars for child abduction.
More than 13,000 viewers complained to the BBC while Ofcom received over 1,000.
Sudden infant death syndrome awareness campaigners also criticised the episodes for over-dramatisation.
Ofcom cleared the soap of any wrongdoing saying the scenes were not ‘unduly disturbing or graphic’.
Twisted child grooming
Actress Shona McGarty has had some of the most sensitive storylines in the soap while playing Bianca’s adopted daughter, Whitney Dean.
In 2008, her character was groomed into a sexual relationship with her mum’s paedophile boyfriend, Tony King. It quickly came to light that it had been going on since she was 12.
Whitney revealed all to Bianca on her 16th birthday and Tony was jailed for 13 years before dying in jail.
The storyline received 200 complaints.
Actor Chris Cogill, who played Tony, said he found it hard to find work since playing the sex offender but was proud that the plot had encouraged real life victims to come forward about their ordeals.
Viewers have also seen Whitney forced into prostitution by a boyfriend to pay off her debt and stalked by Tony’s son.
Sick kidnap plot
In disturbing scenes, heavily pregnant Dawn Swann was kidnapped by a doctor desperate for a baby who planned to give her a forced c-section.
Kara Tointon’s character was held hostage by Dr May Wright, who was struggling to have her own baby.
Dawn was chained to a bed as the doctor told her she would cut her baby from her.
She managed to escape when she got hold of the scalpel May intended to use.
Almost 200 people lodged complaints about the scenes.
The 2007 storyline was originally meant to centre around child abduction but BBC bosses changed it after Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal the same year.
A child kidnap plot on rival soap Coronation Street was also pulled.
Graphic domestic abuse
The soap tackled the difficult subject of domestic abuse in a powerful way with the storyline of Little Mo and husband Trevor.
The daughter of Charlie Slater was horribly abused in scenes which saw the psychopath burn her with an iron and push her face into a Christmas dinner before forcing her to eat the remains from the carpet.
He also beat Mo up after discovering she was taking the pill to avoid becoming pregnant by him before raping her.
The BBC said it received a “steady stream” of complaints about the 2001 plot which ended when Mo stuck back, repeatedly hitting Trevor with an iron and leaving him for dead.
The Broadcasting Standards Committee ruled that the “sustained and graphic scenes” should not have been shown before the watershed time of 9pm.
Horror rape
Debonair businessman James Wilmott Brown arrived on the Square in 1986 instigating a feud with Dennis Watts when he opened a new bar.
When Kathy Beale went to work for him at The Dagnar he developed an obsession with her which resulted in rape in 1988.
Kathy, played by Gillian Taylforth, went to cops who refused to believe her and real-life detectives moaned that the storyline made them look bad.
Wilmott-Brown was jailed but made a comeback 25 years later to cause more trouble on the square.
Husband buried alive
More than 700 viewers complained when Max Branning was buried alive by his wife Tanya.
In dark scenes, he was placed into a coffin and sealed in before Tanya changed her mind and let him out.
The controversial Easter 2008 episodes saw Tanya, played by Jo Joyner, spike Max’s drink before driving him to Epping Forest with her lover, Sean Slater.
Max, played by Jake Wood, was buried underground before regaining consciousness.
The BBC later apologised to fans but said it had put out a warning about the graphic plot.
Actress Jo said she was “upset” when she read the script saying: “I heard about the theory..and I thought ‘she’s not a killer’.”
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Deadly wedding day
Sisters Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell met a watery end when they were killed off in the soap on New Year’s Day in 2017.
Ronnie was due to get her happy-ever-after as she prepared to tie the knot with Jack Branning – but the big day took a turn for the worse.
Drunk Roxy decided to take a swim but started drowning and Ronnie jumped in to save her, only to be weighed down by her wedding dress.
EastEnders boss Sean O’Connor said he wanted to give the sisters, played by Samantha Womack and Rita Simons an “operatic ending.”
He said: “They were not the sort of characters that would leave in the back of a taxi.”
Roxy later came back from the dead in her daughter Amy’s imagination.
Terrible torture
Some of the soap’s most violent scenes took place when Phil Mitchell tortured Jack Branning – convinced he had been sleeping with his wife Sharon.
The show attracted 181 complaints when the Square’s hard man beat up Jack, doused him in petrol and threatened him with a gun.
Jack was kidnapped by Phil’s henchmen and taken to the Arches for a brutal torturing that lasted for the entire episode.
He was gagged and dumped in the mechanic’s pit while Phil sneered: “How does it feel Jack? How does it feel knowing how much I’m going to hurt you? I’m going to enjoy this.”
Jack was saved by Ben Mitchell who arrived in the nick of time and Phil let him go.