The series was conceived by executive producer Diederick Santer "as a way of nurturing new, young talent, both on- and off-screen, and exploring the stories of the soaps' anonymous bystanders.
"[2] A 5-part spin-off miniseries featuring long-running character Tracey (Jane Slaughter) was released on 2 December 2024 as part of the BBC Studios Talentworks initiative.
The plot revolved around Tracey reuniting with her son Tom (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins) after they lost contact for years, during her 60th birthday celebrations.
Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) and Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) make guest appearances in the miniseries.
He was told by a black gay couple living in the squat with him that seeing your own dead relatives in your dreams was a bad sign but Nick was not worried.
[5] Pete Shelley of the Daily Mirror said, "A shot of a pasty-faced, grumpy-looking orang-utan told us that this episode marked the return of Bianca...
I won't bore you with the details of Simon Ashdown's plot, suffice to say that it was worthy of a Brookside Christmas video starring Lindsey Corkhill.
But this one is a hoot, mainly because Patsy Palmer is sending herself up something rotten – normally only drag queens can manage a falsetto squeal that high – and because she and Sid Owen look so pleased to be there.
"[6] This episode first aired on 2 January 2003 and followed Dot Branning (June Brown) to Wales to visit the family she stayed with during World War II.
This episode aired on 21 September 2003[7] and followed Frank Butcher as he set up a seedy nightclub and a car valeting service in Somerset after returning from Spain where he was last seen in 2002.
When Frank is sent a car to valet by the local gangster named Reg Priest, his assistant finds a dead body in the boot.
Frank and his club staff try to find a way to avoid the police asking questions and fall foul of Reg so they throw the body into the water over the side of the pier.
Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald) tracks down her step grandmother Dot Branning (June Brown), who has been living away from Walford with her granddaughter Dotty Cotton (Molly Conlin), following the revelation that her father Max (Jake Wood) has a secret wife, Kirsty (Kierston Wareing) and the fallout it had caused for her family, including Max's current fiancé/ex-wife and Abi's mother Tanya (Jo Joyner).
It has been presented by Gail Porter, Harriet Saxton, Jayne Middlemiss, Edith Bowman, Colin Murray, Melanie Sykes and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
It featured games and interviews with cast members, looked behind the scenes and allowed viewers to take part in quizzes on their mobile phones.
In the first episode, Tracy-Ann Oberman who played Chrissie Watts explained that The Queen Victoria pub uses exterior and interior sets for filming.
The other co-presenters were Nabil Elouahabi (Tariq Larousi), Pooja Shah (Kareena Ferreira), Jemma Walker (Sasha Perkins), Natalie Cassidy (Sonia Fowler), Ameet Chana (Adi Ferreira), Cliff Parisi (Minty Peterson), Joe Swash (Mickey Miller) and Mohammed George (Gus Smith).
[21] The series includes Dooley interviewing cast members such as Adam Woodyatt, Letitia Dean, Diane Parish, Kellie Bright and Danny Dyer about their experiences on EastEnders.
[22] EastEnders: The Six is a two-part documentary series hosted by Joe Swash, who previously played Mickey Miller on the soap from 2003 to 2008 and 2011.
The programme was broadcast in response to the build-up and resolution to the overarching 2023 storyline, dubbed The Six, where a flashforward took place in February 2023 which saw Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) gathered among a dead body of a man on Christmas Day 2023.
[23][24] Just Another Day was a six-part documentary series presented John Pitman that looked at places which are part of the British way of life.
Narrated by Linda Robson, the documentary looked back at some of the most memorable storylines and characters in the show and featured interviews with past and present cast members.
EastEnders: The Whole Truth was a series of five documentary episodes, three pre-recorded and two live, broadcast every day from 2–6 April 2001, presented by Gaby Roslin.
[44] June Brown starred as Dorothy Cotton, Jon Culshaw as Ozzy Osbourne, and Adam Woodyatt as Ian Beale, and employed the rest of the cast of EastEnders, Merseybeat and Casualty.
The EastEnders cast who took part in the mini-episode were Laurie Brett (Jane Beale), Charlie G. Hawkins (Darren Miller), Kylie Babbington (Jodie Gold), Nina Wadia (Zainab Masood), John Partridge (Christian Clarke),[48] Diane Parish (Denise Johnson), Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed), Jamie Borthwick (Jay Brown), Shane Richie (Alfie Moon), Jessie Wallace (Kat Moon), Ricky Norwood (Fatboy) and Shona McGarty (Whitney Dean).
The short followed Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) in a coma-like state exploring Albert Square and enchanting the women who had died from his past.
For Children in Need 2017, the cast took part in "EastEnd meets WestEnd", a performance of West End songs including "Step in Time" (Mary Poppins) and "Who Will Buy" (Oliver!).
On 10 August 2001, the BBC threw a gala party at the Television Centre in West London, which was attended by many EastEnders cast members.
Woodyatt's team consisted of Michelle Collins, who previously played Cindy Beale in EastEnders, and Jeremy Spake, who became famous for appearing in the television docusoap Airport.
An EastEnders-themed episode of Pointless Celebrities aired on 8 September 2018, featuring cast members Natalie Cassidy (Sonia Fowler), Dean Gaffney (Robbie Jackson), Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell), Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell), Lisa Hammond (Donna Yates), Luisa Bradshaw-White (Tina Carter), Jamie Borthwick (Jay Brown) and Madhav Sharma (Arshad Ahmed).