EastEnders is a British soap opera, examining the domestic and professional lives of working class characters who live in the fictitious London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. It has aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom since 19 February 1985. Key people involved in the production of EastEnders have stressed how important the idea of strong families is to the programme.[1]
Louise Berridge said of families in EastEnders during her time as executive producer from 2002 to 2004: "Clans were the original building blocks of EastEnders, and that's what the show is returning to now. When it started, it was all about the Watts, the Fowlers, the Wicks and the Beales. For a while, that focus was lost; there were too many single characters hanging around on the periphery of the action, while the family groups were being weakened and compromised. Then the Slaters were bought in as a big, powerful clan, and the Watts family was rebuilt. The Fowlers were reconstituted in 2004, as were the Beales and Mitchells. Those families are the mainspring of most of the best drama, because once you've got family groups you instantly have conflicts of loyalty." [2]
John Yorke, writing for The Guardian in March 2013, asked, "Why do characters in EastEnders offer up the mantra, 'It's all about family'? Because it gives them something to fight for; it gives them a goal—it brings them to life."[3] In 2017, Sean O'Connor said, "the idea of family is riven through EastEnders' DNA like a stick of rock."[4]
Metro O'Connor interview - Taylors was invoked but never defined (see the help page).