Post by Lane Kent on Jan 6, 2011 19:04:34 GMT
Tabloids have been saying today that crisis talks were being helt about what to do with this story. However now broadsheet The Guardian say it will be cut short.
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/06/eastenders-complaints-cot-death
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/06/eastenders-complaints-cot-death
EastEnders to shorten cot death plot as complaints pass 6,000
Storyline to be cut short after figures including broadcaster Anne Diamond and Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts express outrage
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* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 January 2011 17.41 GMT
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EastEnders: Scott Maslen and Samantha Womack EastEnders: complaints about the cot death storyline have risen to more than 6,000. Photograph: BBC
The BBC will cut short a controversial cot death story in EastEnders that looks set to become the long-running soap's most complained-about plotline to date.
More than 6,000 complaints have been made about episodes in which Ronnie Branning, played by actor Samantha Womack, lost her baby James and swapped him for Kat and Alfie Moon's newborn son, Tommy.
Campaigning website Mumsnet described it as cynical and ill-informed and likely to reinforce misconceptions about bereaved mothers as "deranged and unhinged".
The BBC defended the plotline, which began with baby James's death in the New Year's Eve edition of the soap. It said it did not intend to cause distress but acknowledged it was a "particularly emotive storyline", which was approached "with great care and attention" following advice from experts.
But in response to the scale of the complaints the show's producers have decided to cut short the storyline, which had been expected to last for much of this year but is now likely to be brought to a conclusion in the spring.
Aware of the likely sensitivity around the issue, programme-makers had already made last-minute cuts to the New Year's Eve episode, including shots of a distraught Ronnie touching the cold hand of her dead baby, and Kat in blood-soaked pyjamas after her husband finds her haemorrhaging in her bed.
There were also suggestions today that some of the show's scriptwriters were relunctant to take part in the harrowing plot.
The BBC said there was "absolutely" no suggestion that Ronnie's behaviour was typical of a bereaved mother of a newborn baby. "In her grief and desperation at the discovery that her much longed for baby has passed away, and finding herself in the exceptional circumstance of being alone with her neighbour's newborn son, Ronnie acted on impulse in the heat of the moment, without really knowing what she was doing, or considering the consequences or repercussions," the corporation added.
The BBC had received more than 5,800 complaints by today . Media regulator Ofcom said it had received another 374.
Only one other EastEnders story has prompted more complaints, when Danielle Jones was killed in a car crash moments after Ronnie found out that the teenager was her daughter. More than 7,000 viewers contacted the BBC about that episode, which was broadcast in April 2009.
Boyd Hilton, the TV editor of Heat magazine, said: "Soaps have always been competing to have the most ridiculous, over-the-top storylines.
"The worst thing about the cot death story was the timing of it over new year when people are thinking about their families. It felt gratuitous to me – queasy viewing –- but the grimness of EastEnders has become a bit of a joke, even by its own standards."
In a letter to the BBC director general Mark Thompson, Mumsnet founder and chief executive Justine Roberts said the approach by the soap's writers appeared "at best to be ill-informed, and at worst ... a cynical ploy to make headlines by creating deliberate controversy".
Broadcaster Anne Diamond, who lost a son to cot death, branded the plot "tacky sensationalism". "I think it's crass what they've done," she told ITV1's Daybreak.
"I find it amazing that a cot death isn't awful enough for any drama. That they've had to actually make the cot death mother go slightly mad and then do a baby swap, is frankly offensive."
The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), which worked with EastEnders ahead of the story, has also spoken out about the storyline, stressing its involvement "was limited to advice on SIDS risk factors, bereavement and the involvement of health professionals and the police".
The charity added in a statement: "FSID had no involvement in the planning or adoption of the specific 'baby-swap' plotline. The behaviour and actions of Ronnie Mitchell are in no way 'endorsed' by FSID as a typical, or even likely, reaction of a bereaved parent."
The BBC denied reports that Womack, who will leave the soap in May, was quitting because she was upset about the storyline.
Her agent, Michael Wiggs, said: "There's no truth whatsoever in any suggestion that Sam is 'quitting' Eastenders over the current storyline. Sam's contract comes to a natural end later this year and she will be taking a break from the show; this has been agreed with the producers for several months."
"Sam has had an incredibly happy and fulfilling time on EastEnders over the last few years. She has huge respect for the show, writers and producers and has thoroughly enjoyed playing such a complex role that has been involved in so many tough and challenging storylines."
In a magazine interview Womack described filming the scenes as the "most horrific four weeks" of her life and said she "couldn't stop crying".
"What Ronnie has been through is such a crushingly awful thing to even pretend might happen to you," said Womack. "I actually felt ill having to portray it. We used an expensive silicone doll, and it was so lifelike it upset a lot of people on set. We had to stop and take a break because it was too much."
Storyline to be cut short after figures including broadcaster Anne Diamond and Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts express outrage
*
o
o Share54
o Reddit
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* John Plunkett
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 January 2011 17.41 GMT
* Article history
EastEnders: Scott Maslen and Samantha Womack EastEnders: complaints about the cot death storyline have risen to more than 6,000. Photograph: BBC
The BBC will cut short a controversial cot death story in EastEnders that looks set to become the long-running soap's most complained-about plotline to date.
More than 6,000 complaints have been made about episodes in which Ronnie Branning, played by actor Samantha Womack, lost her baby James and swapped him for Kat and Alfie Moon's newborn son, Tommy.
Campaigning website Mumsnet described it as cynical and ill-informed and likely to reinforce misconceptions about bereaved mothers as "deranged and unhinged".
The BBC defended the plotline, which began with baby James's death in the New Year's Eve edition of the soap. It said it did not intend to cause distress but acknowledged it was a "particularly emotive storyline", which was approached "with great care and attention" following advice from experts.
But in response to the scale of the complaints the show's producers have decided to cut short the storyline, which had been expected to last for much of this year but is now likely to be brought to a conclusion in the spring.
Aware of the likely sensitivity around the issue, programme-makers had already made last-minute cuts to the New Year's Eve episode, including shots of a distraught Ronnie touching the cold hand of her dead baby, and Kat in blood-soaked pyjamas after her husband finds her haemorrhaging in her bed.
There were also suggestions today that some of the show's scriptwriters were relunctant to take part in the harrowing plot.
The BBC said there was "absolutely" no suggestion that Ronnie's behaviour was typical of a bereaved mother of a newborn baby. "In her grief and desperation at the discovery that her much longed for baby has passed away, and finding herself in the exceptional circumstance of being alone with her neighbour's newborn son, Ronnie acted on impulse in the heat of the moment, without really knowing what she was doing, or considering the consequences or repercussions," the corporation added.
The BBC had received more than 5,800 complaints by today . Media regulator Ofcom said it had received another 374.
Only one other EastEnders story has prompted more complaints, when Danielle Jones was killed in a car crash moments after Ronnie found out that the teenager was her daughter. More than 7,000 viewers contacted the BBC about that episode, which was broadcast in April 2009.
Boyd Hilton, the TV editor of Heat magazine, said: "Soaps have always been competing to have the most ridiculous, over-the-top storylines.
"The worst thing about the cot death story was the timing of it over new year when people are thinking about their families. It felt gratuitous to me – queasy viewing –- but the grimness of EastEnders has become a bit of a joke, even by its own standards."
In a letter to the BBC director general Mark Thompson, Mumsnet founder and chief executive Justine Roberts said the approach by the soap's writers appeared "at best to be ill-informed, and at worst ... a cynical ploy to make headlines by creating deliberate controversy".
Broadcaster Anne Diamond, who lost a son to cot death, branded the plot "tacky sensationalism". "I think it's crass what they've done," she told ITV1's Daybreak.
"I find it amazing that a cot death isn't awful enough for any drama. That they've had to actually make the cot death mother go slightly mad and then do a baby swap, is frankly offensive."
The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), which worked with EastEnders ahead of the story, has also spoken out about the storyline, stressing its involvement "was limited to advice on SIDS risk factors, bereavement and the involvement of health professionals and the police".
The charity added in a statement: "FSID had no involvement in the planning or adoption of the specific 'baby-swap' plotline. The behaviour and actions of Ronnie Mitchell are in no way 'endorsed' by FSID as a typical, or even likely, reaction of a bereaved parent."
The BBC denied reports that Womack, who will leave the soap in May, was quitting because she was upset about the storyline.
Her agent, Michael Wiggs, said: "There's no truth whatsoever in any suggestion that Sam is 'quitting' Eastenders over the current storyline. Sam's contract comes to a natural end later this year and she will be taking a break from the show; this has been agreed with the producers for several months."
"Sam has had an incredibly happy and fulfilling time on EastEnders over the last few years. She has huge respect for the show, writers and producers and has thoroughly enjoyed playing such a complex role that has been involved in so many tough and challenging storylines."
In a magazine interview Womack described filming the scenes as the "most horrific four weeks" of her life and said she "couldn't stop crying".
"What Ronnie has been through is such a crushingly awful thing to even pretend might happen to you," said Womack. "I actually felt ill having to portray it. We used an expensive silicone doll, and it was so lifelike it upset a lot of people on set. We had to stop and take a break because it was too much."
