EastEnders boss fights back

The executive producer of EastEnders has defended the soap, insisting that it had been a "victim of its own success".

17:23 30 July 2004

The executive producer of EastEnders has defended the soap, insisting that it had been a "victim of its own success".

Louise Berridge's comments follow a poll in The Mirror newspaper indicating that 57 per cent of viewers though the show had lost its appeal.

In a piece for the newspaper, Berridge claimed that: "It is a rule of Soap that its success goes in cycles. The greater the success of the programme, the more news value there is to be had from any perception of its failure."

The BBC executive pointed to the popularity of storylines with Kat Slater and Alfie Moon, as well as Dennis Rickman and Sharon Watts, and said some viewers complained if their favourite characters were not in every storyline.

According to the Mirror poll, conducted by YouGov, 16 per cent of respondents called the slump in EastEnders' appeal "dramatic".

Berridge admitted in her article that the introduction of the Ferreira family had not been as successful as she had hoped.

She wrote: "I think in retrospect we made a mistake in giving their entrance such a fanfare as a New Asian Family. Viewers traditionally take a long time to adapt to anyone new - even the Slaters were universally hated for months after their first appearance - so it was wrong to emphasise what was different about this family from the start."

Berridge finished by promising viewers "exciting storylines" over the coming months, including the introduction of a new family, two new female characters, the return of Little Mo and Peggy Mitchell's comeback.