CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN EASTENDERS FROM 1/1/15!
As we all know, celebrations and death/disaster go hand-in-hand in Albert Square - the setting of Eastenders - and 2015 has already lived up to the show's reputation. Whereas the 10th Doctor once pointed out that "This'll be the best Christmas Walford has ever had" is usually a good indication of misery under the Mistletoe, the residents of the fictional East London borough had hardly had a chance to say 'Happy New Year' to each other, before a sabotaged car hit somebody, flipped over, crashed through the Square's famous railings and then caught fire!
"When I said 'let's start 2015 with a bang', that's not what I meant. Dial 999. Again."
Now, the actual crash itself was very well done, considering how small and tightly-packed the exterior set is. Eastenders may be the master of misery as far as soaps go, but to give them their due, they certainly pull out all the stops when a stunt is required.
If only this attention to detail extended to making sure bits of technical equipment didn't appear on screen. In one of the scenes that followed the stunt, as shocked relatives of those involved in the crash came to blows in The Queen Vic, one of the cameras was accidentally caught in shot...
The camera's lens, clearly visible on the left of shot... (click the pic for a larger view)
As we cut to the above shot, the camera lens is in full view, but starts to pull out of shot as the actor in the purple t-shirt turns to exit.
Still from a few seconds before we see the camera, showing the shot the offending lens was taking. That's the latest regeneration of Walford's renegade Timelord, Ben Mitchell, in the glasses. I think.
To a degree, it is a little embarrassing for such an error to make it to air in 2015 on one of the BBC's highest-rated dramas, but when you consider that soaps are the only drama programmes that still traditionally shoot with a multi-camera set up, it's pretty remarkable that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.
Had this happened in a brighter set, then it would probably have been spotted at the time and re-shot, but when you're in a darker set and shooting to the tight schedule that soaps often have to stick to, then mistakes will be transmitted. For the sake of balance, I will point out that before now, cameras have been seen in shot in Coronation Street in recent years, usually in the Rover's Return set, which is also dark in places (and smaller).
February will see the 30th anniversary since Eastenders began and to celebrate, they will be doing a live episode and inserting live scenes into pre-recorded episodes during the same week. It will be interesting (if you are sad, like me and find these things interesting) to see if it all runs smoothly, as the live episode they broadcast in 2010 did suffer from a few "incidents", including cutting away from actor Jake Wood a little too late and showing him jamming his fingers down his throat to make himself sick (his character supposedly in shock).
It's incidents like those mentioned in this post, that I will often be bringing up on here, because I'm sad and I notice these things a lot.
So there.
Oh alright... here's a video of the mistakes from the 2010 live episode, uploaded by Simon Hollingshead on You Tube...
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