Yes I loved it back then. Its rubbish now

Got that right that is why I am binging for the 3 rd time in a month till 2016

@@jhibberd6290 It doesn't exist in the first place to even BE rubbish! Died in 2002/3. It was kind of coming for a few years before-the DiMarco's shunted out was the last straw really.

@@kyachdistent1301 Yes you are right. 2002 was probably the last time I watched it

@@jhibberd6290 ratings tumbled in 2002 and largely because of the new boring Ferreira family. That's why EE resorted to the desperate measure of reviving Dirty Den, but EE has never been the same since 2002.

Reminds me of a 'Play for Today'.

I know always wait till the end wait till the next episode and get let down with poor acting even worse script lines

Yes, Sharon really took off when angie & den left the show

Actually, Michelle NEVER returned. It doesn't count when some random actor who looks and sounds and embodies NOTHING of the original person says they ARE that person. It's not even impersonation, it's stupid play-acting at nursery but with adults. But then again EE died round about 2003 anyway, the thing people watch now is just a crap-pile rudely using the same name cos too desperate not to change it. And Sharon left for more than a few years. She didn't turn up again until well into 2001 so we had to put up with a long absence and then when she did return, what was left was a shaky shadow of the show it had been...until finally it died with finality a few years after.

They both seemed much older.

But remember, they do a small part of the scenes at a time. The scenes were probably done days apart. I play a part in a Spanish soap and I might do three or four different days and scenes in one day.

@@startracker5895everybody did back then had to grow up fast. Then again things were affordable, you got a property younger had kids younger even if you planned it and by the time you were mid 40s were past it and dressed like a frump.

Well she had been in America for 6 years

It was a label! LOL

It feels like we're catching it all on the fly. Proper character actors and only two episodes a week which allowed the actors to memorise huge amounts of lines. Now it's all quantity to the detriment of the quality, but sadly the audience is kids who have no staying power to wait five nights to find out what happens next.

The fourth episode a week destroyed EastEnders.

@@murphy9039, destroyed it how?

@@elgee6202 when a soap increases their episodes I notice the quality goes down, Coronation Street is a good example also. Yes, in 2001 EastEnders was going through a strong era but by 2003 the cracks were appearing - Dirty Den returning from the dead, too many gangster storylines, bland new characters. Also, storylines going no where. Eastenders has never really recovered after that mess and adding a fourth episode didn't help.

Sharon wasn't the only one who prophesized this. Lou, Grant, Mark (slightly) and even Pauline have prophesized the same thing - Michelle is selfish, arrogant, uses people and has bad decisions. All these faults will eventually cause her to become "a lonely old spinster". It's why I'm confused that everyone is hating on how Michelle turned out in 2016. She was always gonna end up like that. It was her comeuppance.

I thought that Dickhead & bastard. Was this broadcast at the normal time for Eastenders in those days?

@@lifeisshort89dg look like the afternoon or the times nowadays,but back then hardly any barrier to say swear words compared to now.

@@lifeisshort89dg Yes this was broadcast at 7.30pm on a Tuesday evening. There was more swearing I agree back then.

back before the TV stations thought people were 'offended' by bad language when most of us use it every day. I think it would be better if soaps were allowed to swear it would be more realistic.

I was shocked to hear Sharon refer to her father as a "dickhead" and a "bastard". I would have assumed that the 1980s were much more conservative than today with regards to swearing, but apparently not.

Suppose Sharon told her when they was in the USA but you never ever see her reaction

I don't think anyone really knew on the square at the time. Pauline and Arthur found out later on. Pauline found out from den and slapped him when he admitted to it. Jan knew as Den told him. I think that was it. I don't know when Pauline found out Angie was still around. Had she been it would have made great drama angies reaction to it.

@@lifeisshort89dg Pauline twigged at Christmas 1986 when Angie left with Sharon and Pauline saw Den give Michelle a wedge of cash

No she didn’t. Shows how much story potential Angie had left.

A two hander is an episode where there are only 2 prominent characters. This is a 2 hander because Sharon and Michelle are the only prominent characters.