Washed Up

“THE reason I must leave EastEnders.” It’s the Mirror’s front-page headline. And rightly so.

After almost 900 years in the soap opera, and not looking a day over 79, Wendy Richards, 62, is leaving EastEnders, the BBC soap opera.

But why? Surely the woman who has folded Albert Square’s dirty underwear for 22 years is not ready to retire?

Are we living in such wealthy times that even the downtrodden plebs who make up launderette worker Pauline Fowler’s customers now have washer dryers? Or Filipino maids?

Or has Wendy, who, naturally, plays Pauline, just belatedly realised that EastEnders serves one purpose: to show the BBC’s viewers that no mater how miserable and sad their own lives are there is something more depressing and dire to watch on the telly?

Or has Pauline just run out of characters to outlive? As the Sun reports (it’s front-page news), Pauline has buried her mother, husband and son.

But the actual reason could have something to do with what the Mail calls “creative differences”. As an insider tells the paper: “Wendy tried to stare down the producers over the story lines and lost.”

So now she is to be killed off. Although her cardigan will continue to run the laundrette until it has worked out its notice…

Posted: 11th, July 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink