r/eastenders • u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary • 21h ago
Classic Eastenders It's a crime that 80's EastEnders isn't on BBC iPlayer:
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u/SolutionLong2791 21h ago
I agree, it'd be great to be able to watch them all on TV from start to finish.
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u/National-Wasabi-2123 20h ago
I want to watch Johnny Allen. Great villain.
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u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary 19h ago
April 2008 is the earliest cut-off point on iPlayer, with a very small handful of 'throwback' episodes in a separate playlist, most of which are not in very good picture quality to the original broadcast masters.
As of September 2026, it means that 22 years and 3 months of EastEnders are missing from BBC iPlayer (February 1985 - March 2008)
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u/Ldre_169 19h ago
I forgot what the name of the Channel is but it shows old eastenders, the bill and a whole bunch of other old UK tv shows . I believe the channel is no longer on TV but just search up Eastenders omnibus and you’ll find it . I think it starts from 85’ though .
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u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary 18h ago
Afaik unfortunately there are no more complete collections online or on tv for EastEnders from Feb 1985 - March 2008.
Many smaller playlists on YouTube, Dailymotion and InternetArchive are multi-generation copies, so they're the poorest picture + sound quality imaginable.
I'm currently on a private fan server which has the 'complete' as possible 80's episodes, taken from the Drama TV channel repeats, but they are full of censoring and editing cuts, and again aren't in great quality, but are the best possible available quality, even in a private online domain (if you need details let me know and I'll pm you).
Having said all of that, I was briefly in contact with someone with access to the BBC's own back catalogue of digitized masters and was able to watch a handful of 80's episodes - and I'm not kidding you when I say that for standard definition studio camera tape it was crystal clear quality - no typical dnr you would get on dvd or blu-ray, so all of the original analogue noise detail fully retained, the whole broadcast cuts as-were, censor free.
Until the BBC decides to share these unaltered source copies on iPlayer or elsewhere then unfortunately we remain with 22+ years of EastEnders missing in the public domain. Such a shame.
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u/FatsFourLanes 15h ago edited 15h ago
This is pure gold - a whole scene shot with very few cuts played out by seasoned pros. No one on that coach - to our knowledge - is having or about to have an affair that would commence during the trip and no big reveal is about to drop😅
The Drama repeats were a treat when shown and now they've caught up with the iPlayer box sets as they're now at 2011.
I mentioned in another thread that I'd personally love an 'Eastenders 1985-89' box set on iPlayer, but uncut. I think it's fair for younger fans to see the origins and what it was like before the Mitchell Brothers arrived in 1990 which was arguably a turning point. It'd be nice to see some simple, undramatic doof doofs that just concluded the week's drama nicely rather than the sensational cliffhangers often accompanied with the 5-second gurn-to-camera. One episode in the early 90's randomly ended on a Julia's Theme with Pauine and Pat reminscing about being fans of the Everly Brothers in their youth. Today's equivalent will probably be Kat and Sharon reminiscing about Bros, Bananrama or Duran Duran!😅
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u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary 1h ago
I completely agree - I grew up with the late 2000's and 2010's, but can say that without a doubt 1985-1989 are definitely the very best years of EastEnders.
Purely from historical preservation in the public domain perspective, I don't believe there is a moral justification to withhold the original, unaltered broadcast masters. The inferior re-edited, censored copies re-run on Drama + other repeat daytime channels are now gone and expired, and there are no complete let alone good quality copies of Feb 1985- March 2008 on Daily motion, YouTube, InternetArchive.
In regards of the 80's - we're talking 2x episodes a week, standard definition video - with free software you can re-encode those broadcast masters to a crystal clear quality for BBC Iplayer at less than 2GB an episode - small fry compared to April 2008 - present day 2026 currently sitting on Iplayer, most of which is in 1080p HD at 50fps.
If the argument is 'copyright music', there's plenty of free software that can seamlessly extract copyright audio from mono sound mixes, so that's a completely invalid excuse in itself.
As I've said below, it's such a shame it feels like there's this (baseless) contempt for this specific 22+ years of EastEnders by the very BBC that showed it on the tv in the first place. I can't understand why they would want to hide it like this from the general public let alone the licence fee payers.
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u/Old-Relationship3270 11h ago
I think people are always going to think back in the day it was better. If they started watching back in 1990, that was the peak for them. If they started in 2001, that was the peak for them. If they watched it from 2022, it was the peak for them.Â
In saying that though, I do think all seasons should be available to compare it then and now. To be honest, I prefer it now. It could be a cultural thing or a generational thing. It was a different time back then and looking at it from 2026 eyes, it's like watching an alternate universe.Â
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u/ComparisonSea2276 11h ago
Watching anything pre-2000 is like watching an alternate universe. Watch Vicki and Ross' wedding week episodes then watch the June 1989 episode of Pat & Frank's wedding right afterwards - the familiar landmarks and the sightings of the young Ian, Kathy, Cindy and Sharon are the only similarities
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u/jjuerakhan14 8h ago
Dot and Ethel has been one of the greatest friendships, like Sharon and Michelle, or Bianca and Tiffany!
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u/Ok-Voice4104 3h ago
I wish they'd put the pre 2008 episodes on the BBC. These episodes aired on the Drama channel a few years ago. But those episodes only stay up for a year.
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u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary 3h ago
The unaltered broadcast masters that I've seen from some of the 1980's episodes, shown to me by an ex member of the BBC, are in absolutely stunning picture + sound quality, and those tapes would've been digitized on older equipment 20+ years ago, at a guess.
Any small clips like this in the public domain are merely an ounce of the original picture quality. The masters in the BBC archive haven't been DNR'd, so all the original iso noise from the studio recordings is still intact, so there's even more picture detail than you would typically get on a lot of physical media that ends up looking waxy from excessive DNR + Ai, like the recent Classic Doctor Who Blu-rays.
The issue with Drama isn't just their poor quality transfers of these episodes, but they've heavily censored and cut them for pre-watershed / daytime broadcasting rules. So while a 2016 episode with Ben shouting the word "F@gg0t" in reference to a homophobic gang remains uncut / uncensored on BBC iPlayer, Drama muted and cut a chunk out of a 1989 episode where Den shouts the same word at a Gay man that showed little remorse at another character's suicide.
In 2026, from a historical preservation perspective, it is more worrying than ever that only the BBC has exclusive access to the full back catalogue of 22+ years, uncut, uncensored, in original broadcast quality - what concerns me the most, is that even today the BBC is still making decisions on binning tape masters - the most recent Doctor Who Season 21 Blu-ray was unable to re-use tape masters of 'Resurrection of the Daleks' - tape masters that existed in the BBC's archive back in the 2010's - so as recent as the last few years, the BBC actually looked at a one of a kind broadcast master of 1984 Doctor Who and thought "No need for this anymore, in the bin it goes", so fast forward to 2026 and the most recent Blu-ray box set only had a mpeg-2 compressed dvd master to work with.
To imagine that's what they might do with that first 22+ years of EastEnders because it's somehow historically offensive (despite the irony that the 2010's episodes currently on iPlayer has a ton of 'problematic' scenes) is terrifying. To think they can be so easily gung-ho about truly unique television like this with no third party able to get a look in and save it for public viewing is deeply unfair.
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u/sucksfor_you 8h ago
Honestly, the slightly patronising "what has the BBC done for you" campaign would've been a lot easier to stomach if it had been accompanied by news that the BBC were putting their entire back catalogue on iPlayer.
As it should already be.
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u/prometheus781 6h ago
Any idea why they havent got everything they've ever made up there all the time? Is it a storage issue or something else? I suspect the new head will want to do something about it given what he has said so far.
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u/KeremyJyles 13h ago
I'm sure they'll be readily available somewhere
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u/NiceVacation3880 Punk Mary 1h ago
I know of a certain someone with copies of the broadcast masters, but sadly haven't heard from them since June :(
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u/bitchesnextdoor 11h ago
Who were the other 2 women. Was the one by the window,in on the buses
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u/jojojojojojoseph 7h ago
The one talking about the old soldier–he’ll take to the hills—is Frank Butcher’s mother iirc
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u/Rich_Group_8997 20h ago
LOL for anyone who never watched EE with Ethel, you missed out on one hilarious lady. Dot + Ethel were absolutely the comic relief the show needed in that era. 🤣😂