IN the most obvious way possible, EastEnders is screwed.
Its viewers have scattered to a thousand different channels and screening services and it hasn’t got anything like the imagination and talent needed to win them back.
In another way, however, the soap’s triumph couldn’t be more complete, as almost every British drama now marches to the same preachy, issue-driven tune it’s been playing ever since the mid-1980s.
Take, for instance, World On Fire, which returned to BBC1 this week following a four-year hiatus without me being able to remember a thing about the first series beyond Lesley Manville’s turn as Robina, the show’s Hyacinth Bucket matriarch.
This is not a good sign for any drama that really fancies itself as “epic”.