The ultimate taboo: Eastenders and Incest

I have just been watching Eastenders on the Wellington Videowall, and observed an incestuous event. It seems to have been portrayed in such a way that implies such relationships are acceptable.

Do soaps have a social responsibility and should there be certain issues that are never touched upon?

I understood there have been several soaps that have portrayed incest.

Why is incest portrayed in consenting circumstances in soaps, when in reality, this is never usually the case?

It's not incest, Sharon is the adopted daughter of Den and Angie

I think you need to brush up on your eastenders history. Dennis and Sharon are not related at all. Yes, Dennis was the son of Dirty Den, but Sharon was Den and Angie's ADOPTED daughter.

It's still a bit weird but it's not incest.

It is really just a 12" portable Beko TV, black and white to save on the licence fee, isn't it?

Anyway, it was very interesting that this finally happened since there was often something incestuous with Dirty Den and Sharon in the 80s, I wonder how he will react when he finds out, which he will eventually although the attempts to hide it will be a big part of the coming story line in the mean time. Overall I quite liked the episode, but Den has a lot of explaining to do, 'Keep out of it, it's family business!'.

That was a real dire episode of Eastenders.

Why was everyone suddenly talking about Dirty Den, pictures of Dirty Den around the place.

It was totally contrived and totally unbelievable - I made the right decision a few years ago to stop watching this trash and tonight's episode reinforced all the things that are wrong the series!

So predictable and boring!

Because Den is a true soap legend, he was the guy you hated to love, he was an adulterer and dabbled and dealed but was loyal and you couldn't help having some respect for him.

You may consider tonights episode boring but you have to realise that there can be drama without killing or beating senseless in EE, and that tonights episode showed just how much love Dennis has for Sharon, and that he has bottled it up, and is not prepared to let her be without him. It made for compelling viewing and frankly slightly was even unnerving in its delivery.

BTW, was Dennis on the verge of finishing it all before Sharon came in, or was that just me?

I must confess something very naughty.

I never watch soaps at all, I only chooned in because Dirty Des was coming back (or so I saw in the paper). I just wandered how they would bring him back.

So, i do admit to being totally ignorant to all this stuff.

However, the same question still applies to an old Brookside storyline, doesn't it?

ROFL

"My videowall consists of a 15" monitor with a TV card, and thanks to a certain Mr Dawes, it also has a 32" WS Sanyo and a 14" portable Pye all sellotaped to a wall bracket."

My videowall's getting Sky Digital added on Friday!!

I didn't really like last nights show. They knew everyone would be watching so they disgustingly tacked the dirty, lusty incest storyline into it. Oh please!

It was all a bit daft, wasn't it? My sister, who is a diehard Eastenders viewer, was laughing most of the way through last night's episode.

Even if you'd been on Mars for the past few months, you'd have guessed that Den would most likely appear at the end with "'Ello, Princess".

It is really stupid for them to go down that route, but it isn't incest, as pointed out before. They didn't really need that episode. They could have had Den walk in at the end of Friday's episode. However, I'm looking forward to tonight.