Letter from the Publisher
Spring 1999
There’s been a whirlwind of activity at the Walford Gazette in recent months. Among the highlights was the arrival of a documentary crew from London-based September Films, which last fall supplied ITV with an hour-long piece entitled Soap Secrets. This May 12 at 8 p.m., ITV will air in the U.K. a companion piece that will focus on EastEnders fans in New York.
Among those interviewed by director David Cumming include yours truly, Gazette website editor/expat Paul Field and his wife Denise, Gazette interviewer Tim Wilson, EastEnders e-mail newsletter publisher Judy Hirsch and Newsday (Long Island, NY daily newspaper) TV columnist/EastEnders fan Marvin Kitman, who I presume was included to provide the proceedings with a little legitimacy (i.e., we’re not just a bunch of lunatics). We had a nice turnout of about 30 diehards for the Tri-State EastEnders Fan Club, whose meeting was filmed at the Irish restaurant Fiddlesticks in Greenwich Village, including a trivia contest administered by Esta Asteroff. Despite the hoopla, we all shared a little sadness over club founder Virginia Wood’s passing about a month earlier. (see Judy Hirsch’s tribute on page 3).
Tea & Sympathy (NYC British restaurant) proprietor Nicky Perry did a yeowoman’s effort in arranging the shoot to occur at Fiddlesticks, as well as landing EastEnders actor Russell Floyd, who plays Bridge Street market inspector 'Michael Rose, to help pitch memberships on March 3 during the EastEnders marathon by WLIW-TV in Plainview, NY. Nicky managed to pull strings to get complimentary airfare (courtesy of Virgin Airways) and lodging (The Plaza, no less!). Well done, Nicky.
Russell, who had loads of fun on-air with WLIW’s Laura Savini, spent time with Paul and me for an interview in between pitches.That interview appears on page9. He’s a great personable bloke, and it appears that this character is going to move to the forefront of storylines in the not-so-distant future.
In any case, WLIW was ecstatic because they made their goal of bringing in 400 memberships. By the way, Russell was the first EastEnders actor to do a live appearance at the station in the three-plus years since WLIW has aired the series. Several years ago, I escorted Deepak Verma ('Sanjay’) for some taped spots, which the station still airs.
The forementioned Tim Wilson came back from a month-long work holiday in London, where he landed interviews with Shaun Williamson ('Barry Evans') and Daniela Denby-Ashe ('Sara Hills'). Both interviews will run in future issues of the Gazette.
I was also interviewed in February by a New York correspondent of London’s Evening Standard, whose features editor found his way to the Gazette through our website. A headline in the Feb. 26 edition bellows 'When Larry Met Peggy'.
Moving to an entire different subject, there have been some questions about the Gazette’s publishing schedule. It remains quarterly, roughly around the start of each season. Since the Gazettebegan publishing 7 years ago, there has never been less than 4 issues a year.
I’d like to leave you with a line from a recent column by the forementioned Marvin Kitman about a recent trip to London and his impression of British TV that I think anyone reading this newspaper could certainly relate.
'There are some great things about British TV. EastEnders on BBC1 is on at 8 p.m. on Monday nights. You don’t feel like a member of the lunatic fringe being addicted to the soap.
Marvin, you're not alone.
