[alex_front2]

Love the new Shabnam. Hope Rakhee as Shabnam becomes a leading character this year as the real eastend is multicultural and like alot of people I am bored sh#tless by producers trying to pretend Sszzztacey return is welcome by everyone (most are bored already) or that blond blue eyed Ronnie really represents Eastend better than Denise or Shabam.

[waterhog]

with all due respect - nothing will top the last shanam - she was fantastic. very disapointed with EE but then again i am always am. nothing in it that appeals to me. not even the 1980's living conditions that have failed to move with the times.

[alex_front2]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...bbc-john-yorke


The last Shabnam didn't get any SL and was a background character to Karly Wicks and Dawn Swann. There was a scene in Shabnam's first stint when all three lasses came back from clubbing and Zainab and Massood were annoyed and bizarrely Shabnam did the least talking in this scene....to her parents?! No wonder the previous Shabnam actress Zahra Ahmadi left over lack of SLs she was merely an extra in the Stacey Branning show.

If she's shrewd Rakhee can hold DTC and the production team to ransom over getting top storylines. EE has played lip service to diversity and has never had a lead character or an iconic character who is not white (eg Pat Wicks, Phil Mitchell, Dirty Den, Sharon, Stacey, Dot Cotton, Ronnie, Nasty Nick are iconic) which eould be hilarious if it wasn't for the fact large swathes of eastend are non white. DTC has decreased the amount of non white characters eg Sam and Ava (Shabnam obviously is not anew character) whilst slyly adding 7 white characters.



http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/...-asian-actors/


http://www.thetvcollective.org/2014/...ack-and-white/

[Redway]

Originally Posted by alex_front2

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...bbc-john-yorke


The last Shabnam didn't get any SL and was a background character to Karly Wicks and Dawn Swann. There was a scene in Shabnam's first stint when all three lasses came back from clubbing and Zainab and Massood were annoyed and bizarrely Shabnam did the least talking in this scene....to her parents?! No wonder the previous Shabnam actress Zahra Ahmadi left over lack of SLs she was merely an extra in the Stacey Branning show.

If she's shrewd Rakhee can hold DTC and the production team to ransom over getting top storylines. EE has played lip service to diversity and has never had a lead character or an iconic character who is not white (eg Pat Wicks, Phil Mitchell, Dirty Den, Sharon, Stacey, Dot Cotton, Ronnie, Nasty Nick are iconic) which eould be hilarious if it wasn't for the fact large swathes of eastend are non white. DTC has decreased the amount of non white characters eg Sam and Ava (Shabnam obviously is not anew character) whilst slyly adding 7 white characters.



http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/...-asian-actors/


http://www.thetvcollective.org/2014/...ack-and-white/

I'd hardly call Stacey and Ronnie icons. The longest-serving of the two has barely been in it a decade (with a 3-year gap) and it's not like her name is instantly recognisable with ex-viewers and those who have never watched. Same for Ronnie. Couldn't care less about colour and I'd imagine most others don't give a second thought to the supposed 'under representation' of ethnic minorities.

You referring to all ethnic minority characters as 'white' is wrong as well. Irish people and those from all across Europe are just examples of white people who are classed as minorities in Britain - we haven't had a Russian or Latvian family in the show's history; are these to be ignored because of their light skin tone?

[Redway]

Why not see people as just that and leave everything else out of it? I seriously doubt EastEnders are purposely neglecting the ethnic minority cast, not when you consider the amount of high-profile stories that have gone to them over the years (and righty so).

[reece(:]

Originally Posted by Redway

Why not see people as just that and leave everything else out of it? I seriously doubt EastEnders are purposely neglecting the ethnic minority cast, not when you consider the amount of high-profile stories that have gone to them over the years (and righty so).

Yeah, the Masoods have had a Christmas and a New Year dedicated to them in the past few years.

[Redway]

Originally Posted by reece(:

Yeah, the Masoods have had a Christmas and a New Year dedicated to them in the past few years.

Yup. Not to mention Chryed, Lucas' killing spree (didn't like this one), Denise/Owen, etc. People like to moan.

[alex_front2]

Originally Posted by Redway

Why not see people as just that and leave everything else out of it? I seriously doubt EastEnders are purposely neglecting the ethnic minority cast, not when you consider the amount of high-profile stories that have gone to them over the years (and righty so).

No offence but that is bull. If people are people why are so many of the extras in EE white? Take a gander round the real eastend. All the kids in Bobby's spelling bee competition were white. It might be a stereotype but kids from Asian backgrounds tend to dominate selling bees. Never mind the fact a real school in eastend would be 80% non white, even the teacher / invigilator in the spelling beewhite, as is the new doctor, the snooty hair salon woman and the local councillor, stall trader. Why can't they be asian, mixed or god forbid black. DTC is making EE more white and he knows it. Shabnam is a returning character whereas he has added whites: Carters, plus Babe, the dad, and Lee, Dot's grandson. He's also retuned Jane (Denise will take a back seat now), Deano, Stacey and Sonia and daughter. The axed ava and sam. The weird thing is whenever there is an attractive or pleasant non white person - eg syed with christian, syd with bradley, patrick with pat and now cora, denise with ian etc - they pair them up with a white character (can't have the god looking non whites being together now can we).

The highest profile storylines are always for whites eg who killed archie, bradleys fall ( both involving stacey an no non white characters, don't remember which non white characters were in 2010's 25th anniversary live show), then there's who killed phil, and all the mitchel storylines. There has never been an iconic non white character eg den, sharon, stacey, phil, peggy, sharon, nick, pat, dot, kat). The longest serving is Rudolf Walker as Patrick since 2001 (although the actress who plays Denise played another character in 1990s).

It's exactly 1 year to the day till ee has the 30th year ep I bet no non white characters will feature heavily in live ep and it will involve a Stacey/ Ronnie/ white character main SL.ZZZZZzzzzz. Heck Stacey is in this years 29th anniversary ep so no shock.

Stacey has four Doof Doffs, how many has Shabnam #2.

Shabnam should ultimately be the main female protagonist on EE but just like Zahra before he as Shabnam, Rakhee seems to be a bit part filler to the Stacey Show.

There used to be a couple of non white writers, they are all white except one mixed woman. Pathetic DTC.

[Vanessa]

She has short hair. It's cute, i like it.

[alex_front2]

Originally Posted by Vanessa

She has short hair. It's cute, i like it.

She's stunning, only Shabnam/ Rakhee could carry this look off.

[Redway]

To be fair, it's unknown at this point whether or not Jane's returning full-time. I agree that Walford is overwhelmingly white and grossly disproportionate of the 'real London' but colour isn't something I pay attention to... only fussed about the quality of the characters themselves. Ethnic backgrounds don't bother me in the slightest.

[InOne]

It's a well known fact the token ethnic family always fails miserably on the square. The Masoods are no exception

[Redway]

That's the thing, though. It's better when their presence is natural rather than forced and done purely for tokenism. Box-ticking and that. Remember the likes of Gus and Juley in around 2006/7...

[alex_front2]

Originally Posted by InOne

It's a well known fact the token ethnic family always fails miserably on the square. The Masoods are no exception

Whites are the token/minority increasingly in real ee and it's becoming more ethnically diverse and interesting. So much SL potential that's not being released by DTC and his team of exclusively white writers.

MAsoods are the best family in square, Shabnam and Tamwar are bright smart and have a completely different moral compass to the rest of the residents. Bored of most of the white characters and faimlies eg Slater-Moons, Brannings, and even Mitchells. Of the token whites only the Carters are of interest and that's more due tothe fact they are sort of new but not and potential showdown between Shabnam and soldier Lee.

So you see white fans, Masoods are it's not token, in some parts of eastend some parts are almost 90% black/ brit asian/ asian/ mixed. White people from eastend often move to essex and there are some streets in eastend where you ONLY see Muslim men, and women in burqas. Islam is the dominant religion and super mosques are being built.

[Me. I Am Salman]

Originally Posted by InOne

It's a well known fact the token ethnic family always fails miserably on the square. The Masoods are no exception

not really, Zainab is a fan favourite and the gay muslim storyline was very well received. It's only in 2011 they started to be annoying, but the Brannings got annoying too and so did a load of other families under BK's reign

anyway in terms of representativeness I think EE is fine, they just need a Chinese character

[reece(:]

Originally Posted by Salman!

not really, Zainab is a fan favourite and the gay muslim storyline was very well received. It's only in 2011 they started to be annoying, but the Brannings got annoying too and so did a load of other families under BK's reign

anyway in terms of representativeness I think EE is fine, they just need a Chinese character

#BringBackBlossom

[InOne]

Originally Posted by Salman!

not really, Zainab is a fan favourite and the gay muslim storyline was very well received. It's only in 2011 they started to be annoying, but the Brannings got annoying too and so did a load of other families under BK's reign

anyway in terms of representativeness I think EE is fine, they just need a Chinese character

I stopped watching for a while and got back into at the point where they'd shunned Syed

[Gstar]

omg gus and juley!!! completely forgot about them

[Redway]

Both were horrific creations. Especially Juley.

[Niamh.]

I much preferred the original Shabnam, this new one is all grumpy and annoying like a young Zainab

[Vanessa]

I like the actress actually. Nice scenes with Masood yestaerday. She's softening her attitude and i'm warming to her.

[flamingGalah!]

Cannot stand Shabnam...

And to say EastEnders only gives the biggest storylines etc.. to white cast members is absolute crap! It has the most diverse cast of any soap & always has...

[alex_front2]

Originally Posted by flamingGalah!

Cannot stand Shabnam...

And to say EastEnders only gives the biggest storylines etc.. to white cast members is absolute crap! It has the most diverse cast of any soap & always has...

Not factually correct, EE actually had less than Emmerdale at one point. There was a period embarrassingly last year after Tameka/Kim Fox left (temporarily apparently but still gone), the Ava and Sam Hartman axed when bloody Emmerdale, set in rural Yorkshire which had more non white characters (Sharmas and kids, Dom and daughter, Ruby) Eastenders has actually reduced it's non white characters and brought in loads of white tokens eg Carters, Luke (had to be white of course), Aleks (had to be white, perish the thought of having a smart handsome groomed guy who is gulp, black ).


As for the SLs wow the non white characters get 4 big SL in 29 years, shucks us non white folk are truly greatful for those crumbs. Would love to know how many DUff duff authentic eastend type character Shabnam gets compared to token increasingly unrealistic eastender
Stacey, which is funny as Stacey has already clocke up more duff duffs than most of the non white characters put together.

PS still all white writers from DTC's team, bless maybe someone should tell him that even reliably "white" fav shows like Midsomer Murders and Downton Abbey have "ruined" themselves by having non white characters and writers.

[flamingGalah!]

So do you think EastEnders should axe all white actors, writers, producers etc.. & only use black, asian actors etc.. ?? Just so that one particular road in a certain part of the real East End of London is accurately represented??

Perhaps they should bulldoze the Queen Vic & build a Mosque on the site, I mean if the square was filled solely with Muslims they wouldn't need a pub would they

EastEnders is a SOAP. It has to represent everyone watching, the UK is a predominately white country. Deal with it...

[Shaun]