eastenders complaints

The BBC has said sorry to viewers who complained about the Easter holiday episodes of EastEnders in which philanderer Max Branning was buried alive.However, the BBC staunchly defended the storyline and said it had taken "great care" to flag up the nature of the scenes in the advance publicity and pre-programme announcements.The BBC stopped short of a full apology, but said sorry to viewers who "did not enjoy" the EastEnders episodes featuring the buried-alive storyline on Good Friday and Easter Monday.Friday's scene, in which character Branning was put unconscious into a coffin by his wife Tanya and her lover, prompted 167 complaints.Viewers complained that the scene, broadcast just before 8.30pm on BBC1, should not have been shown before the 9pm watershed.Complainants also said it was inappropriate for a soap which is watched by a family audience.The BBC, in a statement on its complaints website today, said it had taken "great care to signal the nature of the content to the audience through pre-programme announcements, billings and programme publicity in order to prepare viewers for what to expect"."Whilst we appreciate that these episodes were dramatic, they were carefully filmed and edited in order that Max's ordeal was in the main implicit, rather than explicit, whilst still retaining their powerfulness. It's also important to note that Max made it out alive after Tanya realised she couldn't go through with her plan to leave him for dead," the BBC added."The burial is in no way glamorised or glorified, rather we see that when pushed to the edge, Tanya's behaviour becomes out of character, and indeed that it's Tanya herself who ultimately suffers because of her actions. Once again we are sorry that you did not enjoy these episodes."Friday's controversial episode featured Tanya, played by Jo Joyner, spiking Max's drink before driving him into Epping Forest with her lover, Sean Slater. Max, played by Jake Wood, was then buried alive in a coffin before later regaining consciousness.In its response to last Friday's episode, the BBC said: "Regular viewers will be aware that for some weeks now Tanya has been plotting her revenge against Max for his affair with Stacey, whilst at the same time lulling Max into a false sense of security, and convincing him that she has put the affair behind them."We believe the audience will have been expecting the culmination of these past few weeks to bring something particularly dramatic. Having been outsmarted by Max when she tried to deal with his adultery through the divorce courts, Tanya feels she has no option but to exact her own revenge."Given the story so far, Tanya's mode of revenge is entirely apposite; in an episode which transmitted last year, we saw Max confide in Tanya that when he was a child Jim had punished him for hanging around with some boys he disapproved of by shutting him alive in a coffin. It's an experience that clearly scarred him, and therefore - in Tanya's mind - an ideal way to wreak revenge on her husband."But one viewer said: "I know Max did a lot of horrible things, but that as a story line of getting buried alive was very inappropriate for a soap."Guardian TV critic Nancy Banks-Smith, in her review of the following episode, broadcast on Monday, commented: "Complaints to the BBC seem to be along the lines of it's-not-very-nice-to-bury-someone-alive-before-the-watershed-is-it? Personally, I think the director general should be walking to Canterbury with dried peas in his shoes."EastEnders was censured by Ofcom last month for an episode showing a gang attack the Queen Vic pub in which one of the characters went into premature labour.The media regulator said the soap had shown "sustained violence, intimidation and menace" inappropriate for a pre-watershed audience in the scene.