We all know that soaps are filmed around six weeks before episodes hit the screen, so you have to give it to the producers of EastEnders for trying their best to shoehorn in the election into last night’s episode.
But in spite of their best efforts to keep the show topical and relevant, they ended up irritating their viewers instead, with not only a factual error, but also the cringey way the characters were seen talking about how they were planning to vote on election day.
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As it’s a BBC show and it’s against the rules to blatantly push any political agenda, a scene in which Kathy and Jane are talking about who they were planning to support, left viewers squirming in embarrassment, as neither stated which way they would be choosing to vote.
In the scene, Jane asked Kathy, “So which way are you going to swing?”
“My way, the same way I voted last time,” Kathy replied awkwardly. “Same for you is it?”
“Yeah,” Jane said.
“And that is?” Kathy asked.
“My way,” Jane stubbornly answered.
While the exchange was awkward and far from award-winning material, fans were fast to point out that something Kathy had said didn’t quite ring true.
When she said she was planning on voting for the same way as last time, fans pointed out that the last time there was an election Kathy was believed to be dead, after she had faked her death.
This would have meant that she wouldn’t have been registered anywhere to vote and so unable to mark her X.
“Cringing at that scene about voting – sure Kathy you legally dead for years so you’re still voting for the same party,” one Tweeter pointed out.
“Kathy was dead in the last election though,” another clever dick added.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Albert Square, viewers were having their hearts ripped out as they watched Jack Branning hand over Ronnie’s son Matthew to dad Charlie Cotton.
Viewers knew this moment was coming after Jack had agreed last week that he thought it was best that the boy he had been looking after since Ronnie’s death on New Year’s eve would be better off in the care of his biological father Charlie.
But watching Jack break down as he said his final farewell to the little boy was almost too much for some viewers to bear, who emotionally took to social media to express their anguish.
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One viewer wept: “Jack saying goodbye to Matthew has just broken me, I can’t believe they’re taking away his last link to Ronnie.”
“Jack’s Goodbye to Matthew is killing me,” another weeper added.
“My emotions can’t handle Eastenders tonight, poor Jack,” third viewer Tweeted through teary eyes.
Of course this is EastEnders, so don’t expect the story to end like this.
Knowing those crafty scriptwriters as we do, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of twist in the tail at some point…