Day 3 of Unemployment - Soap Addication

Since having a lot of spare time on my hands recently, I've been watching a lot more BBC iplayer. Conveniently enough BBC screened a special episode of Eastenders on Thursday 1st October featuring London Major Boris Johnson in a typical Old Vic setting. You can watch the full episode here if you like, but I wouldn't bother; it's a pretty awful intrusion of reality into a soap and the highlights have already been carefully captured in this short youtube clip:

Now there's a few things about this scene that bother me. Firstly, I agree with Peggy that it is a bit of a coincidence or, as she puts it, "lucky that Boris' bike got a puncture isn't it?" And that's the problem! I mean really, come on! Could the producers not have thought up any more of an ingenious reason for Boris to enter the pub then that? This sloppy, bipartisan publicity attempt between the Beeb and Johnson looks as awkward as a duck on ice.

As long as they want to blend the realities of life and fiction together we might as well question Peggy a little more about this incident. Yeah right Peggy, I'm sure you had nothing to do with it, and that devilish glean in your eye is nothing more than enchantment with London's most dashing man. "Lucky for me" he gained a puncture my arse, you evil and despicable fiend!

A more important issue with this "celebrity" appearance, given the MP's party bias, is that the BBC has avidly given the conservative party a national platform before their Manchester Conference and the spring General Election. Admittedly, the role Boris played kept political bias to a minimum, yet still, isn't this just as bad as product placement advertising?

A lot of people know that Johnson is affiliated with the Conservative party and a gracious portrayal of a "Compassionate" Conservative on screen fulfils the Cameron & Co. PR bandwagon dream. Just like watching the judges of American idol drink Coke makes me thirsty for carbonated drinks, seeing Johnson really makes me believe that the Conservatives care for deprived areas like Walthamstow in the East End, where the place Walford (or Wartford as it sounds when channelled through the Major phonetics) is based on. Notably, in the last general election Walthamstow elected a Labour MP, not a Conservative one.

I am not implying that this portrayal is going to directly effect the results of the next general election. What I am arguing is that cameo roles in mass marketed soaps can affect public opinion.

And why is Mr. Johnson drinking a pint when he plans on cycling home?