Tonight’s “‘Enders” saw the introduction of a new character called Burt. Burt isn’t any old character y’see. No, Burt is from The North.
Introduced into Walford by young Bradley mistaking him for a tramp, Burt is a friend of Pauline’s new bloke. Burt, y’see, is a stereotype.
Dressed in scruffy old clothes (armed with a flatcap and whippet one presumes), Burt waltzes his way onto the square and proceeds to use his ‘northern charm’ to try and seduce Yolande Trueman.
What Eastenders’ hapless producers have tried to do here is introduce a character from the distant land of ‘Up North’ (he said where he was from, but I think, like Walford, it was some made up generic-sounding mill town) in order to try and win the huge audience share that has been snagged, like a lamb to barbed wire, to Coronation Street.
Unfortunately, the trick they’ve copied out of Corrie’s book (ie. introduce some characters not born within spitting distance of a cotton mill/Upton Park) doesn’t quite work. Corrie’s southerners, Bradley Walsh et al. sort of work. Even if they’re not that interesting, their appeal lies in the fact that they’re personalities rather than simply ’southerners’.
Burt, is a sad attempt at winning over a lost audience. And one that is more likely to alienate any Northern audience than endear them. This dead horse needs flogging.
