The Year Was… 1994

INTRODUCTION

Pulp Fiction changes cinema. Friends changes TV. Blur and Oasis battle for control of the music charts as New Labour sweeps Britain. The Rwandan Genocide stuns the world, as Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. The Lion King breaks children’s hearts and a man named Forrest sat on a bench, told us his story and declared that ‘life was like a box of chocolates.’

In Walford, the Square exploded. Two years after beginning, Sharon’s affair with Phil was about to be exposed by brother Grant in the most public of ways, and, as EastEnders added a third regular episode in April, the year was dominated by the build-up to the reveal that would change the Mitchell clan forever…

EVENTS

Siege in the Vic
Grant came home one day with an old army buddy at the start of the year. Everything about Dougie Briggs screamed ‘psycho’ – he helped himself to the bar, leered at Sharon in her nightie and eventually convinced Grant that a raid on a supermarket, with the aid of a sawn-off shot gun, would prove to be a sound financial investment.

Grant started having second thoughts about the gig and discovered details like an outstanding rape and a suspected murder charge and realised his house guest wasn’t exactly Prince Charming. In the Vic, Sharon was just closing up when Dougie made his move. Grant stormed in, got himself knocked unconscious and Michelle, who for some reason also happened to be there, ended up on the floor with a bullet wound. There was something about Michelle and the Vic floor. They were clearly perfectly matched.

Of course, the trio did the sensible thing: covered it all up instead of going to the police, as you do. Michelle recovered in hospital while Sharon and Vicki cowered away, dreading Dougie’s return. Eventually the police picked him up, but Michelle started thinking, and slowly, the cogs began to turn…

Torching the Car Lot
Frank was never a math wiz. In fact, with Pat indisposed, Frank found himself in more financial bother than ever before. His only way out: sensibly, burn down the car lot, motors and all, and collect on the insurance. Easy? He convinced Phil easily enough. Several tanks of petrol on the forecourt later and the place was up in flame. Unfortunately for the pair, Tony from Hollyoaks was homeless inside one of the parked cars and burnt to death.

Frank was arrested for manslaughter, but released. There didn’t seem to be any proof that Frank had attempted fraud. He looked like he’d get away with the whole thing, but where there’s a body, there’s a consequence, and it turned out that Pat, the real math genius, had put the evidence safe with the rest of the cooked up books. Oops.

Found out, and seeing a long, dark future ahead, Frank completely lost it and was last seen walking out of the Square in a daze, with only the clothes he was wearing.

Of course, this panicked Pat. Fearing murder, suicide or worse, she raced up to Clacton to track him down, searching all their old haunts. In the end, Diane arrived from Paris and told Pat the truth: Frank had had a breakdown and wasn’t coming back.

Pat was one tough cookie, but this one hit her hard. She ended up stealing to get by and even borrowed money from Ian Beale! When Sharon caught her stealing from her purse, Pat broke down and Sharon, remembering Angie and Pat’s friendship, bailed her out and helped her start again. But the old care-free Pat was no more. From now on, she played to win and would never be defeated again.

Kathy and Phil
They were on and off so often it was hard to keep track. Trapped in a time loop of no escape, Phil and Kathy either loved each other or weren’t speaking. So when he confessed his role in the car lot fire to Kathy, it was anyone’s guess which way things would go. In this particular instance, Kathy decided that she couldn’t be with a pyromaniac and went to stay with her brother Ted. Phil then, just to complete the cycle, would then down a bottle of whiskey until she felt sorry for him and took him back. Begin loop again.

At the end of a particular lengthy cycle, he proposed. To his – and our – astonishment, she said yes. First there were things to sort out: One, Nadia. That was easy (money was her tipple of choice) and she disappeared back to Romania with £1000, never to return.

Two: Sharon. Now Sharon had rejected Phil by this point, but that didn’t mean Kathy could have him! Oh no, Sharon was not a happy Princess. She propositioned him and to her – and our – astonishment, he said no. Instead Phil declared that he was going to marry Kathy and throw the best engagement party ever, the ultimate celebration in Albert Square’s history – the most explosive gathering that Walford had ever hosted!

He was right about the last part.

The Engagement Party
Sharon had put Phil behind her. At least that’s what she was telling herself. She was beginning to enjoy being Mrs. Grant Mitchell, Landlady of the Queen Victoria, and there was even talk of starting a family. But Geoff, the lecturer, Michelle’s older and surprisingly unmarried boyfriend, had a project about local women and convinced some of the Square’s residents to be interviewed for it. As long as Michelle was conducting the interview, Sharon made her first mistake and agreed.

**Sharon** and **Grant** had been back on form, happier than ever…

While upstairs making mistake number two and getting tipsy with Michelle, the tape recorder came out and Sharon spilled everything: her attraction to Phil, their first time together, how in love they had been, their passion, her childhood, the loss of her parents. Everything. And then Michelle promptly forgot to replace the tape in the machine, as you do.

Grant pocketed the tape needing music for the car, but he, of course, had a top notch radio, so it was discarded. Then the radio broke. Viewers remained on the edge of their seats. Then he didn’t have time and spent weeks not driving. Eventually, the night of the engagement party, Sharon made mistake number three and asked him to drive out and borrow a barrel from a mate and Grant skipped away like a happy puppy. By the time Grant returned and parked the car outside in the Square, the tape had reached the end. Grant rewound it, once, twice, three times. And then walked into the Vic.

Party in full swing, Grant passed the revellers, took the music off and played Sharon’s confession to the packed-in denizens of Albert Square. Kathy gave Sharon an epic slap and Grant walked out of the pub in silence, tears of devastation in his eyes. By the end of the night, lines had been crossed, words had been said, and Phil was lying almost dead at the bottom of the Arches’ inspection pit.

**Kathy** gives **Sharon** one of her epic slaps!

Grant somehow got away with the assault and returned home, branding Sharon the ‘pub whore’ and making her life hell. In the end, she signed the divorce papers on Christmas Day, just like Den and Angie, and fled in a taxi. In the end this proved a good thing: Phil had just woken up and Peggy, now played by Dame Barbara Windsor was ready to become the Queen to Sharon’s Princess…

RICKAAAY!
Once heard, never forgotten. The Jackson family were trouble the minute they arrived, but nobody could have known just how manic life with Bianca Jackson would be. She set her sights on David, which was a no go, as he found out almost too late that he was actually her father! Then, feeling foolish and leaving her long-apart parents to sort that revelation/mess out, she threw herself at Ricky, who, slow that he sometimes was, eventually cottoned on and before long was scouring the Square looking for private quarters. Of course, their parents disapproved, but this couple surprised everyone by going the distance and moving in together before the year was out.

**Bianca** sets her sights on newcomer **David Wicks**…

Cindy: Never Satisfied
Ian threw himself into another business idea when he decided to become a loan shark, sorry, financial advisor, and while this may have excited him, the crazy Scrooge, it didn’t impress Cindy, who by now was getting bored of playing housewife and being at home with three children. After Ian took great pleasure in hounding Tricky Dicky out of the Square, he failed to notice his wife taking swimming lessons with a hunky lifeguard named Matt. What did Ian notice? That he was not a good loan shark. He opened a chippy instead, which, with 30 years hindsight, turned out to be his best idea ever.

Beale’s Plaice – **Ian**‘s longest running business…

The Other Stuff
Gita discovers Sanjay in bed with her sister Meena. Mark meets Ruth at a hospice. Pat and Michelle both compete for Geoff! Robbie also adopts a stray dog named Wellard and David Wicks slinks his way onto the Square. After the disaster with Bianca, he makes a beeline for someone else…