The Year Was… 2004

Janine Butcher: Murderer!
To say that Barry came down with a bump on New Year’s Day would be bordering on a joke, if Janine Butcher had said it, but after being given a clean bill of health and looking forward to married life, he was positively bouncing. Janine Evans, not so much.

So when he took her to a romantic spot and dedicated his life to her, she saw everything she had to come and told him the truth: Paul Trueman, his best man, was secretly her lover and it was all a ploy to grab Roy’s inheritance: they had played him for a fool. Barry couldn’t believe his ears, insisting there was ‘good’ in his upset wife. She confirmed that there wasn’t by pushing him down the steep embarkment, where Barry rolled over and hit his head on a rock. By the time she got down into the ditch, she was just in time to watch him die, with son Jack’s name the last thing on his lips. Janine scarpered from the scene, arranging for Paul to find the body.

Arriving back in Walford dressed to the nines, putting on her best widow acting, Janine raised suspicions. To the eyes of Walford she seemed rather too keen to move on. Natalie thought something wasn’t right, especially with Jack’s inheritance wrapped up now as well and, upon questioning Paul, Natalie promptly fell into bed with him.

This had the remarkable effect of causing a severe crisis of conscience in Paul, who ratted Janine to the police. However, she should have been given an Emmy at birth, cos Janine walked away from that one unscathed.

Deciding to needlessly punish anyone who didn’t fit into her selfish world view, Janine made life a misery for everyone. Her longstanding feud with Laura Beale had not ended when Ian and Laura split and Janine called the social the moment she discovered that Laura could be claiming benefits fraudulently. Pat confronted Janine and her former stepdaughter slapped her hard for interfering. Pat eventually cornered Paul and discovered the truth about Barry, but Janine insisted that whatever they had on her, she wouldn’t get caught.

After an argument with Laura resulted in some substantial scratches, Janine thought she was invincible. But Laura, rushing to answer the door to finally tell Ian that he was baby Bobby’s father, tripped on one of Bobby’s discarded toys, unintentionally becoming his first victim, and fell down the stairs, breaking her neck. Pat found her body and, after putting everything together, reported Laura’s death, framing Janine. Janine’s scratches matched Laura’s fingernails and the case of Laura Beale’s death was now a murder investigation! Janine was last seen being escorted out of Albert Square in the back of a police car, her life ruined, her lies exposed and looking forward to a rather hefty spell in prison for murder…

Brother or Lover?
They weren’t actually related, but Sharon and Dennis already knew that their passion for each other was dangerous, slightly weird and would certainly not meet Den’s standards of societal acceptability. It’s a good thing then that, at the start of the year, Den took off to Spain to clear some outstanding issues from his ‘death’ and the pair decided to sneak around in secret, engaging in extremely steamy behaviour. They went away together, but came back as fully-fledged lovers.

This icked Vicki out, and she became a bit of a wild child, drinking, sleeping with older man Ash Ferreira and generally shouting a large amount of the time. This did not bother Sharon and Dennis, who announced their relationship to the public – just in time for daddy dearest Den to walk through the door.

Den took Dennis to one side, gave him a strong talking too and got into his head. Dennis ended it with Sharon and started carrying on with Zoe Slater, who had fallen gaga for him. Sharon went with his decision and realised that he wasn’t the man for her. This, of course, would never last, and soon the lovers were all over each other with a plan to run away to America together on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Day, Zoe, in a desperate bid to keep her man and manipulated by Den, lied about being pregnant. Dennis couldn’t leave a pregnant woman behind and decided to stay (for now) and Sharon and Vicki left Walford for America in the back of a black cab bound for the airport.

The Sad Story of the Ferreiras
The Ferreira family had been seen moving into No.55 on the Square the year before. To say they hadn’t been received well by audiences was an understatement, but it was not the fault of the writers, actors or production team. So what happened?

When they arrived, father Dan seemed to be a contented family man. He moved into the Square singing Elvis, but it soon became apparent he was an obnoxious bully towards his four children; the eldest, former gambler, but studious Ash; the carefree, but constantly trying-to-please Adi; sheltered quiet girl and longing-for-adventure Kareena; and DJ pretty boy heartbreaker Ronny.

The initial bullying was quite harsh and the writers prepared an incredible story to accompany the family: the bullying would become too much and the children, horrifyingly, would murder their father accidentally during a raging argument. The body would be buried in the garden and the long waiting game would begin, resulting in a powerful drama for the family.

Unfortunately, there were green card issues with the actor playing Dan Ferreira and EastEnders wrote him out in December 2003, with no resolution to his story. The children went away for the New Year with the rest of the teens to the Scottish Highlands in a minibus – and it’s there we pick up the story of the Ferreira children.

While on the Highlands, the minibus crashed, and the teens struggled to find shelter that night while waiting for daylight. As the night went on, Ferreira family friend, Tariq Laroussi, revealed to Mickey that he was also their half-brother from an affair their father had had.

Returning to the Square the children found themselves in massive debt due to their father’s unannounced off-screen exit and tried to keep the bailiffs away. Kareena shifted her attentions from Tariq to Mickey (for obvious reasons) until that relationship crumbled. Adi, at least, romanced escort Sasha with her snake (not a euphemism) and Ronny took Kelly out on a few dates.

Eventually, Ronny was stabbed by a gang one night and a long, torturous story began as Tariq, who the children had never really been fond of, turned out to be the only one who was compatible to give Ronny the kidney that would save his life. After what felt like months soul-searching, Tariq donated the kidney and the storyline ended, just in time for them to fade into the background and disappear – a family that became the casualty of international law and hastily rewritten storylines… Looking back on them now, I quite liked them.

No Way Back: Billy and Little Mo
Finally free of Trevor, Little Mo Mitchell, husband Billy and the Slater family would not have time to enjoy themselves. After the vicious attack Mo had suffered at Graham Foster’s hands, she soon found out she was pregnant with his child. Determined to have the child despite it’s conception was a difficult decision, but she was determined, despite Billy’s concerns. When she found out he had nearly killed Vicki by torching the club as part of the Mitchell-Watts feud, she left him and Walford, preparing to have the baby alone.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family were desperate to keep Charlie out of prison. Charlie attacked Graham and was promptly arrested. When the case went to court, Charlie showed no remorse for his actions and was sent down for three months. Graham threatened the Slaters, trying to extort money out of them in exchange for dropping the charges against Charlie.

In the end, Kat secured the money (through rather dubious means, but we’ll get to it…) and the charges were dropped. By the time Graham was put on trial in November, Little Mo returned, with son Freddie in tow and, with the support of her family and testimony from Billy, the court found him guilty and off to prison he went. Billy and Mo tried their best to resume their marriage and raise the child together, but Billy could never get over Freddie’s conception and the writing was on the wall. By the end of the year, Mo was being driven into the arms of brother-in-law Alfie…

The New Mrs. Fowler
After spending most of the year blaming Martin for Jamie’s death, Sonia had now found herself hopelessly in love with him and, when she had a glam makeover in February, Martin liked what he saw. In April, Martin received the phone call the Fowlers had been dreading: Mark had passed away in a local hospice. Sonia rallied around and helped, making her slightly more tolerable to battle axe Pauline at the same time. Martin proposed and the planning began, sending Pauline and Dot into a massive row over who should do what!

Sonia and Martin, fed up of all the sniping, slipped off to Southend and got married solo, returning to Walford to a rather surprised family, including Robbie and Billie. Pauline got the last laugh though as, naturally, they were expected to live under her roof and live by her rules.

Martin seemed to forget his vows quickly, waking up in bed with stranger Sarah Cairns who proceeded to go full bunny-boiler on him, following him around and insisting they were destined to be a couple. As the situation got worse and she started becoming dangerously obsessed, he confessed all to his forgiving wife. Sarah didn’t take it as well as Sonia and she stabbed Martin in fury. Sonia laid Sarah out rather spectacularly with a punch after that! The kicker: Sarah had made the whole thing up and they hadn’t slept together at all!

Alfie’s Heartache!
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be” Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, which must have not been the set text for Kat Moon in school. She needed money, and a lot of it, fast. In order to save dad Charlie from a prison term, Kat tried everything to get her hands on the dosh to pay rapist Graham. In the end, the only person she knew who had that kind of cash was Andy Hunter – who she had jilted at the altar the year before.

Andy loved being in a position of power. By this point he’d already started romancing Sam Mitchell in a relationship that would ruin her life, but Kat was desperate. Andy offered to help her out, no problem – providing she sleep with him. Kat said no – she would not sink that low.

Alfie was also determined to help his wife and decided a loan shark was the way to go. As he desperately ran around London collecting favours and raising cash, Kat saw no other way. Andy sent her some lingerie to wear for their encounter and Kat, in full war paint, surrendered. Shortly afterward, Alfie secured the money, Kat felt dirty and worthless and Andy, revelling in his revenge, had recorded the whole event and posted it to Alfie to watch.

That was it: the Moon marriage exploded: he couldn’t forgive her, she fell into old habits, making a vodka her only friend. Out of control and in a right state, Kat fled Walford. Alfie stayed (he had Nana and Spencer), but it all went wrong Christmas Eve when Den secured the Queen Vic and booted the Moons out! The Beales saved their Christmas, but now they had to find somewhere to live.

Enter: Chrissie Watts
Den had barely recovered from splitting Sharon and Dennis when trouble turned up at his door: his wife Chrissie! She turned up in Walford to a) find her husband and, much more importantly b) take her share of the bar in Spain he had just up and sold without consulting her!

Instead of taking the money though, she was charmed by Den and decided to stay in Walford and make a go of her marriage, the last thing Den wanted, but so be it. She was unprepared for the true life as Mrs. Den Watts however: no sooner had he bought the family home and things began settling down, Den was up to his old tricks, romancing Kate Mitchell who by this point, viewers assumed, was not quite all together there.

It wasn’t long before Chrissie twigged and let rip by hacking off her rival’s hair. Den ignored all of this, not really caring much. He just wanted the Vic. Once he secured it from the Mitchells, he promptly moved his wife and children into the Vic, partly to relive a dream and mostly to reign in his wild children!

Christmas was ruined by Den getting Zoe to make up her baby lie, but Chrissie had no idea the true extent of his deception or the lengths he would go to to get what he wanted. But she would soon learn and then she’d make Den Watts pay…

Sam Mitchell: Losing Everything
Without Phil and Peggy and with Billy her obedient lackey, Sam Mitchell really tried. She kept the Vic and the rest of Phil’s businesses afloat in his absence, with the help of long-standing Mitchell lawyer Marcus Christie and Andy Hunter, who had taken an interest in Samantha when the businesses had been signed over to her.

In September, Peggy returned from Portugal for the wedding of Andy and Sam. She questioned his motives, and despite warnings from Minty and Billy, she was not deterred, mostly because charming Andy pulled the wool right over Ma Mitchell’s eyes.

When Marcus Christie got in touch to tell her Phil was in trouble, Sam raced to secure funds to help her brother out. She sold the Arches and ended up selling the Vic to Den for bottom price. She grabbed the money and went to meet Phil. The money was fake, Phil’s trouble was fake and Marcus Christie had been bought by Den – he had taken on the Mitchells, taken everything they had, and won. Andy was enraged that his plan was for nothing, kicked Sam out of the family home with nothing but the clothes she was wearing: she had signed everything over to him without knowing! Sam would have spent the end of the year homeless if not for the kind heart of Minty, whose eternal love for her could not be diminished.

The Millers Move In
Mo Harris’ market stall sneaky sidekick Mickey Miller found himself with company this year when the producers of the show acknowledged his popularity with viewers and built a new family around him. Mother Rosie was a grafter and more than willing to do any job at any time – anything for her family and her kids. Husband (but not on paper) Keith claimed to have severe problems with his back and claimed benefits, but was actually suffering from bone-idleness. Thirteen year old twins Darren and Demi had their own things: he was a budding entrepreneur, always trying to raise some dosh for himself through whatever means necessary – making him vital to Mo – and Demi was pregnant.

Pauline took great exception to having new scruffy and loud neighbours, but by the end of the year she found a connection with young mum Demi who, after giving birth to baby Aleesha, would ask Pauline to serve as the child’s Godmother, a task Pauline graciously (and emotionally) accepted.

The Other Stuff
After their near death experience in the highlands, Kelly and Zoe ultimately decide that their kiss meant nothing. Anthony reunites with the Truemans, as Patrick and Yolande tie the knot – with an awesome choir! A fairground ride collapses onto the Square: during the incident, Lynne miscarries as a result and leaves Garry and Walford forever. Garry considers suicide, but forms a bond when he is saved by Minty… Ian hits it off with newcomer Jane… Paul Trueman grasses Andy Hunter to the police – he’s led out of the Square by a hitman on Christmas Eve…

Oh. And a fifteen year old girl named Stacey arrives, to stay with extended family, the Slaters…