but cast your minds back to christmas day, 1986. anyone remember this? this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. happy christmas, ange. that was dirty den handing angie watts divorce papers after she d lied to him about having six months left to live. 30 million people tuned in to watch that episode of eastenders, more than half the population. today, the show averages between 4 and 6 million per episode, much of it through iplayer. so do soaps matter any more? what s their place in the cultural landscape? are we going through a messy den and angie divorce with them? or is it still enduring love, like scott and charlene? i m joined by sir phil redmond, creator of three of the biggest british soaps of all time grange hill, brookside and hollyoa ks. daniel kilkenny is soaps editor for entertainment news website digital spy. tv critic and soap fan emma bullimore is here, and charles collingwood, who s been far
now on bbc news, let s watch the media show. hello. in march this year, the bbc gave one of its biggest soaps, holby city, a do not resuscitate order after 23 years. injuly, channel 5 decided we no longer needed good neighbours and the sun went down on ramsay street after 37 years. but cast your minds back to christmas day, 1986. anyone remember this? this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. happy christmas, ange. that was dirty den handing angie watts divorce papers after she d lied to him about having six months left to live. 30 million people tuned in to watch that episode of eastenders, more than half the population. today, the show averages between 4 and 6 million per episode, much of it through iplayer. so do soaps matter any more? what s their place in the cultural landscape? are we going through a messy den and angie divorce with them? or is it still enduring love, like scott and charlene? i m joined
are the biggest tax cutting budget in half a century. we ll find out what the changes mean for households. also this lunchtime: four russian occupied areas of ukraine are voting on whether to become part of russia in what the west sees as a move by moscow to annex the regions. a court has been shown distressing video footage about suicide and self harm that the schoolgirl molly russell viewed before she took her own life. and the multi award winning novelist dame hilary mantel, best known for her wolf hall trilogy, has died aged 70. coming up on the bbc news channel, can england rediscover theirform again? italy awaits tonight before germany on monday, with gareth southgate hoping to avoid the disappointment of relegation in the nations league. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. in a massive shake up of the uk s finances, the chancellor, kwasi kwarteng, has outlined a series of tax cuts and spending commitments that will cost £45 billion by 2027. the independ
in the past, she was still at the height of her powers and had still many great stories within her. thank ou. dame hilary mantel, who has died aged 70. time for a look at the weather. here s ben rich. good afternoon. for most of us, we have quite a lot of sunshine around this afternoon. with that, quite a cool this afternoon. with that, quite a cool, fresh feel, and one or two showers. as we can see from the earlier satellite and radar pictures, showers have been pushing in from the north west, most plentiful across scotland and northern ireland. the exception to the sunshine and showers rule is across the south east corner, where we have a stripe of cloud and outbreaks of rain, very slow moving. the ray will be a feature in the south east of england perhaps for the next 2a hours. temperatures between 13 and 20 celsius. the rain keeps falling across south east england this evening and overnight. elsewhere, clear spells, one or two showers, especially some drifting across part
sparked protests across russia leading to more than 130 0 arrests. we ve seen the emotional farewells. look at this, russian men leaving behind families to board buses for military service. others trying to get out of the country altogether. in this video long lines of traffic are growing as men seemingly are trying to escape the war. the demand for flights out of moscow is spiking dramatically. tickets to countries where russians don t need a visa are sold out. and on google trends the term leaving russia saw a spike in searches over the past 24 hours. according to a ticket agri gaiter one way tickets out of moscow to istanbul start at $2,000 a ticket. before putin s announcement, the tickets cost about $350. let s bring in ben wedeman live for us in kharkiv, ukraine. you re in the region where the gains by the ukrainians seem to have prompted this new phase by vladimir putin, ben. reporter: ye and you know, as these referendums go ahead. yesterday we were in areas occup