The Scoop

Boris asked to back Olympic update for EastEnders

Darryl Chamberlain | Tuesday 22 March, 2011 16:20

Boris Johnson is being asked to back East Enders who want to see the Olympic Stadium featured on the opening titles of EastEnders.

BBC bosses have turned down a request from Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales to feature the Olympic Park on the soap’s opening sequence.

But Assembly member John Biggs has asked Sir Robin’s counterpart at City Hall to lend the campaign a bit of extra weight.

“Would you agree with campaigners in east London that the opening title sequence for EastEnders should be updated to include features of the Olympic Park?,” the local Labour representative asks in this month’s Mayor’s Question Time.

“Or would that intrude into its mythology?”

Fans will have to wait until next week to see if Boris – who made a cameo appearance in the soap 18 months ago – will lend his support.

The sequence has been largely unchanged since 1999, when it was updated to include the Millennium Dome, which was added digitally as the structure had not been finished when the aerial photographs which comprise the titles were taken.

The Olympic Park will share the E20 postcode with Walford, whose Tube station is supposedly one stop east of Bow Road – which would make it just a short walk from the Games at Stratford.

Producers have merely said the Olympics will “be referred to” in the show. Whether that includes Ian Beale trying to hire out his spare room for £3,000 a week, or Dot Branning moaning about all the disruption, remains to be seen.

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