East Street was a charity crossover sketch for Children in Need originally broadcast on 19th November 2010. It featured characters from Coronation Street and EastEnders interacting for the first time
Plot[]
Sean Tully, Eileen Grimshaw, Hayley Cropper and Sunita Alahan greet Christian Clarke, Darren Miller, Jane Beale, Zainab Masood and Jodie Gold as they arrive in Weatherfield (in Greater Manchester) from Walford (in Greater London). Sean takes an immediate liking to Christian, while Zainab and Sunita argue about Asian accents and dress. Jodie is unable to walk on Coronation Street's cobbles in her high heels. Sean flirts with Christian and invites him out clubbing, but Christian says he has a boyfriend who he loves. Sunita, Hayley and Jane head to Roy's Rolls and talk about life in their respective boroughs, saying that they are similar as nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. They say that Weatherfield and Walford would therefore be perfect for town twinning. Eileen invites Zainab into her home and Zainab is shocked to learn that Eileen has a gay son and a gay lodger. Hurrying to leave, she walks into the door frame.
Meanwhile, Dev Alahan and Michelle Connor take photos of Albert Square. Jay Brown wolf whistles at Michelle and points out a ladder in her tights. Dev goes off for a business meeting, while Michelle meets Alfie Moon and recognises him from a 2007 holiday in Spain. Inside The Queen Victoria, Kat Moon cannot understand Jason Grimshaw's accent, so Liz McDonald serves him. Jason sees Whitney Dean and they are attracted to each other. Kat tells Liz her skirt is too short after measuring it. Dev meets Masood Ahmed in the Minute Mart shop where they talk about business and Asian stereotypes. When they part ways, Dev makes a call saying the shop is perfect, while Masood makes one saying Dev has fallen for his ruse. Kat is unhappy that her husband Alfie is talking to Michelle.
Gail Rodwell meets Denise Fox in Walford's café and asks if Denise is married. Denise says her husband is in prison for murdering her ex-husband. Gail says her husband killed his ex-wife and their neighbour. Denise says hers also killed his ex-wife, and then took her to the canal. Gail says hers drove her and her family into a canal. Denise says hers locked her in a basement, but Gail retorts it does not compare to being in prison. Fatboy declares Gail the winner. Michelle and Alfie sing karaoke but are stopped by Kat, who tells them to get out of her pub. She then sees a charm on Liz's bracelet and asks her to explain it. Liz says she gave up a child for adoption and made charms out of two nappy pins, one which she kept and one which she gave to the adoptive parents to give to her daughter when she turned 18. Liz says they probably did not do that, but Kat says maybe they did, revealing an identical charm. Kat insists Liz is not her mother, but Liz says she is.
Cast[]
- Jodie Gold - Kylie Babbington
- Jay Brown - Jamie Borthwick
- Jane Beale - Laurie Brett
- Liz McDonald - Beverley Callard
- Eileen Grimshaw - Sue Cleaver
- Sean Tully - Antony Cotton
- Masood Ahmed - Nitin Ganatra
- Sunita Alahan - Shobna Gulati
- Dev Alahan - Jimmi Harkishin
- Darren Miller - Charlie G. Hawkins
- Hayley Cropper - Julie Hesmondhalgh
- Whitney Dean - Shona McGarty
- Michelle Connor - Kym Marsh
- Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb - Ricky Norwood
- Denise Fox - Diane Parish
- Christian Clarke - John Partridge
- Alfie Moon - Shane Richie
- Jason Grimshaw - Ryan Thomas
- Zainab Masood - Nina Wadia
- Kat Moon - Jessie Wallace
- Gail McIntyre - Helen Worth
Notes[]
- The events of the minisode were never referenced within the main show and as such are not considered to be canon. Also within the narrative of EastEnders, Coronation Street exists as a television show, as an episode in 2010 had Dot Branning (played by June Brown) mention that Coronation Street was her favourite show.
- Whilst this is the case, in 2021 all British soaps took part in the Cop26 climate summit and referenced to each other, thus placing all British soap operas into the same fictional universe.
- The interaction between Eileen and Zainab can be seen as a precursor to the tram crash in Coronation Street later that year, to mark the programme's 50th anniversary. When the tram shakes the house, Eileen comments "Oh, it was the tram - I've always said they'll be the death of me!", referencing the events of Episode 7484 (6th December 2010).
- The scene in which Liz claims to be Kat's mother references the famous EastEnders exchange between Kat and her daughter Zoe from 2001.
- Back in 1996 to mark the tenth anniversary of EastEnders, Coronation Street filmed a short scene to pay tribute to the programme, in which Mike Baldwin commented that he was familiar with Albert Square and had drank in the Queen Vic before. Like this special, it wasn't included in an episode of Coronation Street proper.