Good plots tend to be cyclical on soaps, with most actors spending a few months standing around as glorified extras until they get their chance to shine in something meaty. A few actors are lucky enough to roll straight into the juicy repercussions of previous plots -- and that's what happened for Jake Wood (Max) and Jo Joyner (Tanya)...
After discovering her serial-cheat hubbie was having an affair with his own son's teenage wife on Christmas Day, Tanya has been involved in a bitter divorce ever since. Of course, 3 months is long enough in soapland for a divorce to drag on for. There's only so much you can do before a divorce story gets samey and irritating, so Tanya began to devise a far-from-perfect murder: drug her husband's wine, get loverboy Sean to pick up a coffin, and bury her husband alive in the local woods...
Well, it beats a drawn-out custody battle for the kids, I guess! It's a shame Max hadn't seen Kill Bill Volume II, but the episode just about managed to avoid total stupidity. I have a tough time believing cuddly Tanya could become so demented to murder, or vindictive enough to recreate her husband's worse childhood nightmare, but it was still a memorably bonkers episode.
After filling the grave in, Max's groans were still audible (no, they didn't bother digging six feet down), but Sean and Tanya still headed home. It was perhaps inevitable that the story wouldn't end there, though -- Tanya looked like a conspicuous mess when she arrived home to be confronted by her kids wondering where dad was. Sean's sister Stacy saw him changing his clothes into uncle Charlie's grey jumper (a definite sign of a distracted mind!), and guessed something had happened with the Brannings. Stacy arrived at Tanya's to confront her, but convinced her Max was asleep upstairs. Conflicting the story she'd told her girls.
You could already visualize the Judge sending Tanya and Sean down for life in a summer episode. I'm sure some dog-walker would find that grave soon enough. And why did Sean take receipt of a coffin on the night Max went "missing", your honour? And why was the accused's white van seen on CCTV heading towards the gravesite? Etc, etc.
Sean lay on his sofa, contemplating the night's awful activities. Tanya did likewise, alone on her double-bed. Hours passed. Surely Max would be dead now, with only a coffin full of oxygen? Tanya went downstairs and was reminded how much her girls love their dad after spotting some school-made sweets they'd made for him. After vomiting in a sink, extreme guilt took over and she drove back to the woods.
After digging down to the coffin and pulling off the lid, Max was revealed. Dead? No. A gasp and a lunge signalled his survival, and Tanya pulled him out of the hole. After regaining his breath, he tried to strangle her (well, do you blame him?), before a heart-to-heart chat with buckets of tears changed his outlook on things. Disgusted that his affair has led Tanya to take such chilling steps, Max agreed to leave Tanya and the kids, not challenge the divorce, and let her have custody of the kids.
After arriving home (the most uncomfortable car journey ever, surely?), Max lived up to his word -- and left with no fuss. Much to Sean's disbelief, as he reaized Tanya really was just using him all along. Himbo.
I defy anyone not to have been gripped, even if the storyline was unquestionably silly and OTT. Much of its success was down purely to actress Jo Joyner (whose fine performance kept the crazy storyline just about credible), and Jake Wood made Max's change of heart work in a fantastic graveside scene with Joyner.
So yes, it was a sensationlist idea and ridiculous in its quick construction, but EastEnders just about got away with it because of the strong performances.
24 March 2008
BBC1, 8.00 pm
