More E20 for EastEnders Fans

‘Enders spin-off series to return.

It was unlikely that E20, the spin-off from 25-year-old EastEnders, wouldn’t return after the huge success the show made with a young audience when it aired online earlier this year.

E20, which was only available online via the BBC iPlayer, was watched by upwards of 1.7 million viewers for the first outing, peaking at over 3 million by the end of the first series. Speaking at the time the show’s producer Diederick Santer was impressed:

“I’m knocked out by these figures! For our little side project, something that started life as an experiment, to go so big is very exciting. I’m delighted in particular that the 13 young London writers who wrote the series have reached such an audience with their first professional work.”

Since the show aired online the core cast have moved over to the main flagship soap on BBC One, to mixed views. Reports today suggest the BBC have commissioned a second series of ten episodes to air once again online from September while the original series of E20 will be broadcast on BBC Three in April and May.

It is suggested that the new episodes will focus on four new characters that will reside above the Walford beauty salon.

The first series centred around four teens living on George Street, including ‘troubled’ Zsa Zsa and ‘easily annoyed’ Leon who have had key storylines in the main soap after Leon managed to get Lucy Beale pregnant, while Zsa Zsa teased the daughter of mainstay Ian.

EastEnders executive producer Bryan Kirkwood said: “It’ll be very exciting to see where our brilliant young writers will take the next series and the evolution of a whole new set of characters. The cast have been a noisy burst of fun in EastEnders and provided the show with new faces that audiences have really engaged with.”