Most BBC complaints over EastEnders

7:33pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

EastEnders attracted more complaints than any other BBC programme in the last 12 months.

The BBC1 soap was the subject of 5,500 complaints, more than double that of any other BBC programme.

In 2007/08, the BBC dealt with around 124,000 unsolicited complaints, according to its annual report.

Last month it was ruled that two episodes of EastEnders which showed the drugging and live burial of Max Branning by wife Tanya breached broadcasting standards.

Ofcom received 116 complaints from viewers and the BBC a further 600 about scenes and the storyline, and it found the plot more akin to a dark psychological thriller than a pre-watershed drama.

"Taken as a whole, the scenes of the burial alive shown in both episodes had a seriously disturbing element to them.

"Overall, the storyline and its treatment had more in common with a dark psychological thriller than a pre-watershed drama," the media watchdog said at the time.

Ofcom found the scenes involving the burial were "harrowing and dark in nature".

Earlier this year the watchdog also ruled that the soap had breached TV regulations in an episode showing a gang attack on the Queen Vic pub.

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