How many EastEnders episodes do we have left after the coronavirus shutdown?
Is our time in Walford running out?
Like so many other shows all over the world, production of EastEnders has been shut down since we entered the Covid-19 lockdown. But how close are we to running out of new episodes?
While we don't have an official answer, it can't be long.
Every single soap has seen changes due to the current situation, with them all reducing the number of episodes per week so the shows can stay on the air for longer. As it currently stands, only Neighbours has resumed filming (after a short break) but Home and Away is resuming production on May 25th and both Australian shows are now back to five nights a week on Channel 5.
But so far, no UK soap has given any indication of when filming might start back up again and the BBC have stated to us as recently as today that there are no new updates. Given Sunday's announcement, it may be a case of the BBC themselves making social distancing preparations before announcing a start date.
But, if they want to stay on the air with new episodes, they will have to make plans quickly as, by our estimations, there aren't many more trips to Walford to come until the footage recorded before lockdown runs out.
Typically, EastEnders films around six weeks in advance and word broke that production was suspended back on March 18th. The reduction to 2 episodes a week doubled that to a 12-week gap - but we're already coming into the eighth week. So, that would suggest there's roughly four weeks left of new episodes before filming was halted.
Thankfully, the UK government have given the green light to production companies to start up again, considering they comply with social distancing guidelines.
EastEnders has recently confirmed the soap will recommence filming in June with "limited crews".
It's unknown whether or not the soap has enough episodes to take it to then, but the good news for fans is that new ones are on their way.
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