The longest serving Eastenders scriptwriter on 40 years at the soap and the quiet life in Wales

The longest serving scriptwriter for EastEnders has shared what it's been like working on the popular soap opera as it marks its 40th anniversary this year. Rob Gittins, who is in his late 60s, is originally from Manchester but has lived in Carmarthenshire for nearly 40 years.

In that time, he has also worked as a script writer for EastEnders which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. This year, the show will be celebrating its 40th year on our TV screens, with a week full of exciting episodes to mark the occasion. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter.

While the synopsis of a special episode is tightly under wraps, it has been confirmed that Natalie Cassidy, who plays Sonia Fowler on the show, will be leaving the show. Fans will also get to decide whether character Denise Fox will end up with her estranged husband Jack Branning or her secret love Ravi Gulati during the special episode that will be aired on Thursday, February 20.

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In the lead up to the anniversary, memorable characters have also returned to the fictional square of Walford, including Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), and Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley). Having worked on the soap opera since its first year, Rob Gittins has seen and written his fair share of 'duff duffs'.

His writing career began in his late teens to early twenties, when he started writing radio plays. The dad-of-two eventually got his break when the BBC commissioned one of his plays.

"I’ve never had any other job," he said. "[Script writing] was always something that I wanted to do, but I didn't know anyone who did it and I didn't know any way in. But then I heard that the BBC would read radio plays if you sent them, so I started writing radio plays when I was in my late teens, early twenties, and started sending them in.

"They did read them, but they sent every one back. But then I got a phone call from a producer in the BBC that they were going to do my radio play. This wasn't exactly a groundbreaking commission in any kind of global sense. The play in question was a 15-minute radio play, it went out at quarter to midnight on a Friday night.

"To this day, I have never met anyone in this world who heard it apart from me. My poor mum came to listen with me, and she fell asleep before the end. But it was a start, it was the start."

Rob eventually moved to Wales, where he met and worked with Julia Smith and Tony Holland on a series called The District Nurse, starring Welsh actress Nerys Hughes. Smith and Holland were also working on another project, which the duo were "secretive" about, according to Rob.

"Tony kept disappearing to London and nobody knew quite why," he said. The project came during a change for television, with the 1980s proving a difficult time for the BBC who had to compete against a new fourth channel - Channel 4, with cable and satellite to come, which meant the broadcasting channel could potentially see an ever diminishing audience share.

In an attempt to regain audiences, a soap opera titled EastEnders was commissioned, with Julia Smith and Tony Holland at the helm and the aid of a handful of scriptwriters. "To me, when the show started, it was this absolute breath of fresh air because for the first time in a major series," he said.

"It was like seeing the world as you see it around you. It wasn't sort of soft focus, it wasn't romanticised. The whole way it was shot, the stories, it all seemed very vital. I just thought, I want to be a part of that."

Rob joined the show's writing room after it was aired in 1985. As Rob explained, the soap initially aired two episodes every week. He recalled: "When I first started on it, Julia, who was the producer at the time sat down and said: 'EastEnders is set on a square for a very, very good reason. It's not a street, it's not an avenue, it's not a road. It's a square because on a square, you are looking at everybody and everybody's looking at you'.

"There's no escape wherever you are on this square, everyone can see you and you can see everybody else. It's that sort of pressure cooker-feel, which sometimes means it's like a blitz spirit - people can help each other, but sometimes people can tear each other apart. I think that contributed to the distinct feel of EastEnders."

Although a quiet start for the show, it quickly gained momentum, with most episodes amassing around 20 million viewers, according to Rob. One of its most iconic episodes - the Christmas Day episode of 1986, where 'Dirty Den' (Leslie Grantham) gave his wife Angie (Anita Dobson) divorce papers, remains the highest rated episode of any soap in UK television history, with 30.15 million viewers.

Rob worked on numerous major storylines for the soap opera, including the 'Who Shot Phil?' storyline in 2001 and 'Who Killed Lucy Beale?' storyline for the soap's 30th anniversary in 2015. The scriptwriter said he enjoyed working on the big storylines with the "big impact", but also had his personal favourites.

"I brought Cindy back from the dead," he said. "We did a big episode in which we revealed she wasn't dead. We always wanted to bring her back, it was a massive mistake to kill her and the show should have never done it.

"There's that great saying: 'You don't sell the family silver', which is what these characters are and it is dangerously easy to get rid of them. So, we decided to bring Cindy back, which was great because we did an episode set in France, where we revealed where she had been living.

"But we actually filmed it outside of Borehamwood, but I swear it looked like France, it was bizarre. I wrote an episode once and a clip of it keeps getting repeated time and time again. It's the one with Frank Butcher, stark naked and only wearing a revolving bow time. It was one of those things you just write in and think it'll be a bit of fun, but then it takes on a whole life of its own."

Away from Albert Square, Rob has worked on other scripts for memorable shows such as Casualty, The Bill, Heartbeat, Soldier Soldier, Vera and The Story of Tracy Beaker, which was shot in Cardiff in the 2000s. This year, the writer will be publishing his 12th novel.

Meanwhile, EastEnders' 40th anniversary has been in the works since summer of last year, according to Rob. He said: "It felt like years ago when we plotted this, but I think it was last summer. It has been a long time in the planning because 40 years is a massive milestone for the show. It has been a lot of fun planning it."

When asked what people could expect from the special episode, Rob joked that it would be the "usual peace, love and joy", but then added: "It's obviously going to be high octane. It's going to be a very big week and very big episodes, but each will be kicking off their own stories which will take us into the show's 41st year, 42nd year and so on.

"One thing we love in Eastenders is bombs, not physical bombs. We plant story bombs which we know are going to explode that story, in say two years' time. And we are doing it again now."

A special hour-long episode will air on the show's anniversary, Wednesday, February 19, followed by a full live episode on Thursday, February 20, which will not only reveal who Denise chooses, but will conclude an explosive week of drama in Walford. The week promises to be "full of shocking twists" that will change the lives of those that live on the square "forever", according to its executive producer Chris Clenshaw.

But while characters come and go from the square, storylines evolve and relationships change, one thing remains the same and has been the root of the show's success from day one, according to Rob. "EastEnders is contemporary," he said.

"It doesn't present an idealised version of the world, I think the topics it chooses to present are relevant. One of the arguments against EastEnders is that it 'presents too many issues', if it's done badly then that would be absolutely right. But I think it's a show that has never shied away from shining a light on things. I think that's what has kept it fresh".