Eastenders

EastEnders is a television program in the United Kingdom, that has been running
since 1985. It is on BBC 1. It is one of the top ten most watched TV shows in
Britain.

The program is located an imaginary area of

East London called Walford. The pub in
EastEnders is called The Queen Vic.

Many soap operas in the United States or

Latin America shows a wonderful fantasy
world of beautiful people but Eastenders is
very different. It often shows a very sad
picture of "real life" in a "working class" area of the inner city.

Drug abuse, rape, racism, murder, kidnapping, prostitution, theft, senile dementia,
arson and runaway children have all been part of episodes of the program. Fights
between members of one family or between different families is often central to the
storyline.

Characters in this scene

Read about the characters at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/characters_cast/

Patrick Trueman パトリク トルーマン

(He is from Trinadad and runs the Minute Mart – a Conbini, or ‘Convenience Store’…
He is married to a lady called Yolande who is from Jamaica. He used to be in a
band in the 50’s called the Five Hectors.)

Lucas Johnson ルカス ジョンソン

(He is a preacher. He had a child with Denise when he was very young… she is
Chelsea)

Denise Wicks デニース ウィクス

(She is a very strong lady and worked in the post office. Her daughter with Lucas is
Chelsea)

Chelsea Fox チェルシー フォクス

(Chelsea is Denise’s daughter. She loves to have fun. Her half-sister is Libby.
They have different fathers.)

Libby Fox リッビー フォクス

(Libby is a smart kid and loves to read. She is very different to Chelsea.)
 Scene
In Patrick‟s house. Talking about a national holiday in Trinidad (Carnival Tuesday)
and what life was like for black people in London in the 1950s.
Denise sings part of a song “Island In The Sun” by a Jamican singer. The song is
about Jamaica.
Black people from different countries sometimes have bad feelings towards black
people from other countries. Discrimination within some ethnic groups of people is
common, e.g. Black people and Asian people.
They also talk about the riots in London. In 1958 there were riots caused by
racisms between the black community and the white community.

Script
Patrick: (Mardis Gras in Trinidad) is the biggest day of the year you know.
Massive parade. People spending weeks, months.. practicing the
Calypso tunes on the steel pan. Making some - some amazing
costumes and floats and things you know.

Lucas: Yeah Just like Notting (1) Hill today.

Patrick: Yeah that is in August man I (am) talking about Carnival Tuesday. Or
what they call Mardi Gras.

Denise: “Fat Tuesday"

Chelsea: Or Fattening (1) Tuesday.

Denise: Oh just for once will you give yourself a break (2) will ya.

Patrick: Heh and the school children them man, they have the whole day off.

Denise: (singing) "Island.. in the sun..."

Patrick: That is about Jamaica, we don't even mention them alright. (3)

Libby: Yolande's from Jamaica...

Patrick: Yeah exactly.. we're all the same.

Denise: Anyway that tune (4) ain‟t no true-true Calypso. Besides I didn't know
about it until I got to England.

Chelsea: What was it like when you first got here Patrick?

Denise: Hmmm! Chelsea taking an interest in something!! How much you had
to drink girl (5)?
Chelsea: Well it's just... it's our history, isn't it?

Libby: What‟s gotten into her? (6)

Chelsea: Alright I won't bother!

Denise: No darling (5), I'm glad you asked. I wanna know as well. I bet (7) you
had a wicked time yeah? I remember some of them Blues clubs.

Libby: What are the Blues clubs?

Patrick: Just another name for 'house party'. You see, nearly every Friday and
Saturday night there was one going on in a basement somewhere. You
know music and dancing and...(thing) man...

Denise: Women…

Denise! Denise.. what do you take me for? (8).... Of course women!!

Ah yeah man (5) , singing..music..dancing and..

Denise: The Five Hectors...

Patrick: Exactly!

Denise: And The Carnival too!

Patrick: (Carnival too!)

Lucas: Yeah but there'd be no carnival if it wasn't for the riots eh (9) Patrick?

Patrick: You're probably right.

Libby: So.. the riots.. that was.. 1958, right?

Patrick: Yeah but we're not going to go into that, man (5).

Libby: I'm interested!

Chelsea: Yeah, so am I!

Lucas: Yeah you'd have been living in Notting Hill back then wouldn't ya?

Patrick: Who told you that?

Lucas: (10) Err... was it you Dee? Can't remember...

 Notes
(1) In London many people do not pronounce „t‟ sounds.
e.g. Notting = No‟iing
“ノッチング” = “ノーイング”

(2) “Give yourself a break” = be kind to yourself, for example stop worrying about
getting fat.

(3) Here, Patrick gets annoyed because Denise sings a Jamaican song but he is
from Trinidad. His wife is from Jamaica though.

(4) „Tune‟ is slang for song

(5) People use girl as a name for someone if they like them. It is like ---ちゃん in
Japanese. Other examples are honey, darling, love, boy, man, mate. Mate is
very very common in London. Denise asks how much (have) you had to drink
girl? Because she was joking that her daughter was asking questions so must
be drunk!
.
(6) “What‟s gotten into him/her/name” is used when someone is acting strangely.
Libby was surprised that her sister was interested in the conversation so she
says this.

(7) Wicked is a slang word for good. “I bet…. “ means I think or I believe that…
So when Denise says “I bet you had a wicked time” it means “I think you had a
fun time”

(8) “What do you take me for?” is used if someone is surprised that a different
person thinks something about them. Here Patrick is pretending to be surprised
that Denise thinks he liked dating lots of women when he was young.

(9) “eh” is used as a tag question in English. It‟s like „hey?‟ in American English…
It‟s like ね？or でしょう？ It‟s casual, so it‟s used between friends.

(10) “Errr” and “Ummmm” are words for when we are thinking… like ええとand あの.